SECRETARY FO DEFENSE LEON PANETTA DELIVERS A SPEECH AT THE NATIONAL PRES CLUB. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LEON E. PANETTA DELIVERS REMARKS AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB PANETTA: Thank you very much, Theresa, for that kind introduction. And thank you for the invitation to be here today. I look forward to the opportunity to go back and pick walnuts back in Carmel Valley. I've told this story before, but it makes the point. When I was young, my father -- when he first planted that walnut orchard, as it grew, he would go around with a pole and hook and shake each of the branches. And my brother and I would be underneath collecting the walnuts. When I got elected to Congress, my Italian father said, "You've been well trained to go to Washington, because you've been dodging nuts all your life." (LAUGHTER) True. It was great training. I've had the opportunity to be here at the Press Club in, obviously, some of my past jobs as a member of Congress, as OMB director, and then as chief of staff. In those jobs, words were both my weapon and my shield. In this job, as secretary of defense, I have a hell of a lot more going for me, but in a democracy, words remain the most powerful weapon in our arsenal. And it's for that reason that it is an honor for me to again be here at the National Press Club. I've long had a deep and abiding respect for the Washington press corps. You play an essential role in making our democracy strong by holding leaders and holding institutions accountable to the people they serve. As secretary of defense, and in my past jobs, I learned that it was important to be accessible to the press and to be transparent with them with regards to the issues and challenges that you confront. And in this job, I've tried to be as accessible as I can to the Pentagon press corps, to engage regularly with reporters and to encourage other senior officials in the department to do the same. It is an especially important time to communicate our vision and our priorities as a department, because as I've said time and time and time again over this past year, I believe that we are at a strategic turning point. After more than a decade of war, the longest extended period of conflict in the history of the United States, at the beginning of 2012, President Obama and the military and civilian leaders of the department came together to publicly release a new defense strategy. It was designed to help the military effectively navigate this turning point and prepare for the future. Under that strategy, our goal was to reshape the force of the 21st century, to try to meet the new security challenges that we're confronting in this world and try to help the country at the same time reduce the deficits that we're confronting. We were handed a number in the Budget Control Act to reduce the defense budget by $487 billion over the next decade, almost a half a trillion dollars. And based on my own budget experience at the time, I knew that the approach should be not to just simply cut it across the board and hollow out the force, but to try to develop a strategy for what is it we want the Defense Department to be not just now, but going into the future, as well. And that was the purpose why we developed the strategy. As the year 2012 draws to a close, today I want to describe the strategic environment that is shaping our future plans, the progress we have made toward implementing this strategy, and the risks that we face as we work every day to try to keep America safe and secure. Before I continue, let me just pay tribute to a couple people here who join me at the head table. My deputy secretary, Ash Carter, has played and continues to play a crucial role in helping me and DOD develop and implement the strategy, and I deeply appreciate his dedication and commitment to the department. And I also want to pay tribute to my undersecretary for policy, Jim Miller, who's also here, who also worked very hard on that strategy to ensure that we develop the right strategy for the future. And I should also say, Marty Dempsey and all of the members, our service chiefs, members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all participated. We all participated in a kind of unprecedented effort to try to openly discuss what were the best steps we could take for the future. This is a time of historic change for the United States military. One year ago today, soldiers from the 1st Cavalry Division crossed out of Iraq into Kuwait as part of the last convoy of U.S. troops to leave Iraq. That war came to an end. Last year, we also participated in a complex, but successful NATO mission that helped bring down Gadhafi and give Libya back to the Libyan people. It was a complex operation. When you have that many nations involved in a mission, how do you decide targets? How do you determine who goes after those targets? And yet we were able to bring that kind of coordination together, and it served NATO and the United States very well in that effort. And it creates, I think, very much a model for how we should approach the future, if we have to face that kind of situation again. Our military and intelligence operations -- and that's one of the things I'm very proud of over these last four years, is the integration between intelligence and military operations when it comes to going after terrorists. Over the last year, as a result of those operations, we continue to significantly weaken Al Qaida's core leadership and put real pressure on their affiliates. We are also now working to bring the conflict in Afghanistan to a successful transition by the end of 2014. PANETTA: Last week, I made my eighth trip to Afghanistan. I had a chance to sit down with all of our military commanders throughout the region, throughout the country. I also went to Kandahar and met with our military commanders there and also had the opportunity to meet with Afghan leaders, as well. All of them -- all of them -- believe that we have fundamentally turned the tide in that effort, after years in which we lacked the right strategy and the necessary resources to try to achieve the mission we are embarked on. We now have a plan in place, a campaign plan, endorsed in Chicago by NATO, that has strong international support. We've reversed a five-year trend of growing violence. The Taliban to this day has not been able over this last year to regain any of the territory they lost. We are building Afghan security forces that are on track to take the lead for securing the entire country next year. We continue to transition both governance and security to the Afghans. Seventy-five percent of the population has now been transitioned to Afghan security and control, and next year, we will have 100 percent. But we've also made clear that our commitment to Afghanistan, as we draw down by the end of 2014, our commitment will continue. We are transitioning; we are not leaving. We will maintain an enduring presence aimed at supporting Afghan forces and ensuring the mission that we were embarked on in Afghanistan, the mission that Al Qaida never again regains Afghanistan as a safe haven from which to attack the United States or our allies. So after more than... (APPLAUSE) After more than 10 years of continuous warfare, deployment after deployment after deployment of our men and women in uniform in these wars, the United States is truly at a critical point. As I said, large-scale conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are drawing to an end. An era of blank-check defense spending is over, and forces will be reduced. And all of this occurs -- and all of this occurs as the United States faces an array of asymmetric threats in the world. Even while it is obvious that we do not live in a world where another superpower threatens our military supremacy, it is equally obvious that the threats to our security and our global interests are not receding, as they appeared to do in past wars, coming out of World War II, coming out of Korea, coming out of Vietnam, coming out of the end of the Cold War, where the threats receded. The fact is today we still confront these threats in the world, threats that are more complex, more dispersed, and in many ways, more dangerous. We have made progress. We have made progress against Al Qaida's core leaders and its affiliates in the FATA. We continue to do it in Yemen and in Somalia. But Al Qaida is seeking new footholds throughout the Middle East and in countries like Mali, in North Africa. It remains determined to attack the United States and remains one of the serious threats that we must deal with. North Korea, Iran continue to pose a proliferation threat and are engaged in activities that are destabilizing Northeast Asia and the Middle East. The conflict in Syria is bringing a violent end to a regime that harbors a large stockpile of chemical and biological weapons, and extremists seek to destabilize a nuclear-armed Pakistan. Increasing military spending by rising powers in the Asia Pacific region and turmoil across the Middle East and North Africa are altering the strategic landscape. At the same time, the nature of military conflict is changing because of the new technologies, like cyber and the proliferation of missiles and WMD. We are seeing potential adversaries -- state and non-state actors alike -- acquire more advanced hybrid and high-end capabilities designed to frustrate the conventional advantages of our armed forces. This means that the military services must remain vigilant, they must remain strong, they must remain prepared to operate in a way that differs significantly from the past. We will continue to face terrorism and deadly attacks by IEDs, but we must also be ready for more capable adversaries to a attack our forces and our homeland in cyberspace, to attack and launch precision strikes against forward bases, to attempt to cripple our power grid, our financial systems, our government systems, to attempt to deny us freedom of action through asymmetric attacks. As I said, the goal of our new defense strategy is to help shape the force of the 21st century, to try to adapt our forces and operating concepts so that we are better prepared for an unpredictable and dangerous future, even in an era of constrained resources. We have been determined to avoid the approach taken in past drawdowns, where, as I said, there were deep, across-the-board cuts that hollowed out the force and weakened our military, left the military demoralized and unready to carry out the missions assigned to it. Instead, we have set priorities and made tough decisions to try to build the force of the future and to remain the strongest military power on the face of the Earth. The strategy consists of five elements. We have already made significant progress this year towards implementing that strategy. And let me describe, if I can, the strategy and what we have done. The first element of the strategy is to build a force that is clearly going to be smaller and leaner. That's a reality. We are going to be smaller; we are going to be leaner coming out of these last wars. But we must ensure that at the same time the military is agile, flexible, and technologically advanced, and prepared to deploy as quickly as we can to confront crises in this dangerous world. Facing constrained resources and the drawdown of two troop- intensive wars, we made a decision to favor a smaller and more ready force over a larger force that would be less well-equipped and less trained. As a result, Army end strength is going to be gradually reduced to 490,000 soldiers over these next 5 to 10 years from a high of about 570,000, still well above the force levels that we had in 9/11. And the size of the Marine Corps will also be reduced slightly to about 182,000 from a peak of about 202,000 during the past decade. We are also making investments to be capable of more quickly confronting a wider range of threats across a more dispersed geography. This past February, the Navy and Marine Corps conducted their first large-scale amphibious exercise in more than 10 years. In March, the Army conducted its first exercise in its new decisive action training environment that emphasizes combined arms maneuver against a combination of irregular and near-peer conventional opponents. The second element of our defense strategy is to maintain our force projection where we need it, in the Middle East and in the Asia Pacific region. The Asia Pacific region is, obviously, an area of growing importance to our economy and our security. And the Middle East, obviously, represents continuing threats to our security, as well. Even after the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, we have maintained a substantial military presence in the Middle East in order to deter aggression, respond to crisis, ensure regional stability in the face of historic unrest and the continuing threat from Iran. Last week, I visited some of our troops based in Kuwait, part of a robust Gulf posture that includes roughly 50,000 troops, dozens of ships, fighters, bombers, advanced intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms. We are partnering closely with the Gulf states to boost their capacity in critical areas, such as missile defense and countermining, which will help reduce the pressure to sustain these large deployments over the long term. I also visited Incirlik, the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, where I announced the deployment of the two U.S. Patriot missile batteries as part of a NATO effort to try to help protect our Turkish allies against the threat of missiles from Syria. Even as we have asserted our strong and enduring commitment to the Middle East, we are also renewing and expanding our engagement in the Asia Pacific region. The core of our rebalance is modernizing our existing network of alliances and security partnerships throughout the region and developing new security relations, as well. Over the past year, we reached major agreements with Japan to realign our forces and jointly develop Guam as a strategic hub. We've worked to strengthen cooperation with the Republic of Korea in space, in cyberspace, in intelligence. And we began a new Marine rotational deployment to Australia, as well as increased Air Force cooperation. Likewise, we are deepening our engagement and developing rotational deployments with allies and partners such as Singapore and the Philippines and expanding our mil-to-mil dialogue and exchanges with China. We are also enhancing our presence and capabilities in the region. That includes reallocating the naval fleet to achieve in these next few years a 60/40 split between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans -- hopefully, we will do that by 2020 -- increasing Army and Marine presence in the region after Iraq and Afghanistan, locating our most advanced aircraft in the Pacific, including new deployments of F-22s and the MV-22 Ospreys to Japan, and laying the groundwork for the first overseas deployment of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to Iwakuni in 2017. The third element of our strategy is that as we do force projection in the Asia Pacific and in the Middle East, we still have to maintain our global leadership and presence by building innovative partnerships and partner capacity across the globe and using these innovative rotational deployments as a way to do exercises and training with other countries, developing their capabilities so that they can help provide for their own security, in Latin America, in Africa, in Europe and elsewhere. PANETTA: The past decade of war has reinforced the lesson that one of the most effective ways to address long-term security challenges is to help build the capabilities of our allies. We have seen this approach with our counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan and our counterterrorism efforts in Yemen and Somalia. We are expanding our security force assistance to a wider range of partners in order to address a broader range of security challenges in Asia Pacific, in the Middle East, and as I said, in Europe, Africa and Latin America. To implement this element of the strategy, the services are retaining the security cooperation capabilities we have honed over a decade of war and making investments in regional expertise. For example, through the Army's new regionally-aligned brigade structure, they are able to, in fact, engage on a rotational basis to assist other countries. The entire U.S. government is working to make our security cooperation, particularly foreign military sales, more responsive and more effective, to cut through the bureaucracy, to cut through the red tape, to be able to provide the assistance that we need to other countries without delay. We're particularly seeking to boost defense trade with rising powers like Brazil and India. I visited these countries recently to help advance those growing defense partnerships, and Ash Carter has also made an effort in a new joint U.S.-India initiative to boost defense cooperation and trade and streamline our respective export control processes. In order to remain the security partner of choice, the United States must maintain our decisive military edge and adapt to meeting emergency threats. The fourth element of the new defense strategy is that we must always remain capable of being able to confront and defeat aggression from more than one adversary at a time anywhere, anytime. That means if we're engaged in a conflict on the Korean Peninsula and Iran attempts to close the Straits of Hormuz, we must be capable of being able to respond decisively to both locations. With the strategy we've developed, we believe we have that capability. We're maintaining our ability to simultaneously operate in multiple theaters by investing in critical power projection capabilities, our aircraft carrier fleet, our big-deck amphibious fleet, a new afloat forward staging base, and long-range strike capabilities. We're also making new investments in the next-generation bomber, a next-generation tanker that will afford our air forces greater mobility, and working every day to put our Joint Strike Fighter program on a firmer footing. To stay ahead of the growing capabilities of potential adversaries and ensure our ability to quickly defeat aggression, we have begun to re-examine our plans in order to ensure that we are prepared for the most realistic scenarios for new and unconventional threats and for asymmetric attacks. We are also refining emerging operational concepts, including joint operational access in air-sea battle that will ensure our ability to project power in areas where our enemies seek to deny us access. And the fifth element, the last element of our strategy, is that this cannot just be about cutting back on defense. We must also be able to invest in the future, to protect and prioritize key investments in technology and new capabilities, as well as our capacity to grow, to adapt, and to mobilize as needed. Throughout the strategy review, I made clear that this cannot be simply an exercise, a budget exercise in deciding where we're going to cut. We've made those decisions. We've looked at better efficiencies. We have looked at reductions in force structure. We have looked at procurement reforms. We have looked at compensation. All of those areas were part of our budget proposal to try to achieve the $487 billion in savings. But if we are to maintain the finest military in the world, finest military force, the finest military power in the world, we have got to invest in priority missions for the future. For example, despite budget reductions, we are expanding our fleet of unmanned systems -- this is the future -- including new carrier launch surveillance and strike aircraft. In order to boost priority counterterrorism and build partner capacity efforts, we're continuing a planned growth in special operations forces which will reach 72,000 by 2017, more than double the number we had on 9/11. We have protected investments in countering weapons of mass destruction and accelerated testing of mobile air-sampling systems and ground sensors for nuclear forensics, and we are significantly increasing our cyber capabilities, including our greatest asset -- talented, bright manpower. The department has also recently developed new rules of engagement in cyberspace that clarify our mission to defend the nation and will enable us to more quickly respond to cyber threats. We are also protecting our ability to re-grow and mobilize the force by emphasizing our Guard and our reserve readiness and protecting a strong industrial base. If we face a crisis, if I have to mobilize, the last damn thing I can do is to contract that responsibility out to another country. I have got to rely on our industrial security base to be there and be able to respond. (APPLAUSE) These are the five elements of the defense strategy and some of the important steps that we've taken so far to implement it. As a department, we are continuing to refine that strategy, and we will continue to do that, to assess the risks that might prevent us from effectively implementing it. But right now, as I speak, I see two principal risks. The first risk is the stress on the force, which is still operating at a very high tempo more than 11 years after September 11th. We are still at war in Afghanistan. We have been on a crisis posture in the Middle East and North Africa for the past year. And we will continue to maintain a strong presence in that region even as we rebalance to the Asia Pacific area. Our outstanding men and women -- our outstanding men and women in uniform are the foundation of everything we do. As I've often said, I've got great weapons, I've got great ships, I've got great bombers. None of that is worth a damn without the U.S. men and women in uniform that serve this country. (APPLAUSE) We need to ensure -- we need to ensure that servicemembers and their families have the support that they have earned in areas like health and education and employment, and they transition back into their communities so that they can be -- be able to go back home and re-establish their ties to their communities. In our budget, we've made a concerted effort to ensure the health of the force, their readiness, by protecting operations and maintenance accounts, but keeping the fastest and most flexible weapons platforms, sustaining investment to high-quality personnel and research in science and technology. But nevertheless, there is pressure on the department to retain excess force structure and infrastructure instead of investing in the training and equipment that makes our force agile and flexible and ready. Aircraft, ships, tanks, bases, even those that have outlived their usefulness have a natural political constituency. Readiness does not. What's more, readiness is too often sacrificed in favor of a larger and less effective force. I am determined to avoid that outcome. Therefore, I've directed that readiness be treated as a strategic imperative for the department, and we have launched an initiative to assess and improve our readiness across the board. Our effort to do everything possible to ensure a ready force also explains why we express concerns about what we saw in the House and Senate 2013 defense authorization bills. What they did was, in their markups and in the bills that passed each of the houses, diverted about $74 billion of what we asked for in savings in our proposed budget to the Congress, and they diverted them to other areas that, frankly, we don't need. A final legislation I know is now being negotiated in conference, and we are working -- I come from the Congress, I know the Congress, and we will work with our partners there to try to improve it. And I'm hopeful that we will ultimately arrive at a bill that allows us to continue implementing the strategy we've designed effectively. We must make every dollar count, and we must continue to carefully manage the balance, sustaining current operations, being ready to respond to crisis and emerging threats, preparing for future operations, and investing in the capabilities of the future. Balancing these needs effectively requires resources and budget stability, which brings me to the second and greatest risk facing this new defense strategy: a political system that is depriving the department of the budget certainty we need in order to plan for the future. For more than a year, this department has been operating under the shadow of sequestration, this mindless mechanism that was put in place in order to somehow force the Congress to do the right thing. Because of political gridlock, this department still faces the possibility of another round of across-the-board cuts totaling almost $500 billion that will inflict lasting damage on our national defense and hurt the very men and women who protect this country. Wherever I visit our troops, wherever I visit our troops, they make clear their concern about those cuts. What does it mean for them? And what does it mean for their families? It is unacceptable to me that men and women who put their lives on the line every day in distant lands have to worry about whether those here in Washington can effectively support them. We're down to the wire now. In these next few days, Congress needs to make the right decision and to avoid the fiscal disaster that awaits us. My hope is that they will do the right thing and that we will achieve a bipartisan consensus on deficit reduction and the trajectory of defense spending in the future. Otherwise we will weaken this nation in the minds of our allies, our partners, and our potential adversaries, and undermine the work and the sacrifices that our troops are making every single day. It's easy to get cynical and frustrated in this town. And after 40 years, I know my level of cynicism and frustration. But my confidence and my hope for the future is restored every time I have the opportunity to visit with our troops on the front lines, as I did last week. In them, I see the spirit of public service that has kept this country strong for more than two centuries and which has helped us to overcome every period of crisis and adversity in our history. That spirit of public service is also in evidence here at this monument to democracy, the National Press Club. Journalists who commit themselves to doggedly pursuing the truth and telling the everyday stories of American people are public servants in their own right. On my last trip, I was honored to be accompanied by Cami McCormack, an award-winning radio reporter for CBS News who three years ago suffered a terrible injury from an IED attack while covering the war in Afghanistan. It was truly an emotional experience to be with her as she returned back to Afghanistan for the first time after that injury. She put her own life at risk in order to tell the story of that war. And in her and so many other war correspondents, we see the highest ideals of democracy upheld. We will soon unveil a new exhibit outside the Pentagon Press Briefing Room to honor those journalists who've died in the line of duty over the past decade of war. Alongside the more than 6,000 American servicemembers who have paid the ultimate price since September 11th, these journalists died to preserve our democracy and a government of, by, and for all people. They are heroes, all of them, and I know they will remain forever in our hearts and minds as we continue the hard work of fighting to build a better and safer and more secure future for our children and for the United States of America. Thank you very much. (APPLAUSE) QUESTION: What -- what is your honest position on the attacks of 9/11 of this year, the Benghazi attacks? PANETTA: The Benghazi attacks -- you know, I know there are -- I believe there will be a report coming out tomorrow by the Pickering group that will, obviously, present their view of what took place and where the problems were. My sense is that on that day, that when you look at what took place in Benghazi, that it is -- you know, as always with these kinds of situations, there's a mix here, but clearly, with regards to one of the facilities involved, a direct attack on that facility. I think that there's no question that extremists were involved in those attacks, and I think that, you know, we were able to try to respond as best we could at the time. We have learned a lot, and we will continue to learn a lot from that incident. I think it's very important for us, in an area where our people can be exposed to that kind of threat, that we be able to respond and respond quickly in order to make sure that that doesn't happen again. QUESTION: Have you seen the Benghazi ARB? And do you support the referral of Mike Vickers for criminal prosecution on basis of leaking classified info to "Zero Dark Thirty" producers? PANETTA: You know, that -- that matter is before the I.G., and I'm not going to comment on it at this time. What was the other question, the first part? QUESTION: Have you seen it? PANETTA: Have I seen... QUESTION: The report. The ARB. PANETTA: No, I have not. QUESTION: One of the proposed cutbacks to the Defense Department floated in the press was to do away with the service secretariats as being duplicative. Is this suggestion being given serious consideration? And if not, why not? PANETTA: Well, you know, we -- we obviously continue to look at areas where we can achieve efficiencies at the Department of Defense. And there's no question there is duplication, there is overhead in a bureaucracy of 3 million people. There clearly are areas where we can provide greater efficiencies. We were able -- Bob Gates before me began that effort, achieved about -- I believe about $150 billion in savings. We've added about $60 billion to $70 billion on top of that, in terms of further efficiencies. We'll continue to review where greater efficiencies can be achieved. Right now -- and I asked -- I asked that question when I first became secretary. You know, what is the role of the service secretary vis-a-vis the service chief? And the reality is that there is an important role for them, because they are civilians. Civilians are involved in providing policy in their areas. They also have to negotiate a lot of the politics of Capitol Hill. So there is an important role for them to play in terms of their particular service. But having said that, there are a hell of a lot of other places where we can achieve savings in the Pentagon, and we will. QUESTION: As the Defense Department deals with downsizing the services, have you considered cuts to the number of flag and general officers? PANETTA: You know, again, I think -- I think that's part and parcel of, you know, as you do force reduction -- and as I said, we are going to be reducing the force structure in the Army down to 490,000, we'll reduce the Marines, as well. And I think as that happens that they've got to review not just, you know, the reductions in our troops, but also the reduction in terms of the command structure, as well. So this -- this should be part of the review process as we try to achieve savings in the force reduction. QUESTION: Have you considered making cuts to your staff? (LAUGHTER) PANETTA: Hell, yes. (LAUGHTER) I think -- I think -- I don't think -- I don't think there should be anything that is sacrosanct when you've got to face the kind of budget constrictions that we face. I mean, look, I cut almost half a trillion dollars from the defense budget. It's the largest number that we've cut from the defense budget certainly in the time I've worked on budgets, and I've been working on budgets for 40 years. And, you know, in order to achieve those savings, we have to look at every area. Let me just repeat the areas that you have to look at. One is efficiencies. I mean, you can't get it all out of efficiencies, but you sure can get some -- you know, some significant savings from a department that large in cutbacks of unnecessary personnel. Number two, force structure reductions. Number three, procurement reforms. We have got, you know, a whole area of procurement reforms, something that Ash knows very well. The fact is that, you know, we've built weapons systems that continue to be delayed, continue to have cost escalation, continue to be added to, and the result is by the damn time that these things come out, they've lost their usage, because you've already gone on to another new technology. We need to -- we need to strengthen our procurement practices, and we have. We've also gotten rid of some of the -- the weaponization that's not needed. And the last area's compensation, which is always a difficult area. But compensation at the Defense Department has grown by 80 percent. I have a health care bill at the Defense Department of $50 billion. I cannot do justice to everything that I've got to maintain in terms of readiness and not try to do cost controls in the compensation area, as well, and that's another area where we recommended savings, as well. So everything has to be looked at if you're serious about trying to achieve the kind of savings that we need to achieve in order to address the budget deficit. QUESTION: There are many wounded warriors in our medical system today, and their number is growing. What is being done to ensure adequate levels of funding remains in the wounded warrior program? PANETTA: Well, that's -- I mean, I had three guidelines when I looked at having to cut $487 billion. One was I said, we have to maintain the strongest military in the world, two, that we cannot hollow out the force, we can't just cut across the board, and, three, we have to maintain faith with those that have been deployed time and time again. The savings we're going to achieve in compensation will apply to the future, and we will achieve savings, you know, looking at retirement programs, as well as health care programs for the future. But the benefits that we have promised those who've served, certainly those that have been wounded, I think we need to stand by. And so there are no cuts in the programs that serve our wounded warriors, and we will make sure that they are maintained. (APPLAUSE) QUESTION: Drones are fast becoming a vital part in warfare. Do we have adequate defense against an attack on this Capitol? PANETTA: Drones? QUESTION: Drones. PANETTA: Drones -- when I talked about unmanned systems, the fact is that unmanned systems are increasing in the world that we're involved. Within the United States is -- is one of the leaders in terms of using drone capability, and it served us very well, particularly in the fight against terrorism. Having said that, we do have to keep track of other countries that decide to get into the UAV business. And they are. Iran, other countries in the Middle East are also beginning to develop that capability. We have got to be able -- as they do -- to be able to track where those UAVs are and take steps to ensure that -- particularly when it comes to surveillance -- that we can do everything possible to try to make sure that they are not capable of surveilling what -- you know, what they're after. That requires a lot of technology and development, but it is an area that we are focused on in order to protect ourselves in the future. QUESTION: Under what conditions do you anticipate further U.S. involvement in Syria beyond enforcing a no-fly zone? And what would be the U.S. response to those conditions? PANETTA: Well, as you know, the effort has been an international effort to try to bring as much pressure on Syria to gets Assad to step down. Our primary effort has been dedicated to three areas, number one, to try to provide, obviously, humanitarian relief to the large number of refugees, both in Turkey and in Jordan, and we are doing that. We're providing significant humanitarian relief to try to assist those -- those who have tried to escape the terrible tragedy in Syria. Secondly, to try to maintain control over the CBW sites and try to monitor those sites to ensure that they do not fall into the wrong hands. And so working with other countries in the region, we are making an effort to monitor that situation and to ensure that that does not happen. It's a result of that monitoring that we were able to issue a very clear warning to Syria not to take the step to make use of any of this CBW, or there would be serious consequences, and we still stand by that statement. Thirdly, we are helping the opposition. We are not providing any lethal assistance, but we are providing non-lethal help to the opposition to try to develop their capability so that, in the event that Assad does come down, we will have identified those leaders who can hopefully provide for a smooth political transition. This is not going to be easy. It requires a strong international effort to ensure this is headed in the right direction. It would be helpful -- it would be helpful if Russia would participate in the effort to try to ensure that there is a smooth political transition. QUESTION: The latest report to Congress on Afghanistan says insurgent attacks increased slightly this year at a time when the U.S. still had 20,000 surge troops on the ground. How can security get better in Afghanistan as those troops leave? PANETTA: Well, you know, the reality is that, in the period that was included there, there was a slight increase in attacks, but the overall numbers -- if you look at the entire year, the level of violence is down. It's down by almost 60 percent in Kabul, it's down by almost 50 percent to 60 percent in other populated areas where we've made the transition. The violence levels are down. The fact is that the Afghan army, the Afghan police have gotten much better at providing security in those areas that we transitioned to. Every -- every one of those major populated areas that have been transitioned is now being secured by the Afghan army and police, and that is the hope for the future. I mean, building up that force is a key to our ability to succeed in this mission for the future. We're going to continue. I mean, you know, the Taliban is resilient, and they will continue to try to conduct attacks. They'll continue to do IED attacks. They'll continue to try to do high- profile assassinations. They'll continue to try to do what they can to draw attention to their efforts. But overall they are -- they are losing. They have not been able to regain any territory that they've lost. And we continue to put pressure on them, through both the Afghans and the U.S. presence there. I think that has been, in my book, the significant turning point in 2011, was after the first time we saw the transition working, the Afghan army able to do its job, and violence going down. And that continues to be the trend. QUESTION: As the former head of the CIA, please explain why General Petraeus was forced to resign, rather than a lesser punishment. (LAUGHTER) PANETTA: You've got to be kidding me. (LAUGHTER) You've got to be kidding me. You know, in this town, with that kind of e-mail, do you think he could have survived as director of the CIA? I don't think so. (LAUGHTER) QUESTION: The Pentagon recently censored Navy SEALs for participating with video game developers without permission, but Mark Owen, author of "No Easy Day" about the bin Laden raid, has a bestseller. Why hasn't the Pentagon taken any steps since his book went on sale in September? PANETTA: Let me see that one again. (LAUGHTER) You know, I think the -- on the SEALs, obviously, the SEALs have a commitment that, you know, if they're going to write a book, they've got to run it past the Pentagon. And the SEAL who wrote the book on the events there did not do that. And that violates, you know, an oath that he took at the time that he became a SEAL. With regards to this other author, I'm not sure what the situation was, but he didn't violate that kind of requirement. QUESTION: Israeli leaders have said they may act against Iran if they feel its nuclear program has gone too far. Is the U.S. willing to use its considerable financial leverage with Israel to prevent a unilateral strike? PANETTA: You know, I think the one thing that both the United States and Israel, I think, have come to agreement on is the goal with regards to Iran. Neither country wants an Iran that can develop a nuclear weapon. The United States has made that clear; Israel's made that clear. The real question is, how do we continue to bring pressure on Iran not to take that step? The international community has come together. It's come together in a very effective effort to bring sanctions, to bring diplomatic pressure, economic pressure on Iran, to penalize it for its efforts to develop a nuclear capability. And the end result of that is to try to push them to the negotiating table, to try to see if we can resolve these issues diplomatically. Even the prime minister of Israel has said that when it comes to dealing with Iran, that war ought to be the last option, not the first option, and that we ought to try to exhaust every effort at trying to determine whether or not diplomatically and through negotiations we can resolve this issue. We are now in that effort. And hopefully, that will be the way we resolve it. But, please, make no mistake: If we determine that they are -- have made the decision to proceed with developing a nuclear weapon, the United States considers that to be a red line. QUESTION: Before I get to the last question, I would like to present you with our traditional NPC coffee mug -- it makes making those tough decisions that much easier -- and our version of our medallion coin. And our last... PANETTA: I need to give you a coin. Otherwise, I'll owe you a drink. (LAUGHTER) QUESTION: We'll go upstairs. Can you tell us about your golden retriever, Bravo's, role in the Osama bin Laden operation? (LAUGHTER) PANETTA: I -- as some of you know, I think -- I'm sorry, but I think it was Post that said he was an Irish setter, and it's just not an Irish setter. He's a golden -- he's a golden retriever, although he's red. He's got a deep red, which is -- great dog, great colors. And I -- Sylvia and I with Bravo, when I was at our institute, we used to bring Bravo to work with us. And so, you know, when I came back to these jobs, you know, Sylvia continued to bring Bravo there, and I used to bring Bravo back with me. And he used to come to the office when I was CIA director. And Bravo sat in on almost all of the meetings involving the operation against bin Laden. And, you know, to this day, he hasn't told a damn soul what happened. (LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE) QUESTION: Thank you for coming today. I'd also like to thank the National Press Club staff, including its Journalism Institute and Broadcast Center, for organizing today's event. Finally, here's a reminder, that you can find more information about the National Press Club on our website. And if you'd like a copy of today's program, please check our website at press.org. Thank you, and we are adjourned. (APPLAUSE)

Soldiers receive doughnuts and coffee from a Doughnut Dolly working in an American Red Cross doughnut wagon during the Korean War. A ceremony takes place in Pier C for the departure of United States 25th Infantry Division from Inchon, Korea, returning to Hawaii.. A Doughnut Dolly (American Red Cross volunteer who distributes coffee and donuts to soldiers), wearing a Hawaiian Lei garland on her neck, distributes coffee to soldiers in the American Red Cross doughnut wagon. Soldiers gather around an American Red Cross doughnut wagon. Soldiers take coffee and doughnuts. A painting depicting a Hawaiian woman on a beach on the wagon. It reads: 'Farewell Korea, Aloha Hawaii'. Vehicles parked and buildings in the foreground. A helicopter landing near the American Red Cross doughnut wagon. Location: Inchon Incheon South Korea. Date: September 18, 1954.

1951 UNIVERSAL NEWS 1

09:01:00:00,NEWS #51, ANNIVERSARY OF RED ARMY MARCH IN BERLIN SOVIET TROOPS MARCH TO BRANDENBURG GATE, EISENHOWER COYLY ANNOUNCES FOR SECOND TERM EISENHOWER HINTS AT 2ND TERM IN PRESS CONFERENCE-SD EISENHOWER TELLS NATION HE'LL RUN AGAIN (SD) REPORTERS ASK EISENHOWER QUESTIONS PRESS REPORTERS SCRIBBLE IN NOTEBOOKS PRESS REPORTERS WAITING IN HALLWAY REPORTERS ON TELEPHONES, PARATROOPERS USE SHOCK ABSORBERS IN PARACHUTE PARATROOPERS LAND ON GROUND PARATROOPERS JUMP, EISENHOWER SPEAKS FOR RED CROSS EISENHOWER SPEAKS ABOUT RED CROSS, AIR FORCE CITES JACK WEBB FOR '24 HOUR ALERT' AIR FORCE GENERAL SCOTT GIVES JACK WEBB A CITATION JACK WEBB THANKS GENERAL SCOTT NEWS #52 (09:07:50:00), LEIPZIG FAIR FLAGS AT FAIR CHINESE PAVILLION SOVIET PAVILLION, BILLY GRAHAM SPEAKS IN SEOUL KOREAN CROWDS PRES. RHEE OF KOREA AND BILLY GRAHAM, NAVY TESTS FOLDING ONE MAN HELICOPTER ONE MAN HELICOPTER IN AIR, BRITISH NEW GUIDED MISSILE 'THE FIREFLASH' METEOR JET FIGHTER TAKES OFF FIREFLASH MISSILE DESTROYS PLANE, MARILYN MONROE SIGNS FILM DEAL WITH WARNER BROS. SIR LAWRENCE OLIVIER MARILYN MONROE WITH JACK L. WARNER JIMMY STEWART WELCOMES MARILYN MONROE TO WARNER BROS, CHILDREN ENTERTAIN POPE PIUS XII ON 80TH BIRTHDAY CHILDREN DANCE FOR POPE PIUS XII POPE PIUS XII TALKS TO KIDS, SPORTS (TRACK, BASEBALL, HORSE RACING), WES SANTEE BANNED BY AAU RUNS AND WINS SANTEE WINS RACE, BROOKLYN DODGERS OPEN SPRING TRAINING ROY CAMPANELLA ROGER CRAIG JACKIE ROBINSON GIL HODGES DUKE SNIDER JIM 'JUNIOR'GILLIAM JOHNNY PODRES WALTER ALSTON DON NEWCOMBE CLEM LABINE CARL FURILLO, SANTA ANITA DERBY 1956 TERRANG WINS SANTA ANITA DERBY NEWS #53 (09:15:40:00), BARBER'S CONVENTION HAIR STYLES FOR MEN BARBERS CUT HAIR, JAPANESE AIR FORCE FLY FIRST JETS SABRE JETS IN FLIGHT JAPANESE FLIER WAVES FROM COCKPIT PAN:JAPANESE FLIERS, JACK LEMMON WINS LOOK MAGAZINE AWARD EDMUND O'BRIEN HANDS JACK LEMMON STATUE JAMES CAGNEY SALUTES LEMMON C/U: JACK LEMMON, FASHIONS IN HAWAII WOMAN WEARS KIMONO HAWAIIAN FASHIONS, EISENHOWER SAYS NIXON WILL CHART HIS OWN COURSE EISENHOWER DEFENDS NIXON (SOUND) EISENHOWER GIVES NIXON OPTION OF NOT RUNNING AGAIN (SOUND) EISENHOWER TELLS PRESS HE WON'T DUMP NIXON (SOUND), KOREANS DIE IN AVALANCHE TOWN IS COVERED IN SNOW RESCUE WORKERS IN SNOW DIGGING OUT CITY, DULLES WARNS SENATE OF COMMUNIST MENACE JOHN FOSTER DULLES AT SEATO MEETING, GOLDEN GLOVES AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN BOXING ACTION NEWS #54 (09:21:10:00), BEN-GURION OF ISRAEL ERECTS FENCE ON GAZA STRIP BEN-GURION ERECTS BARBED WIRE FENCE ON GAZA STRIP, KOREANS CALL ON PRES. RHEE TO RUN AGAIN SUPPORTERS CARRYING BANNERS MARCH FOR PRES. RHEE CROWDS CHEER FOR PRESIDENT RHEE OF KOREA, MARGARET TRUMAN IS ENGAGED MARGARET TRUMAN CLIFTON DANIELS MARGARET TRUMAN AND FIANCE CLIFTON DANIELS, CAMBODIAN KING IS CROWNED CAMBODIA'S NEW KING CORONATION PARADE, ITALIAN ORPHANS CHOIR CHOIR SINGS 'FINICULI, FINICULA (SOUND), POPE PIUS CELEBRATES 80TH BIRTHDAY ENVOYS PAY HOMAGE TO POPE PIUS POPE BLESSES THE CROWD, HOTEL CHANGES SCENERY IN MOVING ROOMS EXTERIOR:HOTEL TOP FLOOR OF HOTEL REVOLVES, SPORTS (SWIMMING,HOCKEY,HORSE RACING), YALE SWIMMIERS BEAT HARVARD SWIMMING ACTION, FEMALE PEE WEE HOCKEY STAR GIRL LACES UP SKATES PEE WEE HOCKEY ACTION, SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO HANDICAP BOBBY BROCATO WINS RACE,NEWS #55 (09:28:10:00), SCORPION JET USES FALCON MISSILES SCORPION JET TAKES OFF SCORPION JET LAUNCHES FALCON MISSILES FALCON MISSILE DESTROYS JET, ADMIRAL RICHARD BYRD IS BACK FROM ARCTIC ADMIRAL BYRD AND WIFE AT AIRPORT, JET FLIES AT 1132 MPH NEEDLE NOSE PLANE TAKES OFF MAN USES BINOCULARS, FASHION: PARTY DRESSES FOR LITTLE GIRLS SMALL GIRLS ON COUCH WARD THE WIZARD ENTERTAINS GIRLS, QUEEN ELIZABETH CRUISES MEDETERANIAN QUEEN BOARDS ROYAL LAUNCH QUEEN VISITS CORSICA, IRISH PRIME MINISTER VISIT EISENHOWER EISENHOWER AND IRELAND'S PRIME MINISTER, ROBOT BUTLER ROBOT VACUUMS FLOOR ROBOT POURS COFFEE ROBOT CARRIES BABY ROBOT IRONS CLOTHES, EISENHOWER TALKS ABOUT EDUCATION EISENHOWER SPEAKS ABOUT SCHOOL INTEGRATION, SKI JUMPING CHAMPIONSHIPS SKI JUMPING SKI JUMPING SPILLS NEWS #56 (09:34:50:00), SEATO NAVAL EXERCISES SUPPLIES ARE PARACHUTED TO GROUND HELICOPTER FLEET, FASHIONS IN NIGHTSHIRTS WOMAN IN NIGHTSHIRT BLOWS OUT CANDLE WOMEN DRINK COFFEE IN NIGHTSHIRTS WOMEN MODEL NIGHTSHIRTS, QUEEN MOTHER OPENS PARIS ART EXHIBIT QUEEN MOTHER VIEWS ART, BLIZZARD CRIPPLES NORTHEAST CARS UNDER SNOW DRIFTS SNOW PLOWS ON TIMES SQUARE SHOVELING OUT TIMES SQUARE SHOVELING SNOW TRAIN ENTERS SNOWBOUND STATION WHITE HOUSE IN SNOW, EISENHOWER OPENS EASTER SEAL CAMPAIGN EISENHOWER GREETS EASTER SEAL POSTER CHILD, FIGURE SKATING CHAMPIONSHIPS TENLY ALBRIGHT SKATES CROWD APPLAUDS HAYES JENKINS SKATES, GULFSTREAM PARK HANDICAP SAILOR BEATS NASHUA TO WIN RACE, JOE LOUIS - WRESTLER WRESTLING RING MAYHEM FEATURING JOE LOUIS JERSEY JOE WOLCOTT IS WRESTLING REFEREE JOE LOUIS VS. COWBOY LEE IN WRESTLING MATCH Wrestling fans cheer NEWS #57 (09:41:50:00), GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE FREEWAY IN SAUSALITO OPENS TANKS BREAK THROUGH BANNER AT SAUSALITO TUNNEL CARS HEAD TO GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE, REPORTER BECOMES BUDDHIST MONK REPORTER TAKES VOWS OF BUDDHISM, WAR DISPLACED GERMANS RETURN FROM POLAND GERMAN REFUGEES WAVE AND SMILE, ACADEMY AWARDS 1956 EXTERIOR:PANTAGES THEATRE TAB HUNTER JAMES CAGNEY JACK LEMMON INTERIOR:PANTAGES THEATRE LEMMON RECEIVES OSCAR FROM EVA MARIE SAINT GRACE KELLY JO VAN FLEET ACCEPTS AWARD FROM EDMUND O'BRIEN JERRY LEWIS GIVES AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS ERNEST BORGNINE ACCEPTS AWARD FOR MARTY, MALENKOV VISITS ENGLAND MALENKOV TOURS BRITISH POWER PLANT, MARINES SAIL FOR TROUBLED MIDDLE EAST TROOPS BOARD SHIP FOR MIDDLE EAST, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF POSE FOR PICTURE JOINT CHIEFS AT MEETING TABLE, GOLDEN GLOVES AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN BOXING ACTION, CIGAR CHOMPING FIGHT FANS, ANGRY SEAS SWAMP AUSSIE SURFBOATS SURFBOAT SWAMPED CREWS IN ANGRY SEAS

[VARIOUS]

Preparation of donuts in Uijongbu, South Korea. Interiors of a doughnut bakery. A Korean laborer operates a machine that drops dough into hot oil. Cooked doughnuts are placed in baskets. A sergeant checks. Three men have their coffee and doughnuts near a Red Cross Clubmobile. A woman from the Red Cross stands outside the wagon holding a tray of doughnuts. Men walk away after having doughnuts and coffee. Houses and trees in the foreground. Location: Uijongbu South Korea. Date: March 17, 1954.

Gyeonggi-do, Seongnam-si - June 16 2024: This is a Drone Shot of Gyeonggi-do, Seongnam-si, Pangyo Elementary School building / South Korea

AP-APTN-1830 North America Prime News -Final Monday, 12 April 2010 North America Prime News +Russia Poland 4 03:56 See Script WRAP Morgue, Polish minister, Lavrov, Polish reax ADDS coffin stills Italy Derailment 2 01:42 No Access Italy REPLAY At least 11 dead as landslide derails train Kyrgyzstan Tension 3 01:54 AP Clients Only EDIT Interim government leader on Bakiyev role, Bakiyev rally Vatican Scandal 02:44 AP Clients Only REPLAY Vatican clarifies for 1st time clergy must report abuse to police Thailand Protest 4 02:27 Part No Thailand REPLAY PM statement, army chief comments, coroners, coffins Thailand Politics 00:34 See Script REPLAY More pressure for PM as poll body rules party must be dissolved +US Nuclear Summit 2 03:47 See Script WRAP World leaders arrive for summit ADDS more arrivals, Ban, bilats MidEast Holocaust 2 02:47 Part No Israel REPLAY Holocaust commemorations, PM, Peres at main ceremony Caribbean Vents 00:58 AP Clients Only REPLAY UK team says its found deepest known undersea volcanic vent Sudan Voting 01:57 AP Clients Only REPLAY Election commission extends voting by two more days B-u-l-l-e-t-i-n begins at 1830 GMT. APEX 04-12-10 1456EDT -----------End of rundown----------- AP-APTN-1830: +Russia Poland 4 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:+Russia Poland 4- WRAP Morgue, Polish minister, Lavrov, Polish reax ADDS coffin stills LENGTH: 03:56 FIRST RUN: 1830 RESTRICTIONS: See Script TYPE: Russian/Polish/Nat SOURCE: VARIOUS STORY NUMBER: 642771 DATELINE: Various - 10-12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 03:56 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY RU-RTR - NO ACCESS RUSSIA TVN/TVP - NO ACCESS POLAND POLISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST (FIRST RUN 1530 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Moscow, Russia - 12 April 2010 1. Various of relatives of air crash victims walking into Moscow city morgue to help identify remains 2. Mid of Polish Health Minister Ewa Kopacz arriving with other Polish officials 3. Mid of Kopacz speaking to press 4. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Ewa Kopacz, Polish health minister: "Now we have 17 bodies identified by the families. Our team is working in 10 rooms and the next hour might have 10 identities confirmed. Another group (of relatives) arrived from the hotel by shuttle to the conference room. They go to the 10 rooms to try to identify the bodies of the victims of the catastrophe." (FIRST RUN 1530 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) RU-RTR - NO ACCESS RUSSIA Moscow, Russia - 12 April 2010 5. Zoom in to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and members of government observing silence before sitting down 6. Side shot of Putin speaking 7. Wide of meeting 8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Sergei Ivanov, Russian first deputy prime minister: ++Soundbite includes wide cutaway of meeting++ "Two conclusions can be definitely made for today. Firstly, aircraft recorders were absolutely functional and recorded absolutely all the information, sound as well as parametric (information), till the moment of crash. And secondly, it is reliably confirmed that warning of the unfavourable weather conditions at the North airport and recommendations to go to a reserve airport were not only transmitted but received by the crew of the plane." (FIRST RUN 1730 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) TVP - NO ACCESS POLAND Smolensk, Russia - 10 April 2010 9. Various of immediate aftermath of crash, smouldering wreckage of plane amidst woods, emergency crew working to put out fires (FIRST RUN 1730 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) TVN - NO ACCESS POLAND Warsaw, Poland - 12 April 2010 10. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Andrzej Seremet, Chief Prosecutor: "In this investigation there will surely be a phonoscopic examination aimed at amplifying the background noise in order to determine if other people made suggestions to the pilot. We want to determine all grounds for the pilot's decision." (FIRST RUN 1730 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Smolensk, Russia - 11 April 2010 11. Various of plane wreckage and investigators (FIRST RUN 1730 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) TVN - NO ACCESS POLAND Warsaw, Poland - 12 April 2010 12. SOUNDBITE (Polish) Bronislaw Komorowski, Acting president: "The first task I am going to set for General Koziej (the new National Security Bureau chief) is a review of the rules for travel of top military officials. We need to examine if these procedures are sufficient and if they are executed appropriately." (FIRST RUN 1130 ME EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 13. Wide of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev placing flowers in front of shrine to late Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, Maria 14. Close-up photo of Kaczynskis with black mourning ribbon ++NEW (FIRST RUN 1830 NORTHAM PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) POLISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE - AP CLIENTS ONLY Warsaw, Poland, 12 April 2010 15. STILL showing President Lech Kaczynski's coffin lying in state at presidential palace STORYLINE Russian investigators suggested human error may have been to blame in the plane crash that killed the Polish president and 95 others, saying on Monday that were no technical problems with the Soviet-made plane. The Tu-154 went down while trying to land on Saturday in dense fog near Smolensk airport in western Russia. All aboard were killed, including President Lech Kaczynski and dozens of Polish political, military and religious leaders. They had been travelling in the Polish government-owned plane to attend a memorial at nearby Katyn forest honouring thousands of Polish military officers who were executed 70 years ago by Josef Stalin's secret police. The pilot had been warned of bad weather in Smolensk, and was advised by traffic controllers to land elsewhere - which would have delayed the Katyn observances. The pilot was identified as thirty-six-year-old Captain Arkadiusz Protasiuk, and the co-pilot as Major Robert Grzywna, also aged 36. Also on the cockpit crew were Ensign Andrzej Michalak and Lieutenant Artur Zietek. In Warsaw, there was concern that the pilots may have been asked by someone in the plane to land at Smolensk instead of diverting to Minsk or Moscow, in part to avoid missing the commemoration ceremonies. Polish Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet said Polish investigators talked to the flight controller and flight supervisor and "concluded that there were no conditions for landing." "The tower was advising against the landing," Seremet said. "We want to determine all grounds for the pilot's decision," he told reporters. Polish investigators have not yet listened to the cockpit conversations recorded on the black boxes, but will, to see if there were "any suggestions made to the pilots" from other people aboard the plane. Other Russian officials said the pilots were offered the chance to land in Moscow, Minsk or Vitebsk, but they chose Smolensk, despite four failed attempts before the fifth and fatal approach. Polish media reported in August 2008 that pilots flying Kaczynski to Tbilisi refused the president's order to land there because of the country's military conflict with Russia, diverting instead to Azerbaijan. In remarks shown on Russian television, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told a government meeting including Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the data recorders on the plane were found to have been completely functional, which will allow a detailed analysis. "It is reliably confirmed that warning of the unfavourable weather conditions at the North airport and recommendations to go to a reserve airport were not only transmitted but received by the crew of the plane," he said. Russian investigators have almost finished reading the flight recorders, said Alexander Bastrykin, Russia's chief investigator. "The readings confirm that there were no problems with the plane, and that the pilot was informed about the difficult weather conditions, but nevertheless decided to land," Bastrykin said during a briefing with Putin in Smolensk. Bastrykin said the readings would be double checked, according to footage of the meeting broadcast on Monday on Poland's TVN24. The wreckage, meanwhile, will remain on site through midweek to help speed the investigation, Russian Deputy Transport Minister Igor Levitin said. Both Russia and Ukraine declared a day of mourning on Monday, as Poles struggled to come to terms with the national tragedy that eliminated so many of their government and military leaders. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the Polish embassy in Moscow on Monday to pay his respects to those killed in the crash. Tens of thousands watched as Kaczynski's body, returned Sunday to Warsaw, was carried in a coffin by a hearse to the presidential palace. His twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the former prime minister, was present. Forensics experts from Poland and Russia were working to ID other bodies, using DNA testing in many cases. Reports from Poland suggested that the body of first lady Maria Kaczynska had been identified. Jacek Sasin, a spokesman for the Presidential Palace, said Kaczynska's body would be sent to Warsaw on Tuesday. He said the bodies of the first couple would lie in state at the palace from Tuesday, their coffins closed, and the public would be permitted to view them. Sasin said that officials were planning the funeral for Saturday but a final decision depended on when the bodies of all 96 victims are returned home. Medvedev has said he wants to attend, according to Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski. Among the victims Saturday was 90-year-old Ryszard Kaczorowski, the last leader of Poland's exiled government in London. The exile leadership was established during the Nazi occupation of Poland and continued to declare itself the rightful government during the decades of communism, until Lech Walesa became Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990. The crash also took an icon of Poland's Solidarity freedom movement, 80-year-old Anna Walentynowicz. Workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk went on strike when Walentynowicz was fired from her job as a crane operator in August 1980 for her opposition activity. That injustice sparked strikes that spread like wildfire to other plants across the nation, giving rise to the movement that helped bring about the demise of communism in Poland nine years later. Also aboard the Tupolev were the army chief of staff, the navy chief commander, and heads of the air and land forces, the national bank president, the deputy foreign minister, the army chaplain, the head of the National Security Office, the deputy parliament speaker, the Olympic Committee head and at least two presidential aides and 17 lawmakers. Acting President Bronislaw Komorowski said he was moving to fill the seats in parliament left empty because of the crash. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1515EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Italy Derailment 2 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Italy Derailment 2- REPLAY At least nine dead as landslide derails train LENGTH: 01:47 FIRST RUN: 1430 RESTRICTIONS: No Access Italy TYPE: Natsound SOURCE: YOUREPORTER STORY NUMBER: 642740 DATELINE: Laces - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 01:47 ++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE UPDATED STORYLINE WITH AMENDED DEATH TOLL++ YouReporter - NO ACCESS ITALY SHOTLIST (FIRST RUN 1330 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL, 2010) 1. Various top shots of derailed train and emergency workers at site 2. Emergency workers pulling debris from train (FIRST RUN 1430 ME EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL, 2010) 3. Wide tilt down from landslide to derailed train 4. Various of derailed train 5. Tilt up broken doors 6. Tilt down from landslide to train (FIRST RUN 1330 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL, 2010) 7. Wide of derailed train 8. Landslide above railway track 9. Wide of train 10. Emergency crew digging at site 11. Pan across derailed train to emergency workers 12. Mid of broken doors 13. Various of emergency workers 14. Pan across derailed train STORYLINE A mass of mud and water slammed into a small commuter train traveling in the Italian Alps Monday, knocking the front car into a ditch and killing nine people aboard, officials said. A Bolzano province official, Francesca De Carlini, said the two-car train, filled with local commuters and students, was passing by at the exact moment that a large irrigation pipe on higher elevation burst. "A mass of mud and water knocked down the first car into the ditch," she said. "All of the dead were in the first car, which was pulled down into the ditch," De Carlini said by telephone. She discounted earlier media reports of the possibility of three missing, saying the death toll was definitive at nine and that all bodies had been identified. There were also 28 injured, including seven hospitalized in serious condition, De Carlini said. A geologist was examining the terrain, near the border with Austria, but it was not clear why the pipe burst, she said. A magistrate has begun an investigation into the cause, but the rupture didn't appear to be due to cold weather. De Carlini said the accident occurred shortly after 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) and that help arrived within a few minutes. Helicopters, ambulances and firefighters rushed to the scene to rescue survivors. The train had been nearing its destination of Merano, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Venice, after departing from the small town of Malles. The train line runs between the Adige river and mountains. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1525EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Kyrgyzstan Tension 3 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Kyrgyzstan Tension 3- EDIT Interim government leader on Bakiyev role, Bakiyev rally LENGTH: 01:54 FIRST RUN: 1230 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: English/Russian/Nat SOURCE: AP TELEVISION STORY NUMBER: 642774 DATELINE: Various - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 01:54 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST (FIRST RUN 1230 NEWS UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) Bishkek 1. Zoom in as Roza Otunbayeva, head of the interim government of Kyrgyzstan, enters news conference 2. SOUNDBITE (English) Roza Otunbayeva, Leader of Kyrgyz interim government: "No I don't think that he's in control of military forces, only bodyguards and relatives, and some probably of his allies around him. We have full control of military forces throughout the country." (Q: And the internal security and police?) "And internal security and police but some of them yes they have probably sympathies, I should tell the truth, because those forces have been formed up over the last years by Bakiyev's family, his brother and other allies." 3. Cutaway media 4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Roza Otunbayeva, Leader of Kyrgyz interim government: (Soundbite includes a cutaway of media) "Bakiyev is of course putting the question forward - as he says "what shall I have in return?". This question of what he could have in return is being discussed at the moment, we are working on it. His isolation continues. I think at some point he will understand there is no way out of this deadlock." (FIRST RUN 0830 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) Teyit, Jalal-Abad region, southern Kyrgyzstan 5. Wide pan right of rally 6. Deposed president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, on stage addressing supporters 7. Cutaway of supporters, chanting his name 8. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Deposed president of Kyrgyzstan: (Asked about the reports government troops plan to seize him) "Well, let them try to seize me. Let them try to destroy me. This attempt will lead to so much blood no one will be able to justify." ++AUDIO AS INCOMING++ 9. Wide of rally STORYLINE The head of the self-declared interim government in Kyrgyzstan said on Monday that her side had "full control" of the country's military forces, while the deposed president rallied supporters in his home village, testing his ability to mount resistance to the opposition forces that drove him out of the capital last week. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with European Union representatives in Bishkek, Roza Otunbayeva said ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev had to realise that "there is no way out of this deadlock". As about 500 people gathered in a muddy field in Kurmanbek Bakiyev's native village of Teyit, the deputy head of the self-declared interim government said in the capital that an operation to arrest Bakiyev was being organised. "Well, let them try to seize me. Let them try to destroy me. This attempt will lead to so much blood no one will be able to justify," Bakiyev told reporters who asked him about the statement by Almazbek Atambayev. Atambayev did not give details about the arrest plans, but said "we do not want fresh bloodshed." At least 81 people died in the capital last Wednesday when a confrontation between police and protesters exploded into gunfire and chaos. Protesters stormed government buildings and Bakiyev fled to his native southern region. He has refused to step down and the rally in Teyit brought an array of speakers who vowed their support and waved banners with slogans such as "Hands off the legitimate president." There were no uniformed police in view at the rally, and the loyalty of the country's security forces remains a significant question. The stalemate has left Kyrgyzstan's near-term stability in doubt. That worries the West because a US air base in Kyrgyzstan is crucial in the military campaign against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The base is used both as the launch point for refuelling flights over Afghanistan and as a troop transit point. Troop transit flights had been diverted for several days, but the US Embassy said Monday those flights have returned to normal operation and that the refuelling flights are continuing. US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake is to travel to Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday for talks including the base status. Atambayev, echoing previous statements by interim government leader Roza Otunbayeva, said the base's status will be discussed with the United States and "we shall decide everything in a civilised way." Many Kyrgyz oppose the base and Atambayev expressed deep ambivalence. Alleged corruption by members of the Bakiyev family, including enriching themselves through fuel contracts for the base, was one of the top issues that brought out protesters last week. "While trying to preserve the base, you lost the respect of the people," Atambayev said of the United States. Bakiyev told The Associated Press in an interview on Sunday that he had not ordered police to fire at protesters in the capital. He strongly urged the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force to Kyrgyzstan, arguing that the nation's police and the military are too weak to keep the unrest from spreading. In taking power on Thursday, the interim leaders said they controlled four of Kyrgyzstan's seven regions. By Saturday they claimed to have expanded their control throughout the country. The interim leadership on Monday announced the dismissal of Kyrgyzstan's ambassadors to the United States, Germany, Russia and Turkey. But the ambassador to Russia, Raimkul Attakurov, rejected the order, telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that he would leave only on Bakiyev's order. Kyrgyzstan's society is strongly clan-based, but there are few signs that Bakiyev could muster any significant tribal support in the south to challenge the self-declared interim government. Some analysts say that a hike in utility prices and massive corruption has set many southerners against Bakiyev. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com. (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1502EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Vatican Scandal Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Vatican Scandal- REPLAY Vatican clarifies for 1st time clergy must report abuse to police LENGTH: 02:44 FIRST RUN: 1130 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: English/Nat SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/VATICAN TV STORY NUMBER: 642717 DATELINE: Rome - 10/12 Apr 2010/ File LENGTH: 02:44 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY VATICAN TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Rome, 10 April 2010 1. Wide of St. Peter's 2. Close of Statue of Angel holding cross 3. Pan of building to doorway of the office of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) VATICAN TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY FILE: 19 February 2008 4. Pan down of offices with old files and paintings/photos of Popes inside CDF 5. Close of ancient files in CDF offices dated 1602-1699 6. Medium of ancient files on shelf 7. Close of hand of Cardinal Levada, current president of CDF writing on document, pull out to Levada 8. Medium of corridor of files 9. Medium of opening rows of files 10. Pan down of files titled "Cause Sacredotali", Priestly Cases related to the 1970s AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Rome, 12 April 2010 11. Pan of Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere 12. Medium of Vatican analyst Marco Politi reading paper at coffee bar 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Marco Politi, Pope biographer and Vatican analyst for Italian daily paper "Il Fatto Quotidiano": "These guidelines are very important not only from a practical point of view because they tell exactly what a bishop has to do but also because they show the determination of the Pope to follow the zero-tolerance line. The Pope wants that the victims are listened. The Pope wants that nothing has to be covered up from now on and the Pope wants that these priests are punished, are removed and are brought before state courts." 14. Pan up church bell tower 15. SOUNDBITE (English) Marco Politi, Pope biographer and Vatican analyst for Italian daily paper "Il Fatto Quotidiano": "The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of course has always worked with great secrecy. And now it is in a transition. It must also learn to be quick in answering the issues, to be very transparent in its policy and also to give exact figures." 16. Monitor showing Vatican website www.vatican.va 17. Close-up of Vatican website link to "focus - abuse on minors, the Church response" 18. Pan down from photo of Benedict XVI to content of site 19. Close-up of title of link "Guide to understanding Basic CDF Procedures" STORYLINE The Vatican responded Monday to allegations that it had concealed years of clerical sex abuse by making it clear for the first time that bishops and other high-ranking clerics should report such crimes to police if required by law. Victims have charged that the Catholic Church created what amounted to a conspiracy to cover up abuse by keeping allegations of abuse secret and not reporting them to civil authorities. The Vatican has insisted that it has long been the Catholic Church's policy for bishops, like all Christians, to obey civil laws. In a new guide for lay readers posted on its Web site, the Vatican explicitly spells out such a policy. "Civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed," the Vatican guidelines said. That phrase was not included in a draft of the guidelines obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The rest of the guidelines follow previously known and public procedures for handling canonical investigations and trials of suspected abuse. The Vatican offered no explanation for the addition. A Vatican spokesman, the Reverend Ciro Benedettini, said the reporting requirement had been the internal policy of the Vatican's office, known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) since 2003. Asked how bishops were supposed to know of this internal policy, he declined to comment. Pope Benedict XVI had told Irish bishops last month that they should cooperate with civil authorities in investigating abuse. But the guidelines mark the first time that such procedures for the universal church, in which bishops are explicitly told they should follow civil reporting laws, have been laid out publicly. Before he became Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was head of the CDF, that was once known more chillingly as the Inquisition. This office has long epitomised the secrecy and mystery of the Vatican, with responsibility for banning books and meting out punishments as severe as excommunication and burning at the stake. Now, as the office's handling of child-molesting priests comes increasingly under fire, the Vatican claims that is starting to open up. The laymen's guide doesn't contain any information that isn't available to the public through a trip to a specialised religious library or a Vatican bookstore. But it puts various sources of complicated canonical procedures together in a concise, easy-to-read, one-page guide, without cumbersome canon law citations and Latin phrases. Marco Politi, Pope biographer and Vatican analyst for Italian daily paper "Il Fatto Quotidiano", said not only were the guidelines "practical" but they also "show the determination of the Pope to follow the zero-tolerance line." He also said of the CDF that it had "always worked with great secrecy" but was now "in a transition". The church's internal justice system for dealing with abuse allegations has come under attack because of claims by victims that their accusations were long ignored by bishops more concerned about protecting the church and by the Congregation, and was headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger from 1981 until he was elected pope in 2005. While running the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger resisted pleas from a California diocese to laicize a priest who had pleaded no contest to lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys, according to correspondence obtained by The Associated Press. The Vatican's lawyer has insisted the California bishop was responsible for making sure the priest, the Reverend Stephen Kiesle, didn't abuse while Rome processed his case to remove him from the priesthood. According to Vatican norms, issued in 2001 and summarised in the new guide, a bishop must investigate every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric. If the accusation has a semblance of truth, the case is referred to the Congregation, which decides how to proceed. The Congregation's disciplinary department can decide to authorise the diocese to pursue either a judicial or an administrative trial, both of which can condemn a priest to a number of penalties, including defrocking, or what the church calls being reduced to the lay state. Victims can also seek damages. Or the Congregation can conduct a trial on its own, although that is rare. If the evidence is overwhelming, the Congregation can refer the case directly to the pope, who can issue a decree dismissing the priest from the priesthood altogether. The norms themselves are full of fascinating details particular to the church: Judges who mete out justice must be priests "of mature age," must hold doctorates in canon law, and must be "outstanding in good morals." If the Congregation authorises the diocese to conduct a canonical trial, three to five judges sit in judgment. The trial is conducted according to the continental system, in which judges weigh the evidence but do the investigating too, as opposed to the American justice system, an adversarial process where facts are evaluated by a jury of peers. The confidentiality provisions in canonical proceedings are offensive to some in the US. But their purpose is to ensure the integrity of the proceedings and not to hide information from civil authorities, said Jeffrey Lena, the Vatican's US attorney. The Congregation traces its origins to the Congregation for the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, the commission created in 1542 that functioned as a tribunal to root out heresy, punish crimes against the faith and name Inquisitors for the church. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1434EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Thailand Protest 4 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Thailand Protest 4- REPLAY PM statement, army chief comments, coroners, coffins LENGTH: 02:27 FIRST RUN: 1130 RESTRICTIONS: Part No Thailand TYPE: Thai/Nat SOURCE: AP TELEVISION/TPBS STORY NUMBER: 642706 DATELINE: Bangkok - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 02:27 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY TPBS - NO ACCESS THAILAND SHOTLIST AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 1. Various of red-shirted protesters (supporters of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra) and security forces outside residence of Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva TPBS - NO ACCESS THAILAND 2. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Abhisit Vejjajiva, Thai Prime Minister: "Looking at the overview of what's happening currently, we are able to see clearly that a group of people, whom we can consider as terrorists, had taken advantage of the gathering of innocent people who rallied for democracy and against injustice, and used it as a tool of create unrest in the country, hoping for a major change." TPBS - NO ACCESS THAILAND 3. Wide of news conference with deputy prime minister and Chief of Army 4. SOUNDBITE (Thai) General Anupong Paochinda, Chief of Army: "If the issue can't be resolved through political means, I understand that the parliament dissolution has to come, now it seems like I'm involved in politics, I think it would end in dissolution. When to dissolve is for them to discuss, as well as the time frame and constitution amendment. Now I'm too involved. I understand that it will end with parliament dissolution. Some people have suggested a government of national unity, I don't know. I'll leave the matter to them. I only want peace, that's all I'm asking." AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY 5. News conference of Autopsy Committee 6. Mid of media 7. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Doctor Somchai Pomeamake, Head of Autopsy Committee: "The family, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Japanese Government did not want us to give the details of the death." 8. Cutaway of committee members 9. SOUNDBITE (Thai) Doctor Somchai Pomeamake, Head of Autopsy Committee: "I can only tell that from the wounds, they (the wounds) were caused by high speed bullets." 10. Wide of media 11. Various of Red Shirt protesters gathered around medical team as bodies of autopsied patient are wrapped up 12. Man placing lid on coffin STORYLINE Thailand's Election Commission recommended the embattled ruling party be dissolved on Monday, potentially handing victory to anti-government protesters who have demanded the prime minister step down. The ruling comes the same day that Thailand's influential army chief appeared to back a key demand of the protesters, saying Parliament might need to be dissolved to resolve the country's violent political standoff. Together, the comments by General Anupong Paochinda and the election body's decision could spell the end of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's rule, which the protesters say is illegitimate. Abhisit was largely seen as having the backing of the powerful military, which has traditionally played an important role in the country's politics, and has not hesitated to step in with coups in times of political instability. But his control of security forces has increasingly been called into question over the past month as protesters repeatedly marched through the capital. On Saturday, soldiers and police failed to dislodge demonstrators, setting off clashes that killed 21. The commission found the Democrat Party - Thailand's oldest - guilty of misusing campaign donations. The ruling will have to be endorsed by the Constitutional Court before the party of Abhisit is disbanded. No date was set for the court to hear the case. "If the issue can't be resolved through political means, I understand that the parliament dissolution has to come," Anupong told reporters. "Some people have suggested a government of national unity, I don't know. I'll leave the matter to them. I only want peace, that's all I'm asking," he added. Meanwhile, red-shirted protesters have paraded coffins through Thailand's capital in a renewed attempt to pressure the government to step down, pushing this Southeast Asian nation closer to political anarchy. Neither side appeared willing to end the stalemate, which descended into the worst political violence Thailand has seen in two decades this weekend. On Monday, Abhisit blamed the bloodshed on a small group of troublemakers, whom he called "terrorists", rather than the entire protest movement, but he continued to refuse to dissolve his government. In his live broadcast speech on Monday, Abhisit praised the protests as "innocent people who rallied for democracy and against injustice" and said an independent inquiry will be held into the deaths. Those found guilty would be prosecuted, he promised. The anti-government protesters are made up of mostly poor and rural supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose populist policies eased the plight of many. They have massed in the city over the past month, basing themselves in the historic old city and on the capital's main shopping boulevard. On the other side is the government of Prime Minister Vejjajiva, whom the Red Shirts see as a symbol of the ruling elite they say orchestrated the 2006 military coup that removed Thaksin from power amid corruption allegations. In Saturday's violence, four soldiers and 17 civilians died, including a Thomson Reuters cameraman, according to the news agency and the government's Erawan emergency centre. The government was conducting autopsies on nine bodies on Monday. Autopsies have been carried out in the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Bangkok and were conducted by an independent panel comprising of doctors from many hospitals and representatives from the Red Shirt protesters. "I can only tell that from the wounds, they (the wounds) were caused by high speed bullets," Doctor Somchai Pomeamake, Head of Autopsy Committee told the media on Monday. Both sides accuse each other of firing battlefield weapons during the confrontation. The disruptive protests began a month ago, when the demonstrators began pressing their demand that Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call new elections with renewed fervour. The protesters see the Oxford-educated Abhisit as a symbol - and stooge - of the old guard that has traditionally ruled Thailand. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1434EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Thailand Politics Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Thailand Politics- REPLAY More pressure for PM as poll body rules party must be dissolved LENGTH: 00:34 FIRST RUN: 1530 RESTRICTIONS: See Script TYPE: Thai/Nat SOURCE: TNN STORY NUMBER: 642742 DATELINE: Bangkok - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 00:34 TNN - NO ACCESS THAILAND/MUST ONSCREEN CREDIT TNN FOR THIS PARTICULAR STORY SHOTLIST: 1. Wide of Thanis Sriprates, Deputy Secretary General of the Election Commission of Thailand at lectern making statement 2. SOUNDBITE: (Thai) Thanis Sriprates, Deputy Secretary General of the Election Commission of Thailand: "In the first accusation, the election commissioners have examined the case and the majority have voted for the political party registrar to inform and provide evidence to the Attorney General to submit the case to the Constitutional Court to order a dissolution of the Democrat Party thereafter." 3. Wide of Thanis walking away from lectern 4. Mid of Thanis talking to reporters STORYLINE: Thailand's Election Commission ordered the ruling party be dissolved for allegedly misusing campaign donations, in a potential victory for protesters who paraded slain comrades through Bangkok on Monday to demand the prime minister's resignation. The decision, which must be endorsed by the Constitutional Court to take effect, came soon after Thailand's influential army chief appeared to back the protesters call, saying new elections might be needed to resolve the country's political crisis. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who was largely seen as having the backing of the powerful military, has remained defiant in his refusal to resign. But the about-face of the head of the army, which has not hesitated to stage coups during previous political instability, puts Abhisit under unprecedented pressure. The latest turmoil is part of a yearslong struggle for power, pitting the rural supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra against members of the country's traditional ruling elite, which includes business leaders, the military brass and bureaucrats - supported by the urban middle class. Thailand has seen three governments in the four years since a coup drove Thaksin from power in 2006. Protesters have taken to the streets each time their rivals came to power. The latest standoff descended into the deadliest political clashes in nearly two decades on Saturday, when 21 people died in clashes. The repeated unrest has threatened to ruin the country's reputation as a stable haven for commerce, investment and tourism. Monday's ruling could set the stage for another change in power. But it is unlikely to be the last word, observers said. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1434EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: +US Nuclear Summit 2 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:+US Nuclear Summit 2- WRAP World leaders arrive for summit ADDS more arrivals, Ban, bilats LENGTH: 03:47 FIRST RUN: 1830 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: English/Nat SOURCE: VARIOUS STORY NUMBER: 642768 DATELINE: Various - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 03:47 POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY AGENCY POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST: (FIRST RUN 1730 NEW UPDATE - 12 APRIL 2010) AGENCY POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland 1. Wide of Air China aircraft touching down 2. Wide of Air China aircraft taxiing on tarmac 3. Chinese President Hu Jintao walking down steps, being met by US and consular officials 4. Pan of car driving away 5. Wide of Czech Republic aircraft 6. Zoom in to Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer shaking hands with US officials 7. Mid of US and Japanese flags on top of Japanese aircraft, pull out to wide of plane taxiing on tarmac 8. Cutaway of assembled media 9. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama walking down aircraft steps, greeting officials 10. Italian aircraft taxiing 11. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi walking down aircraft steps, greeting officials 12. Various of motorcade driving away ++NEW (FIRST RUN 1830 NORTH AMERICA PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) AGENCY POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland 13. Canadian aircraft taxiing on runway 14. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper walking down plane steps and greeting officials 15. Pull out from Mexican aircraft taxiing on tarmac 16. Zoom in to Mexican President Felipe Calderon disembarking ++NEW (FIRST RUN 1830 NORTH AMERICA PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY New York City, New York 17. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at podium 18. SOUNDBITE: (English) Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General: "Nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face today. That is why I repeatedly urge the conference on disarmament to immediately start negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices. And that is why in Washington I will call on all world leaders to come together, perhaps at the United Nations in September, to further advance these essential calls for humankind." ++NEW (FIRST RUN 1830 NORTH AMERICA PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL, 2010) POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY Washington, DC 19. Zoom into US President Barack Obama meeting with King Abdullah II of Jordan STORYLINE: World leaders, presidents, prime ministers and top officials from 47 countries, started mingling on Monday on the threshold of US President Barack Obama's nuclear proliferation summit, the largest assembly hosted by a US leader since the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945. Obama wants world leaders to confront the threat of nuclear arms falling into the hands of extremists. And he's looking at the high-profile security forum to help him reach his goal of ensuring that all nuclear materials worldwide are secured from theft or diversion within four years. After months of friction with the US, Chinese President Hu Jintao's aircraft touched down at Andrews Air Force Base on Monday morning. The Chinese leader is due to have a one-on-one meeting with Obama before the official welcoming of the National Security Summit at a Washington convention centre. Czech Republic Prime Minister Jan Fischer, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon also arrived on Monday morning ahead of the summit. Obama began the day with a series of meetings with international visitors, including Jordan's King Abdullah II. While sweeping or even bold new strategies were unlikely to emerge from the two-day gathering, the president declared himself pleased with what he heard in warm-up meetings on Sunday with the leaders of Kazakhstan, South Africa, India and Pakistan. Obama says he's striving to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Speaking in New York, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, said "nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face today". He called on participants of the Washington summit to "immediately start negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices". The United States is the only country to use the weapons, two bombs dropped on Japan to force its surrender in World War II. The high-flown ambition, which the president admits will probably not be a reality in his lifetime, began a year ago in Prague when he laid out plans for significant nuclear reductions and a nuclear-weapons-free world. In the meantime, he has approved a new nuclear policy for the United States, promising last week to reduce America's nuclear arsenal, refrain from nuclear tests and not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have them. North Korea and Iran were not included in that pledge because they do not cooperate with other countries on nonproliferation standards. That was last Tuesday, and two days later, on the anniversary of the Prague speech, Obama flew back to the Czech Republic capital where he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new treaty that reduces each side's deployed nuclear arsenal to 1,550 weapons. Throughout the two-day gathering, Iran will be a subtext as Obama works to gain support for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to shut down what the United States and many key allies assert is a nuclear weapons programme. Iran maintains it only wants to build reactors to generate electricity. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1543EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: MidEast Holocaust 2 Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:MidEast Holocaust 2- REPLAY Holocaust commemorations, PM, Peres at main ceremony LENGTH: 02:47 FIRST RUN: 1130 RESTRICTIONS: Part No Israel TYPE: Natsound SOURCE: VARIOUS STORY NUMBER: 642707 DATELINE: Jerusalem/Tel Aviv - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 02:47 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY CHANNEL 10 - NO ACCESS ISRAEL KNESSET TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST (FIRST RUN 1130 ME EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) CHANNEL 10 - NO ACCESS ISRAEL Jerusalem 1. Wide of Holocaust Memorial day ceremony at Yad Vashem holocaust museum 2. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres arriving at ceremony 3. Wide shot of ceremony, AUDIO: sirens starting up to mark Holocaust Memorial day 4. Pull out from monument to wide of ceremony 5. Peres laying wreath and walking back 6. Netanyahu laying wreath and walking back 7. Zoom in to Peres and Netanyahu leaving ceremony (FIRST RUN 0830 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Tel Aviv, Israel 8. Various of people standing by cars stopped on road, AUDIO: sirens marking Holocaust Memorial day (FIRST RUN 0830 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY Jerusalem 9. Pan left from man and woman standing by car to woman standing on the other side of the car, AUDIO: sirens marking Holocaust Memorial day 10. Various of people standing on street 11. Two women standing with pushchair in street (FIRST RUN 0830 EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) KNESSET TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY Jerusalem 12. Pan from army officer from the rabbinical unit singing in prayer, zoom in to candles at opening of name reading ceremony in Knesset 13. Wide of Peres walking to podium 14. UPSOUND: Peres speaking at beginning of name reading ceremony 15. Wide of Netanyahu walking to podium 16. UPSOUND: Netanyahu speaking about relatives who died in Holocaust (FIRST RUN 1130 ME EUROPE PRIME NEWS - 12 APRIL 2010) KNESSET TV - AP CLIENTS ONLY Jerusalem 17. Peres and Netanyahu leaving at end of ceremony STORYLINE The mournful wail of air raid sirens pierced the air on Monday and the country came to a standstill as Israel, built on the ashes of the Nazi Holocaust, remembered the six (m) million Jews who perished during the dark days of World War II. Melancholy music floated over the airwaves and tales of the fast-dwindling number of Holocaust survivors dominated the media as Israel mourned the dead. During a two-minute siren at 10 am (0700 GMT), an annual ritual heard across Israel, drivers switched off their engines and people put aside their daily activities to stand at attention and reflect on the horrors of the holocaust in silence. Sixty five years after the end of World War II, about 207-thousand aging survivors, many of them destitute and alone, live in Israel, down 63-thousand from just two years earlier. The Jewish state is home to the largest survivor community. Yad Vashem, Israel's state Holocaust memorial authority, picked "Voices of the Survivors" as the theme of this year's commemoration, which began on Sunday night with a state ceremony and continues through to Monday evening. At a ceremony on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres laid wreaths at the monument to the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising, the largest Jewish insurgency during the Holocaust, ultimately crushed by the Germans. "The voice of the survivors is the link that binds the painful and tormented history of the Jewish people during the Holocaust to the future, to hope and to rebirth," Yad Vashem said on its Web site. President Barack Obama issued a statement on Sunday honouring the memory of "those who endured the horrors" of the Nazi atrocities of World War II and calling on all people to prevent genocide and "confront anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms." At the Israeli parliament on Monday, people read the names of Holocaust victims under the "Every Person Has a Name" project, which is meant to break down the number of six (m) million into stories of individuals, families and communities wiped out during the war. Netanyahu, Peres, Cabinet ministers, lawmakers and survivors read names of loved ones who were murdered. The annual remembrance is one of the most solemn on Israel's calendar. Restaurants, cafes and places of entertainment shut down, and radio and TV programming is dedicated almost exclusively to documentaries about the Holocaust, interviews with survivors, discussions about the significance of the genocide and lessons for the future. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1434EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Caribbean Vents Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Caribbean Vents- REPLAY UK team says its found deepest known undersea volcanic vent LENGTH: 00:58 FIRST RUN: 1430 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: Mute SOURCE: NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHY CENTRE STORY NUMBER: 642735 DATELINE: Caribbean - Apr 2010 LENGTH: 00:58 National Oceanography Centre - AP Clients only SHOTLIST ++MUTE++ 1. Mid of robot submarine Autosub6000 being launched from the RRS James Cook 2. Engineers preparing HyBIS, the remotely-controlled underwater vehicle used to film the world's deepest 'black smoker' vents 3. Pan right of scientists piloting HyBIS across the ocean floor, three miles deep 4. Tilt down to close-up of pilot's hands driving the HyBIS underwater vehicle 5. First footage of the world's deepest 'black smoker' vents 6. A wider shot of the world's deepest black smoker vents, showing the top of a two-storey high mineral spire made of copper and iron ores 7. Graphic image of the ocean floor of the Cayman Trough STORYLINE: A British scientific expedition said on Monday that it has discovered the world's deepest known underwater volcanic vent in the Caribbean. Experts aboard the RRS James Cook claim they've found the vent five kilometres (three miles) beneath the surface of the Caribbean in an area known as the Cayman Trough, a gap in the ocean floor that served as the setting for James Cameron's underwater thriller film "The Abyss." The Cayman Trough is the world's deepest undersea volcanic rift, running across the seafloor of the Caribbean. Using two separate remotely operated underwater vehicles to view and film the vents, known as 'black smokers', the team also made a new 3-D map of the sea bed showing an underwater mountain twice the height of UK's highest peak Ben Nevis, but with its summit one-and-a-half miles beneath the waves. The vent's depth and isolation has raised hopes that new and exotic forms of life may be found basking in the warmth of the superheated mineral-rich water. According to scientists the water erupting from the vents is hot enough to melt lead but they believe it sustains unknown colonies of sea creatures. Marine geophysicist Maya Tolstoy said on Monday that the new discovery is nearly one kilometre (3,000 feet) deeper than the next-deepest vent. The expedition will continue its research in the Caribbean until the 20 April. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1434EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM ------------------- AP-APTN-1830: Sudan Voting Monday, 12 April 2010 STORY:Sudan Voting- REPLAY Election commission extends voting by two more days LENGTH: 01:57 FIRST RUN: 1630 RESTRICTIONS: AP Clients Only TYPE: Arabic/Nat SOURCE: AP TELEVISION STORY NUMBER: 642752 DATELINE: Omdoraman - 12 Apr 2010 LENGTH: 01:57 AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY SHOTLIST: 1. Wide of woman walking towards polling station 2. Mid of women searching for their names on the voters register 3. Close up of woman looking a voting register 4. Wide exterior of polling station 5. Mid interior of voters casting their ballots 6. Woman trying put ballot into full box 7. Polling station official trying to put ballot into full box 8. Woman trying to cast ballot into full box, push in to full slot 9. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mariam Ismail, Local election observer: "We have called the operations room to bring us more ballot boxes, God willing because the ballot boxes we have are full and we have practically shut down the voting process here." 10. Wide exterior of people waiting to vote 11. Various of women waiting to vote STORYLINE: Sudan's election commission announced on Monday that it was extending voting by two more days to ensure technical problems do not prevent anyone from participating. The three-day election had been scheduled to run from Sunday through until Tuesday but Salah Habib, spokesman for the Sudanese National Election Commission, said that the final day of voting will now be Thursday. Sudanese election monitors have complained that voting has not even begun in some parts of the country, including semiautonomous southern Sudan. There are also reports that some voting stations were moved without notice, voter registries or other crucial equipment is missing and observers have not been allowed in to witness the process. In one polling station in Omdoraman a lack of ballot boxes was causing problems for officials. "We have called the operations room to bring us more ballot boxes, God willing because the ballot boxes we have are full and we have practically shut down the voting process here," said local election observer, Mariam Ismail. Sudan's first multiparty elections in a quarter century will determine whether President Omar al-Bashir, under an international indictment for war crimes in Darfur, wins another term. He is expected to win easily after two major parties decided to pull out fully or partially at the last minute. The vote was supposed to bring a democratically elected government for the impoverished country, prepare the ground for a vital referendum on South Sudan independence and begin healing the wounds of the Darfur conflict. However, major opposition parties have boycotted it, claiming it was unfair. In addition to the president, the Sudanese are electing a national parliament, local governors and parliaments and the president of the semiautonomous government of South Sudan. The elections are supposed to be an essential step in a 2005 peace plan that ended two decades of civil war between the mostly Arab and Muslim north and rebels in the Christian-animist south. The conflict claimed some 2 (m) million lives. Clients are reminded: (i) to check the terms of their licence agreements for use of content outside news programming and that further advice and assistance can be obtained from the AP Archive on: Tel +44 (0) 20 7482 7482 Email: infoaparchive.com (ii) they should check with the applicable collecting society in their Territory regarding the clearance of any sound recording or performance included within the AP Television News service (iii) they have editorial responsibility for the use of all and any content included within the AP Television News service and for libel, privacy, compliance and third party rights applicable to their Territory. APTN APEX 04-12-10 1452EDT ------------------- END -- OF -- ITEM -------------------

HOUSE FLOOR DEBATE The House meets at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. Unlimited ?one minutes? Suspensions (10 Bills): 1) H.R. 2711 - FBI Families of Fallen Heroes Act (Rep. Rogers (MI) / Oversight and Government Reform) 2) H.Res. 1172 - Recognizing the life and achievements of Will Keith Kellogg (Rep. Schauer / Oversight and Government Reform) 3) H.Res. 1189 - Commending Lance Mackey on winning a record 4th straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (Rep. Young (AK) / Oversight and Government Reform) 4) H.Res. 1316 - Celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (Rep. Honda / Oversight and Government Reform) 5) H.Res. 1385 - Recognizing and honoring the courage and sacrifice of the members of the Armed Forces and veterans (Rep. Skelton / Armed Services) 6) H.Res. 1353 - Supporting the goals and ideals of Student Financial Aid Awareness Month (Rep. Bishop (NY) / Education and Labor) 7) H.Res. 1169 - Honoring the 125th anniversary of Rollins College (Rep. Grayson / Education and Labor) 8) H.Res. 1161 - Honoring the Centennial Celebration of Women at Marquette University (Rep. Moore (WI) / Education and Labor) 9) H.Res. 1372 - Honoring the University of Georgia Graduate School (Rep. Broun / Education and Labor) // 10) H.Res. 407 - Expressing support for designation of May as "National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month" (Rep. Castor / Energy and Commerce) Postponed Suspensions Votes (5 Bills): 1) H.Res. 1258 - Expressing support for designation of May 2010 as Mental Health Month (Rep. Napolitano / Energy and Commerce) 2) H.Res. 1382 - Expressing sympathy to the families of those killed by North Korea in the sinking of the Republic of Korea Ship Cheonan, and solidarity with the Republic of Korea in the aftermath of this tragic incident (Del. Faleomavaega / Foreign Affairs) 3) H.Res. 584 - Recognizing the importance of manufactured and modular housing in the United States (Rep. Donnelly / Financial Services) 4) H.R. 3885 - Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act (Rep. Brown (SC) / Veterans' Affairs) 5) H.R. 5145 - Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act (Rep. McNerney / Veterans' Affairs) 21:00:00them against americans. and when americans are victims of this, we need to ask this question, what happens in the mind of that al qaeda terrorist that's sitting in that mud hult making that bomb, watching al-jazeera tv and sees the 21:00:18speaker speak up and oppose the war in iraq and afghanistan? what happens when there is a debate on the floor that goes on over and over and over again and the left win, radicals in this congress, the progressives, say 21:00:36we should pull out of those countries without any hesitation and do the best we can to keep from getting shot in the back? do you think, mr. speaker, and this is a rhetorical question, do you think that terrorist is likely to plant more bombs or 21:00:53less, detonate more bombs or less, are there more americans lost or fewer because the enemy has been encouraged by 44 votes on the floor of the house of representatives in 2007 and 2008 in that congress? 21:01:09. that's what's happened here, mr. speaker. this country was going to move forward. and even though the president of the united states now, our commander in chief, in the 21:01:27spring of 2008 took the position that he wanted to pull the troops out of iraq immediately, without any hesitation, just simply try to keep from being shot in the back on the way out of iraq, that was his position and i argued that if that was 21:01:44his position, then if he's elected president, the enemy will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on september 11 in 2001. now, we don't know if that turned out to be a true prediction because now president obama, then candidate and 21:01:59senator obama, changed his position. from the spring of 2008 until election day in novene of 2008 he walked a -- november of 2008 he walked a line of changing his position for being for immediate withdrawal to being for a slower withdrawal from iraq. 21:02:18and what we've seen also happen is, now president obama has adopted the exact position in iraq that president bush negotiated. it's called the status of forces agreement, mr. speaker. 21:02:32the sofa agreement. that was negotiated by the bush administration and it was with the iraqis and it was signed on november 17, 2008, by ambassador to iraq ryan crocker. and just a very impressive 21:02:47public servant who never received his due respect for the job that he did for all of us in that country, for the time that he was there. ryan crocker. i want to say a few more things about ryan crocker. i've met with him very late in the night, i've sat there in 21:03:04those hot and uncomfortable places in iraq, with top officers, with admiral mullen, for example, ryan crocker, general petraeus, a number of other very top leaders in our military and our state department personnel. 21:03:18ryan crocker understands the middle east, ryan crocker served well there. he was as instrumental in the negotiations and the status of forces agreement, he was the one who put his hands to that agreement in 2008 and today the letter of the status of forces agreement is being followed by 21:03:36president obama. good for him. i appreciate that. i support it. it's something i called for. if it were president bush doing that, i would be for that. i just don't think the american people see it the same way because he's not as proud of 21:03:50that decision as perhaps he would be of a different posture that we have in that part of the country. so, mr. speaker, we have a number of interests in america. our national security interests are paramount. those are constitutional. the responsibility of the 21:04:06president of the united states and the federal government is to defend us, to defend our shores, to defend the american people. 21:04:13and our military and our troops and those people that put on uniforms day after day after day are the ones that deserve our gratitude and our respect -- respect. and we need to do them just duty here on the floor of the house and not back up from those 21:04:29responsibilities just to provide them with the resources that they need. and that means a consistent message from the commander in chief on down and a strategy that we believe that we can win and it means to say to the left wing radicals in the united 21:04:44states of america, don't tell me you're for the troops and tell me you're also against their mission. you have to pour the -- support the troops and their mission. and what's interesting is that when george bush was the commander in chief, you said you supported the troops but not their mission. 21:05:01now that barack obama is the commander in chief, you don't really answer to that at all. except for the most part you left wing radicals -- part, you left wing radicals, you say you support the troops to a level of pandering to the mission of patriotism, but you don't 21:05:16support their mission. we cannot, mr. speaker, ask our military to put their lives on the line on a mission that we don't believe in. no, week of got to ask them to put their lives on the line for the cause of liberty and a mission that we believe in. 21:05:33if we don't believe in the mission we should not send them. they should not go. but it's up to the call of the commander in chief to do so. after all, he is the commander in chief. until he orders our armed forces, he sets the foreign policy and if we don't like what the president of the united 21:05:48states does when it comes to that, we've got about two choices. one is elect a new president and the other is to look into the constitution for another solution. i'm not ready to do that because i don't believe there's just cause at this point to look in the constitution for another solution. and in fact, i believe that the president of the united states 21:06:05has eclipsed my anticipation for what he might have been doing in iraq and in afghanistan it's relatively stable. it's not been extraordinarily brilliant, he did send only 75% of the minimum number of troops that were requested by general 21:06:21mcchrystal and they have a very difficult task. but the prospects of being successful in that task, i believe, are greater than the prospects of the state department being successful in setting up institutions that never existed before in parts of the country of afghanistan that don't have a history of those institutions of centralized 21:06:38government reaching out. so, with the foreign policy question that's before us, mr. speaker, and we have the question of the united states economy. and we have a bunch of people that are self-professed experts that come here to this floor 21:06:55that never signed a front of a paycheck. they don't have the first idea of what it takes for a free market economy to thrive or prosper. they believe that if you raise taxes it's just taking a little more out of the pot of their greedy capitalists and if you 21:07:11raise regulations they've got blenty of time to fill out the paperwork because after all, what are they going to do with the resources? it creates jobs. why would you want these people to be in charge of our economy? they demagogue republicans and 21:07:27say that we are in support of wall street. it's democrats that are cashing checks from wall street and it's big banking and international banking and investment banking, large interests, that are sending the biggest checks to democrats, all the while they're 21:07:46hedging their bets. and if you're a big business interest and you have a crony relationship with the united states congress, you've got a pretty good deal going because you can have the united states congress raise the regulations 21:07:59and raise the burden of government to keep your competition out. what's the simple solution to that complex problem? raise the regulations. raise the taxes. you're only competing against fewer people. i've seen this happen in my lifetime over and over again. i spent my life in the 21:08:15contracting business as a small contractor. i started out from this tiny little old guy that bought an old beaten up bulldozer and then i worked it for a while and fixed it a lot and then i bought another machine and hired a man and after a while we had enough machines we could go out and do 21:08:31a job. when i looked at building state highways i began to look around and i realized that we're only a handful of contractors that are big enough to bid these projects. so i went to the state and said, i'll break these projects up. i'd like to bid some projects that are under $1 million. he said -- they said, we don't 21:08:47like to do that because it takes a lot of administrative hassle. we'd rather deal with these half a dozen that we've got. so i had to run for the state senate to get that changed and we lohred that standard down, we brought more competition in. it's not enough. it's a small part of the 21:09:02solution. but it illustrates a problem, mr. speaker. big business will always try to promote regulation to keep their competition out. 21:09:11it's how it works. think of it this way. i'll take it down to the lowest common denominator. simple thing that can explain this to everyone who's listening. imagine they hadn't discovered gold in colorado. 21:09:25and so some miner out there with a pan is panning his way up the stream and he finds a nugget of gold and he pans his way in and he goes around and he finds that vain. then he starts to chop out this rock and here's the gold in the rock. 21:09:42son of a gun. gold in colorado. there's no settlements around there. so he breaks out his gold and processes it and takes it down and sells it and pretty soon the rumor goes like wildfire. there's gold in colorado. the gold rushes on. people come rushing in, everybody gets their pick axe 21:09:57and they start to mine for gold. now, you may think that this doesn't connect, mr. speaker, but it does. because the miners then set up their tents and they're there, they're working away and now that they're making money and selling their gold, they need 21:10:12some things. somebody's got to bring them food, somebody will open up a bar, somebody will start a band so they've got some entertainment to draw the stress down at night. and these miners are out there and after a while their hair gets so long they have to climb newspaper a tree to get a hair cut. 21:10:28and sooner or later one of those miners is going to get out a clipper and cut somebody's hair. when that happens, mr. speaker, that somebody else will line up and disease, that's a pretty good hair cut for what i need out here. so he'll get in the line and climb into the chair and there will be a second hair cut, then a third hair cut and after a 21:10:44while, this fellow that's pretty good cutting hair will be so busy being a barber he doesn't have time to pick up his pick axe and mine for gold. then he decides, i'm going to have to charge you guys. you're taking me out of my cash flow endeavor. and so he begins to charge the people that he's cutting their 21:11:01hair, maybe a dime for a hair cut. now he's making a little bit of money. and pretty soon, eventually, somebody else will see that and decide, i can get in this business, that guy's making a dime for every hair cut. he can cut 10 head as day, that's $1 a day, pretty good 21:11:18wages in those days, he'll do it for a nickel. then that first barber is thinking, i would be better to stay out there mining gold. so week of got two barbers that are competing, then a third and a fourth and a fifth. and pretty soon the first barber 21:11:32that got in, he decides that it isn't fair because he has all of this technological equipment, egot the electric clippers and he's got the -- he's got the electric clippers and he's got the nice clean sheet to put around their neck and he's better at taking care of those ingrown hairs and he does a 21:11:50little antiseptic while he's at it and his equipment is clean and well maintained and the other guy has a pair of sisers and comb. so he'll go to the -- scissors and a comb. so he'll go to the state legislature and argue that barbers should be licensed so there's a standard quality of 21:12:04care for hair cuts. it isn't because he believes so much in that standard of quality of care. it's because he knows that he 21:12:20can regulate some of his competition out of business. that's what goes on in the barber shops, in the gold mining towns in colorado 150 years ago, but that's also what goes on in big business in the united states of america today. that's what's going on, mr. speaker. big business says, come and regulate me because it's a cost of doing business at big business level, the 21:12:37multimillion-dollar level. and by the way, those people who can only do business down in the few millions, they're not going to be able to compete. so we should not accept big business as the purest form of free enterprise capitalism. we should look at big business as coming here to this capitol 21:12:53to ask us to level the playing field. all the while they're looking to turn onto a playing field that it's often difficult for small business to climb into. so, mr. speaker, that is the status of big businesses remainlation versus small 21:13:09business regulation and it sets the tone for -- it sets the tone for, i think, what we're about to take up next. although i recognize, i recognize that in a moment we will be asked to yield for the esteemed chair of the rules 21:13:23committee as soon as she gets prepared. but in the meantime i see that the gentleman from texas is about prepared to get prepared and so at this point i would suggest that, mr. speaker, we need to take a look at this 21:13:39regulation that's coming in from the senate and the regulation of the financial services industry and the credit industry in america. this idea that here in the united states of america we would establish government entities that would look in on 21:13:56every business in america, anybody that's got a credit transaction, with whether it would be a.i.g. doing business -- whether it would be a.i.g. doing business with a large investment bank or some smaller entity, mr. speaker, i'll pick 21:14:11that up in a moment but i'd be so happy to yield so that the gentlelady it conduct business. Slaughter, L. (D-NY):i'll only take 30 seconds, mr. speaker. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york rise? 21:14:24Slaughter, L. (D-NY):i send to the desk a privileged report for filing under the rule. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:the clerk will report the title. THE CLERK:report to accompany house resolution 1392, a resolution waiving a requirement of clause 6-a of rule 13 with respect to consideration of 21:14:40certain resolutions reported from the committee on rules and providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules. Slaughter, L. (D-NY):thank you, mr. speaker. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:referred to the house calendar and ordered to be printed. the gentleman from iowa. 21:14:58King, S. (R-IA):thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, as i watch this regulation that's coming through in the financial services component of this, that's a regulation that sets up tim geithner, the secretary of the treasury, to decide which businesses are too big to be allowed to fail, which 21:15:14businesses would be deemed to fail and all he needs is the agreement of the fdic and the agreement of the secretary of the chairman of the fed and those things concern me a great deal. 21:15:34but this conversation could go in any direction, because i am prepared to yield to my good friend, the gentleman and judge from texas, louie gohmert. Gohmert (R-TX):i want to follow up on that very point. 21:15:46we're told there's going to be a financial reform bill that sounds more like a financial deform bill. all these reforms end up being deformities. but this in particular, financial reform, to get us out 21:16:04of the mess that had been building through the 1990's and through this past decade, the last 20 years? and nonetheless, as i understand, in this bill we're going to take up, it still has 21:16:22the systemic risk council that is going to pick the winners and losers in america. that is so grossly un-american. it has no place in our law 21:16:39coming out of this body. that's kind of thing that the revolution was started over that some king was going to get to tell them who would be the 21:16:52business that would stand and who would fall. because the americans here wanted to be able to let the market decide that. now one thing we've seen, and it's been accentuated, is you do need a government that will 21:17:11ensure that people play fairly and play right. we saw that down on the coast as president obama expressed that we have gotten a relationship too cozy between his administration and the big 21:17:28oil companies. we've had people say on television, the republicans took contribution, the democrats take contributions, but it was the department of interior in 1988, 1998, 1999, some of the clinton 21:17:50administration, people that pulled the language from the offshore leases that would allow the oil companies ultimately to make millions and millions and millions at the expense of the government and the taxpayer getting full value 21:18:06for the leases for those offshore oil and gas developments. when we had the inspector general in front of us in the natural resources hearing a couple of years ago, i asked why he had not talked to the 21:18:22couple of people that the inspector general said were apparently responsible for that language being pulled out of the leases that hurt the revenue of the government and helped the massive oil 21:18:39companies at the time. he said well they're government service, we can't talk to them. certainly you can at least try to talk to them by thptor general indicated they left 21:18:55government service. after i heard the president announce that we had to end the cozy relationship between people in his administration and the big oil company, i wonder whatever happened to those two people? 21:19:10it turns out one of the people that apparently the inspector general did not talk to, but felt probably had the best information on why that language was left out turns out when she was not working for 21:19:28the government, she went and worked for a company called british petroleum. perhaps my friend has heard of british petroleum. in fact, after the inspector general said he couldn't talk 21:19:42to her about why that language was pulled that helped the oil company so much during 1998-1999, and why she would pull language that hurt our government, turns out she has 21:19:59now returned to government service, in fact, did last summer this administration hired her to be the deputy assistant secretary of m.m.s. the minerals management 21:20:15service. it is the agency of this administration that is supposed to ensure that blowout preventers work properly. well, we've got people here in the house that have asked for 21:20:33the results of the test that were done by m.m.s. within two weeks of the blowout preventers failing and apparently, the information has come back from this administration's m.m.s., we're not providing that 21:20:50information to you. maybe a democratic chairman of a committee, but not to you guys. you would think that this was public information that m.m.s. would want to be as transparent as they're demand that the c.i.a. be. 21:21:06but apparently they're not willing to be as transparent as they want the c.i.a. to be. they're more in the nature of on security, like the federal reserve continues to try to be and is. so they won't release the 21:21:23information of how badly bungled the test was. you have to figure it didn't go well or they would have released that information to show that they were exonerated, that they did proper tests. in fact, as a trial judge, back in my days in the courtroom, 21:21:43oftentimes, one side would produce evidence to show that the fact that there is no evidence indicates a fact. and i think here, the fact that they won't produce those test results indicates that the 21:21:59m.m.s., this administration that is too cozy with british petroleum, because of the interactive business that's gone on here, it must not have gone well. certainly, i yield to my friend. 21:22:13Gohmert (R-TX):just reclaiming, i'm standing here thinking, we're drawing a rational conclusion that m.m.s. -- the mineral managements -- minerals management service would not release the information that showed the result of the testing of the blowout preventer. 21:22:29Gohmert (R-TX):if they'd actually done the testing, actually. Gohmert (R-TX):there's reports out there that's -- that there's testing that failed some 10 days or so before the test failed. i don't want to start a rumor. but are we drawing a rational 21:22:47conclusion that we could have a government we have to draw conclusions from based on their response, or lack of response, not the answer to the question? i yield. Gohmert (R-TX):it would certainly 21:23:02appear that's exactly right. if the m.m.s. of this administration will not produce the records to show exactly what testing was done and exactly what the results were, which should be public record, for heaven's sake, they're 21:23:19public waters, controlled by our government, if they're not producing those records, then you've got to pretty well figure it would not make this administration look very good. Gohmert (R-TX):but we've got an open 21:23:38government. this is the most open, the most honest government in history and we're drawing conclusions based upon not getting an answer as opposed to the answer we might get if they would simply give us the information. 21:23:54this really saddens my heart to hear this, i'm not surprised, but it saddens my heart, mr. gohmert. Gohmert (R-TX):and that also brings you can ba -- us back to the problem with the federal reserve and the secretary of 21:24:07the treasury and yes, we had 21:24:10some people saying, we've got to confirm timothy geithner as the secretary of the treasury, because he worked with paulson in the early days of tarp. he knows the plan that tells me he should never have been 21:24:24confirmed if he worked with paulson on the original plan because it was a disaster and it should never have been allowed to have happened as it did. but now we've got these guys, federal reserve, head of the treasury, they're going to pick 21:24:39the winners and losers in the country. i yield. Gohmert (R-TX):would we go choose some mainline i.v. drug user off the street to go in and do i.v.'s in the hospital because they happen to have had the kind of experience that they're good at it, even though it's 21:24:57illegal? if somebody was proficient in how they operated turbo tax, was able to avoid their taxes that means they'd be a good person to have as head of the i.r.s., so they could set up a system to prevent other people 21:25:13paying a -- paying taxes? Gohmert (R-TX):it's an interesting issue. secretary geithner had great problems complying with his certification four years in a row where he swore he would pay the tax that was shown on the form and certified that they 21:25:29would just pay him that money, he would pay it, then he didn't pay it. but in answer to the question, i guess an analogy comes to mind, the f.b.i., for example, the gentleman that was -- there 21:25:47was a movie about, shofse good at forging and acting as someone else, he could create a forged document out of anything. the f.b.i. ended up hiring him because he was so good at forging checks and making fraudulent checks, the f.b.i. 21:26:04hired him because he knew more about ways to cheat other people and to cheat the government, they felt like he could be of immense help and apparently was and has helped -- as i understand it, helped 21:26:20prepare more secure documents and more secure institutions because he was so good at cheating those very institutions. Gohmert (R-TX):so that's not tax cheelts. 21:26:40Gohmert (R-TX):maybe that was the thinking, this guy would be the expert of not paying taxes, maybe that's who we want in charge of the tax entity, the i.r.s. it's an interesting point. but it still cuts to my core to think that the land of the 21:26:59free, home of the brave is being converted into a land of the unfree, where liberties are taken away because people have decided the secretary of 21:27:17treasury, the federal reserve chairman, get to pick and choose what entities, what banks get to stand when the smoke clears. what happened to competition? why not let people play and 21:27:33play fairly and just enforce their rules. that's why -- that's what is needed here. we don't need a federal government telling what companies that they are going to support and never let them 21:27:47fail, because as soon as the federal government says, we're not going to ever let this bank or this company fail, then that's going to be the last one standing because they know they can operate in the red and their competition can't do that. 21:28:02and at the send of the day that government-supported entity or bank will end up being the one left. that is outrageous. it is un-american. and anybody that would stand for that proposition, that we're not going to let these companies compete fairly, we're 21:28:20going to come in and pick the winners and losers. they need to start wearing a name tag that says, king george iii wannabe. i want to pick the winners and losers. i want to tell you who prevails and who doesn't. 21:28:34i will tell you who ends up getting to be the dominant force in america. instead of letting people live in freedom and in liberty and pursue happiness and pursue opportunity. the constitution never 21:28:51guaranteed equality of outcome. it guaranteed equality of opportunity. and that's what ought to be done. anybody that says they support a systemic risk council that gets to pick the winners and 21:29:09losers, these are too big to fail, we can't let them fail, they are enemies of this country, as it was founded. Gohmert (R-TX):reclaiming my time, then i have to pose the question, if you're in business if you're an investment banker, for example, if you have a 21:29:24large credit operation going on, and you've watched the barney frank bill and the chris dodd bill and now your knees have to be knocking on what might be going on in a future conference committee that's going to produce a bill that likely spills out here here to the house for passage, sent to 21:29:41the senate and rammed through there, put on the president's desk we know the president will sign the bill. but what is your business model? say you're providing credit transactions, mr. speaker, to a large portion of america, whether it's credit cards or whether it is the toxic assets 21:29:57of mortgage-backed securities, the subprime loans that might be out there. whatever it might be. now if you're sitting there with billions of dollars in those kinds of assets and you're making your profit off those margins of the assets 21:30:11going through, i'm going to suggest that if you don't already have a lobbyist, you better hire a bunch of them. bring them into this congress and start to convince people like chairman of the financial services committee, barney frank and the majority of the members on that committee, 21:30:28others, perhaps through the ways and means committee, start to work your ankle. because your business mot el, mr. speaker, is no longer that of providing the most competitive, most service oriented, most customer-focused service there is. your business model is, do what 21:30:44you have to do out here on the streets in the business world of america, treat customers fine, come to washington and get that playing field, not level, but tipped in your favor, because you can't do business without so you have the kind of chips when the time comes that the regulators would 21:31:00come in and take a look at your balance sheet and determine, well you weren't quite big enough to be allowed to fail so we're going to shove you into receivership and we'll chop you up and deal you out to our preferred companies. i know the model, i know the 21:31:16papt patern, even though it's done in a pretty good fashion with the fdic when a company has to go under. in the 1980's we had 3,000 banks that went under. they were split up, sometimes, and dealt out and sold to other investors that had a better 21:31:33track record with managing banks. all right. that was good and it works well in the micro version. but when you -- when you get into the macro version of big business and you have tim geithner as the secretary of the 21:31:49treasury making the decision on a business that's too big to be allowed to fail and calling in sheila bare and calling in ben bernanke and saying, don't you agree, they're too big to be alloyd to fail, so -- allowed to fail so let's prop these people 21:32:06up? what would help is if we deal the assets of that company over into the company that's too big to fail. you pick the winners and pick the losers out of government and who wins? the people that pay the lobbyists, the people that have 21:32:19paid for the most political influence. government cannot make rational decisions on business. they make political decisions on business. peter walson spoke today on fannie mae and freddie mac. the american enterprise institute scholar, one of the 21:32:35brightest minds that we have on free enterprise economics in america. a very solid man and many times i've listened to him imlume nate the issue -- illuminate the issue for me. he spoke today about fannie mae and freddie mac. and his sense is that they 21:32:51aren't yet nationalized. that they're still a quasi-government. my position is that they aren't actualized because the government calls all their shots and we've got roughly $50 billion each dumped into each of them and another $50 billion rolled on top that have $100 billion so around $130 billion 21:33:09range peter thinks that thress not $360 billion but $400 billion in losses that will have to be swallowed up by the american taxpayers. and we knew, and we know now that we were looking at $5.5 trillion in contingent 21:33:24liabilities that the federal taxpayers would have to swallow if fannie and freddie were flushed down completely the way the markets might drive them. Gohmert (R-TX):will the gentleman yield? king concluding my statement and yielding, that was -- Gohmert (R-TX):concluding my 21:33:39statement and yielding, fannie mae and freddie mac is an example of how government can't set values, neither can they evaluate risk because they're doing political calculations based on political pressure, not economic calculations based upon the risk of success and failure. i yield to the gentleman from texas. Gohmert (R-TX):just asking will 21:33:55the gentleman yield for a question, if he would? Gohmert (R-TX):i would. Gohmert (R-TX):with regard to the financial deform package that apparently is going to be coming 21:34:08to the house, is the gentleman aware of whether or not these two entities, fannie and freddie, that kicked us into a spiral downward in the fall of 2008, whether they're included 21:34:24in this reform package? is there any reform of these two entities that nearly brought our economic house of cards down? i yield back. King, S. (R-IA):reclaiming. in scowering the financial reform package in the barney 21:34:41frank bill or the chris dodd bill and setting up the word search and chasing it through there, mr. speaker, i don't find anything in either one of those bills that addresses the necessary form for fannie mae and freddie mac. they are completely insulated and i recall the debate here on 21:34:58the floor of the house in october 26, 2005, that the chairman of the financial services committee, mr. frank, was very much engaged in. he came to the floor to vigorously oppose an amendment that was offered by mr. leech of iowa that would have established 21:35:15higher levels of collateralization for fannie mae and freddie mac, higher stads -- standards for underwriting in the secondary market and higher standards for capitalization for fannie and freddie. the vigorous opposition that mr. 21:35:29frank flowed out on that day and the gentleman from texas remembers the exchange that took place on the thursday before easter in 2009, here on this floor, the gentleman from texas was there. the gentleman from massachusetts 21:35:44there. i think me up there somewhere. as we talked about what had happened with fannie mae and freddie mac and in that debate on october 26, 2005, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. frank, said, if you're going to invest in shares of fannie and freddie, don't do so 21:36:00believing that he would ever vote to bail out fannie mae and freddie mac. because he would never do that. he would let them go down instead. that's the core and the essence of the statement that was headpy -- made by the gentleman from massachusetts who now is the chairman of the financial services committee. well, we know what's happened. 21:36:17fannie and freddie have been bailed out. and on that day the gentleman from massachusetts said that he wasn't biased, in favor of or against fannie or freddie, because the man whom he'd had an intimate relationship was not a 21:36:33senior executive. it's in the congressional record. i don't pull this out of thin air. i suggest, mr. speaker, that you check the record. for me, that's an astonishing confession, to draw a fine line between the reason for bias and not bias is because this 21:36:50individual was not a senior but more apparently a junior executive for fannie mae. and so that's a little too ins mat -- intimate for me, mr. speaker. i don't choose to go there any further except to point out that a lot of things going on in this 21:37:05united states government that are not what meets the eye. there are undercurrents here that threaten to swallow up the united states of america. there's a driven philosophy on this side of the aisle that wants to swallow up free enterprise capitalism, that 21:37:19abhors the words of capitalism. there's a driven philosophy that's reflected by 77 members of the progressive caucus, who come to this floor with their blue charts and say, come visit our website. well, not that long ago, a few years ago, the progressive website was hosted by, managed 21:37:38by and taken care of by the socialists in america. but when they took a little bit of heat, they decided they would manage their own website, so they didn't have to take the criticism. so the socialists ran the 21:37:52progressives' website. and now the d.s.a. -- dsausa.org. it stands for democratic socialists of america, dsausa.org, mr. speaker, you should go visit that website and understand who your colleagues 21:38:09are. 77 of them are self-professed progressives. the progressives, according to the socialist website, are their legislative arm. they write that they are not communists, they're socialists. 21:38:24that's a step above a communist. they don't want to nationalize everything, they just want to nationalize the fortune 500 companies in america. and they've got a big start on it. and they don't run candidates on the banner or under the 21:38:39political party calls the socialists because there's a stigma attached to being a socialist in america. so what do they could, mr. speaker? -- do, mr. speaker? they push the candidates that are self-professed progressives. progressives are not distinct from socialist, they're one and 21:38:55the same. they're just wearing a little bit different color jersey and they're the people here who have driven the idea that we should national ites the fortune 500 companies, nationalize the oil refinery industry, mr. hinchey 21:39:08of new york, take over the oil industry, maxine watters from los angeles, and operate these fortune 500 companies and i quote, for the benefit of the people affected about i them, closed quote -- by them, closed 21:39:21quote. that's the unions. the speaker is a member. the speaker advocated and said that she would not give, in the case of the car companies, bargaining advantage of the automakers over that of the unions. right off of the web page of the 21:39:37socialists. and she followed through on it and today 17.5% of general motors is owned by the unions without a cash outlay, without a concession of any kind, the president of the united states, who voted to the left of self-professed senator bernie 21:39:52sanders, crammed that down the throats of the investors, the security investors in general motors and now we have the unions owning 17.5%. the federal government owning 61% and the canadian government owning 12.5% of general motors. exactly off of the playbook of 21:40:10the socialist website, mr. speaker. the american people need to go visit the website, they need to understand the playbook is written. it's being carried out by the progressives in this congress, 77 of them are the core driving force here. 21:40:25when you add to that the congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus, a whole lot of these people that are self-segregating caucuses instead of integrated caucuses, you understand who's running america today, mr. speaker. i yield to the gentleman from texas. King, S. (R-IA):if we go back to 21:40:41the day that the wall street bailout passed, that first week in october of 2008, i made the statement that when the federal government buys private assets 21:41:00and holds them in order to try to make money, when the federal government decides it's going to start trying to make money for the taxpayer, it's called socialism. 21:41:17and i was belittled by colleagues that served here in this body for saying that it was socialist. one person even said, well, i only know three socialists in america and they're all against the wall street bailout. well, i was pretty depressed and 21:41:36devastated when the wall street bailout passed. the next morning, saturday morning, i was watching neil cavuto and he had the presidential nominee of the 21:41:50socialist party and the socialist candidate for president being interviewed by neil cavuto, was asked, basically, what's the deal? i thought you guys were against 21:42:05the tarp bailout, the wall street bailout? and now this morning you're saying it was a good thing. and in essence, the presidential nominee of the socialist party said, well, yes, they were against the tarp wall street 21:42:23bailout, in essence they didn't feel like the government should pay anything to take over the assets they were taking over. but once it passed and was signed into law, they realized, this is probably the greatest 21:42:38day for socialists in american history. because the federal government has begun the takeover in a substantial way of private assets. and of course he went on to say now that they've made this 21:42:55wonderful great step of taking over socializing, nationalizing private assets from the financial sector, the government just needs to go in and finish taking over the rest of the financial sector because, as he said, because we know then the 21:43:13government takeover of all of that area would not be done out of greed and so they would do a much better job of spreading the wealth around the country and under the present system greed rules the day and just that 21:43:31great wonderful step of the tarp bailout, socializing america, as he saw it, just needed to be followed by the final step of completing the takeover of the financial sector. 21:43:43so the gentleman from iowa is exactly right according to the presidential candidate of the socialist party in 2008, this is a socialist move to nationalize more and more of the assets just 21:44:00as the presidential nominee of the socialist had hoped would happen. 21:44:06i yield back. King, S. (R-IA):reclaiming and thanking the gentleman from texas, i'd point out into the record, mr. speaker, that some months ago the secretary of the treasury, tim geithner, came before a couple of committees, financial services and ag. and the question that i posed to him and he was bound to answer 21:44:21that question under oath was, made the point that president obama was elected at least in part because he had declared and effectively made an argument, however it might have been true or untrue, that president bush had gone into iraq without an 21:44:38exit strategy. so i made the point in my question that president obama had engaged in, supported and participated in the nationalization of about half of our private sector. and that is the three large investment banks, a.i.g., fannie 21:44:53mae and freddie mac, general motors, chrysler, i didn't go on into the nationalization of our skin and everything inside it, which is obamacare, but in that letter that he was obligated to answer under oath, two months late irgot a response back. i do want to give secretary 21:45:10geithner credit. there are some members of this cabinet that simply don't answer my letters. they have -- they apparently don't think they're accountable to members of congress and they don't think that we might decide to send them a little less money when they decide to do the budget. 21:45:24geithner did answer the letter. it was seven pages long and took two months to get it back and it's not a particular complaint of mine because i know that it's difficult to make the machinery of government work. but this those seven pages of answering the question, what is 21:45:40your exit strategy for taking over all of these huge chunks of the private sector? his answer was, well, it's not a written strategy and he would know when the time was right and he would execute that when the time is right. in other words, don't you be 21:46:01asking me. i'm secretary of the treasury, i don't answer to you or anybody else. i'm going to submit this. there is no plan. there's no exit strategy. the president of the united states is delighted to have these companies taken over by 21:46:20the federal government, as are most of the members of the cabinet, because it fits in with the website of the democratic socialist of america there used to be some resistance on this side of the aisle when someone applied -- 21:46:39when when someone implied the president is a socialist. but president obama voted to 21:46:56the left of bernie sanders, and when i saw the picture of the president next to hugo chavez 21:47:10and he's doing that double-grip glad-hand handshake, you know what, hugo chavez is a piker when it comes to nationalizing. barack obama has way outdone him. 21:47:26i don't think he would have been a man who could have done that on his own he surrounded himself with people who for years worked through this vision. had i been assigned the task of writing the screen play, trying to turn america into a socialist state and if they even created for me a 21:47:43charismatic figure that matches that of the president and started me down the path on my imagination and with three years to get ready to do it, could not have unfolded a scenario close to what's reality today for the 21:47:56businesses taken over by the federal government. neither could have anticipated some of the things they're seeking to do now. but when you add these up and you add up the takeover of three large investment banks, bank of america, bear stearns, citigroup, when you see that 21:48:16a.i.g., for $180 billion, swallowed up by the federal government and fannie mae and freddie mac to the tune of $130 billion and perhaps another $400 billion piled on top of that and still remaining at $5.5 trillion in contingent 21:48:32liability and the takeover of general motors and chrysler, both of them now under the control or influence of the federal government being managed now exactly off the socialist website, run for the benefit of the people affected 21:48:46by them, close quote? the unions who made no concession whatsoever except to concede future claims that they think are going to be paid anyway by obamacare. and the student loan program, 21:49:02taken over completely, exactly within the mold of what 21:49:06happened when we had federal flood insurance that came in to provide one more competitor for the private market back in 1963, now there is no private market. now the federal government runs it all. when the federal government steps in to compete on student loans, people said, well, you 21:49:22know, we need to keep these people honest. somebody is making money off these students. now the federal government runs it all. and the president's idea was that he would set up one more insurance company to provide health insurance for americans to compete against these 21:49:38insurance company whoms he demagogued relentlessly, forgetting one more company, correct. but there existed up until obamacare passed, 1,300 health insurance companies in america. 1,300 companies that produced a 21:49:56variety of policies numbering to 100,000 policies. so who could imagine that one more company and a handful more policies was going to provide more options for people that would help with the competition, take some of the 21:50:10profits out of the industry? if these 1,300 companies competing against each other, mr. speaker, could take the profit out of the industry, how could the federal government do that? regulate and subsidize. that's what governments do. they regulate and subsidize their competition out of 21:50:27existence like they did on the flood insurance programs in 1963 and the student loan programs, cullmy nated this year and now here -- culminated this year, and now here we are, obamacare, the law of the land 21:50:43that nationalized not just three large investment banks, fannie and freddie, and student loan, now they've nationalized our body the most sovereign thing we have, the federal government has taken over the management of our skin and everything inside it and 21:50:59decided who will buy what policy and what the premium will be. and now they're trying to decide our diet. and now they're deciding on a mission across the country that the retailers need to cut $1.5 trillion calories out of the 21:51:14products going to these kids because 1/3 of our kids are obese, they want to cut the calories on the bag of do retoes. i think they just take a few calories out of the do retoes. 21:51:33a 150 calorie power bar gets redeuced to 90 calories because some fat kids will eat too many. but what do with we do with the 2/3 of the kid that are too skinny that need measure 150 21:51:49calories, or what we do with the fat kid who hordes three power barses for 270 calories as opposed to one at 150 calories, but we cannot put a one size fits all regulation and reduce calories going into 21:52:06kids for energy and growth. more kids need more food, rather than all kids need less food. so those kids that are overweight they need more exercise. and maybe they need to watch their diet a little bit, that's education and that's parents, 21:52:20yes. but don't starve the hungry kids to so that those who are eating too much have to work harder to keep getting too much. the super nanny state that -- the recycling of all these components. here, the speaker of the house and the house of 21:52:36representatives has decreed that you can't go to the cafe over here and eat an only let unless the eggs that are broken from are from a free-range hen. i think the chicken is probably not free range, it doesn't taste like free range to me. 21:52:53but the eggs are from a free range hen. the paper, the napkins around the capitol, most of them are brown. because they're recycled paper. when i go look at my coffee filters, i wonder why they're running over, they're recycled paper. 21:53:09so we have these decrees that come down from on high and the light bulbs themselveses are regulated by the speaker of the house. how much nanny state does this country need? and how much nanny state can we stand? 21:53:25i want american people making their own decisions. free market economy. i want to be able to exercise all their constitutional rights. i want them to be able to own guns and defend themselves and hunt and target shoot and be in a position to defend us against tyranny. 21:53:41if we do not -- there's something about constitutional rights and liberty. it's use it or lose it. if you don't use it, you'll lose it. you've got to use your freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press, second amendment right, you've got to exercise those 21:53:57rights. we must do so. mr. speaker, we have to take this country back. and i yield back the balance of my time. i thank the gentleman from 21:54:05texas for joining me tonight. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:under the speaker's announced spoil of january 6, 2009, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from arizona, ms. giffords, for 60 minutes. 21:54:37Giffords (D-AZ):thank you, mr. speaker. i rise tonight to address the border security crisis that's part of daily life in my southern arizona district, in arizona's eighth congressional district. i'm proud to represent one of the most diverse parts of the entire country. i represent a district that's 21:54:56over 9,000 square miles and is one of 10 u.s.-mexico border districts. the u.s.-mexico -- mexico border has changed a lot over the years. i'm a third generation arizonan. 21:55:10i represent a lot of people who are multigeneration arizonans. after years of building up the word for the california and texas, there's been a systematic funneling of illegal immigration, the flow of traffic, illegally, through southern arizona. this has become the most po 21:55:27rouse part of the u.s.-mexico border. today, together, my constituents live in a situation on the front lines of a national border security crisis. we live and breathe the federal government's failure to secure the board we are mexico and every day, my constituents are 21:55:43subjected to home invasions and to burglaries and to cut water lines and to graffiti, an unbelievable amount of garbage and trash left behind by illegal immigrants who are crossing through the border and by people increasingly who are drug smugglers, people that are 21:56:01human smugglers, the cutting of fences, the threats and intimidation by armed smugglers and the violence they experience on their own land, their own ranches, their own property. in this hour, i'm going to talk 21:56:16about action i and others have taken along the u.s.-mexico border. more importantly, i'm going to talk about the lives of people i represent, the people of cochise county, the ranchers who live on the u.s.-mexico border. 21:56:30it's always been my belief that if the decisionmaker here's in washington if they could hear, the stories, the impact that illegal immigration has on the lives my constituents there would be greater action here in washington. a decision -- that decisionmakers, elected 21:56:46official, people in the administration, they would move to greatly enhance the security along the u.s.-mexico border. so that's what we're going to talk about tonight. i think it's important to begin this hour with the most heart-wrenching story of all. 21:57:02the tragic death of robert trents, a fourth generation rancher, whose family has been on his land for over 100 years. actually, the cents family has had their ranch before arizona achieved statehood. 21:57:18on march 27, rob crants was murdered by an assailant, who was tracked to the mexico border. he and his dog were both ruthlessly murdered on his land. they were left to die. they were shot. law enforcement officials 21:57:33belief that rob was killed by a smuggler. next to me is a photograph of rob and his brother phil, the two crents brothers. this was -- cents brothers. this was run of the front page of the "tucson weekly." 21:57:52this tells it all. you see them, the tack room their boots, their hands, their lives represented. reportedly -- a reporter wrote the companion story in which he interviewed the family and 21:58:08neighbors. he wrote, what has to be noted first is the nevittability of what happened. something like the krentz murder was coming and everybody knew it. the stories residents told this newspaper of the frustration they feel in trying to keep property and family safe in 21:58:27smuggler-occupied territory were like a freight train in the night. down the tracks you see the faint light coming closer and closer. on march 27 in cochise county, the train arrived. the aftershock has been so 21:58:42powerful because the killing exploded the lie about the secure boarder that washington, d.c. has been working hard to promote. its front page, "the tucson weekly" asked the question, will the murder of a respected cochise county rancher change 21:58:57anything on our board her tonight, i ask the same question. will the murder of robert krenz 21:59:07, a respected rancher in my district, will it change anything on the board her it has changed. we know that today. the president announced the deployment of the national guard to the u.s.-mexico border. i knew rob krentz, i knew his family he participated in 21:59:24meetings i convened between ranchers and border patrol. he was a family man. he was a good neighbor. and he was a friend to all who knew him. he was described as a humanitarian who would give 21:59:38water and aid to illegal immigrants who suffered from heat exhaustion and physical injury as they treked from mexico across his land. he was, like fellow ranchers out in cochise county a straight talker and he, like them, saw their lives change by 21:59:54the increased flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. tonight i'll share additional stories about the ranchers in this area and call on my colleague in demanding that our government step up and co-more, the responsibility here in

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HOUSE FLOOR DEBATE The House meets at 10:30 a.m. for morning hour and 12:00 p.m. for legislative business. Unlimited ?one minutes? Suspensions (10 Bills): 1) H.R. 2711 - FBI Families of Fallen Heroes Act (Rep. Rogers (MI) / Oversight and Government Reform) 2) H.Res. 1172 - Recognizing the life and achievements of Will Keith Kellogg (Rep. Schauer / Oversight and Government Reform) 3) H.Res. 1189 - Commending Lance Mackey on winning a record 4th straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race (Rep. Young (AK) / Oversight and Government Reform) 4) H.Res. 1316 - Celebrating Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month (Rep. Honda / Oversight and Government Reform) 5) H.Res. 1385 - Recognizing and honoring the courage and sacrifice of the members of the Armed Forces and veterans (Rep. Skelton / Armed Services) 6) H.Res. 1353 - Supporting the goals and ideals of Student Financial Aid Awareness Month (Rep. Bishop (NY) / Education and Labor) 7) H.Res. 1169 - Honoring the 125th anniversary of Rollins College (Rep. Grayson / Education and Labor) 8) H.Res. 1161 - Honoring the Centennial Celebration of Women at Marquette University (Rep. Moore (WI) / Education and Labor) 9) H.Res. 1372 - Honoring the University of Georgia Graduate School (Rep. Broun / Education and Labor) // 10) H.Res. 407 - Expressing support for designation of May as "National Asthma and Allergy Awareness Month" (Rep. Castor / Energy and Commerce) Postponed Suspensions Votes (5 Bills): 1) H.Res. 1258 - Expressing support for designation of May 2010 as Mental Health Month (Rep. Napolitano / Energy and Commerce) 2) H.Res. 1382 - Expressing sympathy to the families of those killed by North Korea in the sinking of the Republic of Korea Ship Cheonan, and solidarity with the Republic of Korea in the aftermath of this tragic incident (Del. Faleomavaega / Foreign Affairs) 3) H.Res. 584 - Recognizing the importance of manufactured and modular housing in the United States (Rep. Donnelly / Financial Services) 4) H.R. 3885 - Veterans Dog Training Therapy Act (Rep. Brown (SC) / Veterans' Affairs) 5) H.R. 5145 - Assuring Quality Care for Veterans Act (Rep. McNerney / Veterans' Affairs) 21:00:00them against americans. and when americans are victims of this, we need to ask this question, what happens in the mind of that al qaeda terrorist that's sitting in that mud hult making that bomb, watching al-jazeera tv and sees the 21:00:18speaker speak up and oppose the war in iraq and afghanistan? what happens when there is a debate on the floor that goes on over and over and over again and the left win, radicals in this congress, the progressives, say 21:00:36we should pull out of those countries without any hesitation and do the best we can to keep from getting shot in the back? do you think, mr. speaker, and this is a rhetorical question, do you think that terrorist is likely to plant more bombs or 21:00:53less, detonate more bombs or less, are there more americans lost or fewer because the enemy has been encouraged by 44 votes on the floor of the house of representatives in 2007 and 2008 in that congress? 21:01:09. that's what's happened here, mr. speaker. this country was going to move forward. and even though the president of the united states now, our commander in chief, in the 21:01:27spring of 2008 took the position that he wanted to pull the troops out of iraq immediately, without any hesitation, just simply try to keep from being shot in the back on the way out of iraq, that was his position and i argued that if that was 21:01:44his position, then if he's elected president, the enemy will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on september 11 in 2001. now, we don't know if that turned out to be a true prediction because now president obama, then candidate and 21:01:59senator obama, changed his position. from the spring of 2008 until election day in novene of 2008 he walked a -- november of 2008 he walked a line of changing his position for being for immediate withdrawal to being for a slower withdrawal from iraq. 21:02:18and what we've seen also happen is, now president obama has adopted the exact position in iraq that president bush negotiated. it's called the status of forces agreement, mr. speaker. 21:02:32the sofa agreement. that was negotiated by the bush administration and it was with the iraqis and it was signed on november 17, 2008, by ambassador to iraq ryan crocker. and just a very impressive 21:02:47public servant who never received his due respect for the job that he did for all of us in that country, for the time that he was there. ryan crocker. i want to say a few more things about ryan crocker. i've met with him very late in the night, i've sat there in 21:03:04those hot and uncomfortable places in iraq, with top officers, with admiral mullen, for example, ryan crocker, general petraeus, a number of other very top leaders in our military and our state department personnel. 21:03:18ryan crocker understands the middle east, ryan crocker served well there. he was as instrumental in the negotiations and the status of forces agreement, he was the one who put his hands to that agreement in 2008 and today the letter of the status of forces agreement is being followed by 21:03:36president obama. good for him. i appreciate that. i support it. it's something i called for. if it were president bush doing that, i would be for that. i just don't think the american people see it the same way because he's not as proud of 21:03:50that decision as perhaps he would be of a different posture that we have in that part of the country. so, mr. speaker, we have a number of interests in america. our national security interests are paramount. those are constitutional. the responsibility of the 21:04:06president of the united states and the federal government is to defend us, to defend our shores, to defend the american people. 21:04:13and our military and our troops and those people that put on uniforms day after day after day are the ones that deserve our gratitude and our respect -- respect. and we need to do them just duty here on the floor of the house and not back up from those 21:04:29responsibilities just to provide them with the resources that they need. and that means a consistent message from the commander in chief on down and a strategy that we believe that we can win and it means to say to the left wing radicals in the united 21:04:44states of america, don't tell me you're for the troops and tell me you're also against their mission. you have to pour the -- support the troops and their mission. and what's interesting is that when george bush was the commander in chief, you said you supported the troops but not their mission. 21:05:01now that barack obama is the commander in chief, you don't really answer to that at all. except for the most part you left wing radicals -- part, you left wing radicals, you say you support the troops to a level of pandering to the mission of patriotism, but you don't 21:05:16support their mission. we cannot, mr. speaker, ask our military to put their lives on the line on a mission that we don't believe in. no, week of got to ask them to put their lives on the line for the cause of liberty and a mission that we believe in. 21:05:33if we don't believe in the mission we should not send them. they should not go. but it's up to the call of the commander in chief to do so. after all, he is the commander in chief. until he orders our armed forces, he sets the foreign policy and if we don't like what the president of the united 21:05:48states does when it comes to that, we've got about two choices. one is elect a new president and the other is to look into the constitution for another solution. i'm not ready to do that because i don't believe there's just cause at this point to look in the constitution for another solution. and in fact, i believe that the president of the united states 21:06:05has eclipsed my anticipation for what he might have been doing in iraq and in afghanistan it's relatively stable. it's not been extraordinarily brilliant, he did send only 75% of the minimum number of troops that were requested by general 21:06:21mcchrystal and they have a very difficult task. but the prospects of being successful in that task, i believe, are greater than the prospects of the state department being successful in setting up institutions that never existed before in parts of the country of afghanistan that don't have a history of those institutions of centralized 21:06:38government reaching out. so, with the foreign policy question that's before us, mr. speaker, and we have the question of the united states economy. and we have a bunch of people that are self-professed experts that come here to this floor 21:06:55that never signed a front of a paycheck. they don't have the first idea of what it takes for a free market economy to thrive or prosper. they believe that if you raise taxes it's just taking a little more out of the pot of their greedy capitalists and if you 21:07:11raise regulations they've got blenty of time to fill out the paperwork because after all, what are they going to do with the resources? it creates jobs. why would you want these people to be in charge of our economy? they demagogue republicans and 21:07:27say that we are in support of wall street. it's democrats that are cashing checks from wall street and it's big banking and international banking and investment banking, large interests, that are sending the biggest checks to democrats, all the while they're 21:07:46hedging their bets. and if you're a big business interest and you have a crony relationship with the united states congress, you've got a pretty good deal going because you can have the united states congress raise the regulations 21:07:59and raise the burden of government to keep your competition out. what's the simple solution to that complex problem? raise the regulations. raise the taxes. you're only competing against fewer people. i've seen this happen in my lifetime over and over again. i spent my life in the 21:08:15contracting business as a small contractor. i started out from this tiny little old guy that bought an old beaten up bulldozer and then i worked it for a while and fixed it a lot and then i bought another machine and hired a man and after a while we had enough machines we could go out and do 21:08:31a job. when i looked at building state highways i began to look around and i realized that we're only a handful of contractors that are big enough to bid these projects. so i went to the state and said, i'll break these projects up. i'd like to bid some projects that are under $1 million. he said -- they said, we don't 21:08:47like to do that because it takes a lot of administrative hassle. we'd rather deal with these half a dozen that we've got. so i had to run for the state senate to get that changed and we lohred that standard down, we brought more competition in. it's not enough. it's a small part of the 21:09:02solution. but it illustrates a problem, mr. speaker. big business will always try to promote regulation to keep their competition out. 21:09:11it's how it works. think of it this way. i'll take it down to the lowest common denominator. simple thing that can explain this to everyone who's listening. imagine they hadn't discovered gold in colorado. 21:09:25and so some miner out there with a pan is panning his way up the stream and he finds a nugget of gold and he pans his way in and he goes around and he finds that vain. then he starts to chop out this rock and here's the gold in the rock. 21:09:42son of a gun. gold in colorado. there's no settlements around there. so he breaks out his gold and processes it and takes it down and sells it and pretty soon the rumor goes like wildfire. there's gold in colorado. the gold rushes on. people come rushing in, everybody gets their pick axe 21:09:57and they start to mine for gold. now, you may think that this doesn't connect, mr. speaker, but it does. because the miners then set up their tents and they're there, they're working away and now that they're making money and selling their gold, they need 21:10:12some things. somebody's got to bring them food, somebody will open up a bar, somebody will start a band so they've got some entertainment to draw the stress down at night. and these miners are out there and after a while their hair gets so long they have to climb newspaper a tree to get a hair cut. 21:10:28and sooner or later one of those miners is going to get out a clipper and cut somebody's hair. when that happens, mr. speaker, that somebody else will line up and disease, that's a pretty good hair cut for what i need out here. so he'll get in the line and climb into the chair and there will be a second hair cut, then a third hair cut and after a 21:10:44while, this fellow that's pretty good cutting hair will be so busy being a barber he doesn't have time to pick up his pick axe and mine for gold. then he decides, i'm going to have to charge you guys. you're taking me out of my cash flow endeavor. and so he begins to charge the people that he's cutting their 21:11:01hair, maybe a dime for a hair cut. now he's making a little bit of money. and pretty soon, eventually, somebody else will see that and decide, i can get in this business, that guy's making a dime for every hair cut. he can cut 10 head as day, that's $1 a day, pretty good 21:11:18wages in those days, he'll do it for a nickel. then that first barber is thinking, i would be better to stay out there mining gold. so week of got two barbers that are competing, then a third and a fourth and a fifth. and pretty soon the first barber 21:11:32that got in, he decides that it isn't fair because he has all of this technological equipment, egot the electric clippers and he's got the -- he's got the electric clippers and he's got the nice clean sheet to put around their neck and he's better at taking care of those ingrown hairs and he does a 21:11:50little antiseptic while he's at it and his equipment is clean and well maintained and the other guy has a pair of sisers and comb. so he'll go to the -- scissors and a comb. so he'll go to the state legislature and argue that barbers should be licensed so there's a standard quality of 21:12:04care for hair cuts. it isn't because he believes so much in that standard of quality of care. it's because he knows that he 21:12:20can regulate some of his competition out of business. that's what goes on in the barber shops, in the gold mining towns in colorado 150 years ago, but that's also what goes on in big business in the united states of america today. that's what's going on, mr. speaker. big business says, come and regulate me because it's a cost of doing business at big business level, the 21:12:37multimillion-dollar level. and by the way, those people who can only do business down in the few millions, they're not going to be able to compete. so we should not accept big business as the purest form of free enterprise capitalism. we should look at big business as coming here to this capitol 21:12:53to ask us to level the playing field. all the while they're looking to turn onto a playing field that it's often difficult for small business to climb into. so, mr. speaker, that is the status of big businesses remainlation versus small 21:13:09business regulation and it sets the tone for -- it sets the tone for, i think, what we're about to take up next. although i recognize, i recognize that in a moment we will be asked to yield for the esteemed chair of the rules 21:13:23committee as soon as she gets prepared. but in the meantime i see that the gentleman from texas is about prepared to get prepared and so at this point i would suggest that, mr. speaker, we need to take a look at this 21:13:39regulation that's coming in from the senate and the regulation of the financial services industry and the credit industry in america. this idea that here in the united states of america we would establish government entities that would look in on 21:13:56every business in america, anybody that's got a credit transaction, with whether it would be a.i.g. doing business -- whether it would be a.i.g. doing business with a large investment bank or some smaller entity, mr. speaker, i'll pick 21:14:11that up in a moment but i'd be so happy to yield so that the gentlelady it conduct business. Slaughter, L. (D-NY):i'll only take 30 seconds, mr. speaker. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york rise? 21:14:24Slaughter, L. (D-NY):i send to the desk a privileged report for filing under the rule. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:the clerk will report the title. THE CLERK:report to accompany house resolution 1392, a resolution waiving a requirement of clause 6-a of rule 13 with respect to consideration of 21:14:40certain resolutions reported from the committee on rules and providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules. Slaughter, L. (D-NY):thank you, mr. speaker. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:referred to the house calendar and ordered to be printed. the gentleman from iowa. 21:14:58King, S. (R-IA):thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, as i watch this regulation that's coming through in the financial services component of this, that's a regulation that sets up tim geithner, the secretary of the treasury, to decide which businesses are too big to be allowed to fail, which 21:15:14businesses would be deemed to fail and all he needs is the agreement of the fdic and the agreement of the secretary of the chairman of the fed and those things concern me a great deal. 21:15:34but this conversation could go in any direction, because i am prepared to yield to my good friend, the gentleman and judge from texas, louie gohmert. Gohmert (R-TX):i want to follow up on that very point. 21:15:46we're told there's going to be a financial reform bill that sounds more like a financial deform bill. all these reforms end up being deformities. but this in particular, financial reform, to get us out 21:16:04of the mess that had been building through the 1990's and through this past decade, the last 20 years? and nonetheless, as i understand, in this bill we're going to take up, it still has 21:16:22the systemic risk council that is going to pick the winners and losers in america. that is so grossly un-american. it has no place in our law 21:16:39coming out of this body. that's kind of thing that the revolution was started over that some king was going to get to tell them who would be the 21:16:52business that would stand and who would fall. because the americans here wanted to be able to let the market decide that. now one thing we've seen, and it's been accentuated, is you do need a government that will 21:17:11ensure that people play fairly and play right. we saw that down on the coast as president obama expressed that we have gotten a relationship too cozy between his administration and the big 21:17:28oil companies. we've had people say on television, the republicans took contribution, the democrats take contributions, but it was the department of interior in 1988, 1998, 1999, some of the clinton 21:17:50administration, people that pulled the language from the offshore leases that would allow the oil companies ultimately to make millions and millions and millions at the expense of the government and the taxpayer getting full value 21:18:06for the leases for those offshore oil and gas developments. when we had the inspector general in front of us in the natural resources hearing a couple of years ago, i asked why he had not talked to the 21:18:22couple of people that the inspector general said were apparently responsible for that language being pulled out of the leases that hurt the revenue of the government and helped the massive oil 21:18:39companies at the time. he said well they're government service, we can't talk to them. certainly you can at least try to talk to them by thptor general indicated they left 21:18:55government service. after i heard the president announce that we had to end the cozy relationship between people in his administration and the big oil company, i wonder whatever happened to those two people? 21:19:10it turns out one of the people that apparently the inspector general did not talk to, but felt probably had the best information on why that language was left out turns out when she was not working for 21:19:28the government, she went and worked for a company called british petroleum. perhaps my friend has heard of british petroleum. in fact, after the inspector general said he couldn't talk 21:19:42to her about why that language was pulled that helped the oil company so much during 1998-1999, and why she would pull language that hurt our government, turns out she has 21:19:59now returned to government service, in fact, did last summer this administration hired her to be the deputy assistant secretary of m.m.s. the minerals management 21:20:15service. it is the agency of this administration that is supposed to ensure that blowout preventers work properly. well, we've got people here in the house that have asked for 21:20:33the results of the test that were done by m.m.s. within two weeks of the blowout preventers failing and apparently, the information has come back from this administration's m.m.s., we're not providing that 21:20:50information to you. maybe a democratic chairman of a committee, but not to you guys. you would think that this was public information that m.m.s. would want to be as transparent as they're demand that the c.i.a. be. 21:21:06but apparently they're not willing to be as transparent as they want the c.i.a. to be. they're more in the nature of on security, like the federal reserve continues to try to be and is. so they won't release the 21:21:23information of how badly bungled the test was. you have to figure it didn't go well or they would have released that information to show that they were exonerated, that they did proper tests. in fact, as a trial judge, back in my days in the courtroom, 21:21:43oftentimes, one side would produce evidence to show that the fact that there is no evidence indicates a fact. and i think here, the fact that they won't produce those test results indicates that the 21:21:59m.m.s., this administration that is too cozy with british petroleum, because of the interactive business that's gone on here, it must not have gone well. certainly, i yield to my friend. 21:22:13Gohmert (R-TX):just reclaiming, i'm standing here thinking, we're drawing a rational conclusion that m.m.s. -- the mineral managements -- minerals management service would not release the information that showed the result of the testing of the blowout preventer. 21:22:29Gohmert (R-TX):if they'd actually done the testing, actually. Gohmert (R-TX):there's reports out there that's -- that there's testing that failed some 10 days or so before the test failed. i don't want to start a rumor. but are we drawing a rational 21:22:47conclusion that we could have a government we have to draw conclusions from based on their response, or lack of response, not the answer to the question? i yield. Gohmert (R-TX):it would certainly 21:23:02appear that's exactly right. if the m.m.s. of this administration will not produce the records to show exactly what testing was done and exactly what the results were, which should be public record, for heaven's sake, they're 21:23:19public waters, controlled by our government, if they're not producing those records, then you've got to pretty well figure it would not make this administration look very good. Gohmert (R-TX):but we've got an open 21:23:38government. this is the most open, the most honest government in history and we're drawing conclusions based upon not getting an answer as opposed to the answer we might get if they would simply give us the information. 21:23:54this really saddens my heart to hear this, i'm not surprised, but it saddens my heart, mr. gohmert. Gohmert (R-TX):and that also brings you can ba -- us back to the problem with the federal reserve and the secretary of 21:24:07the treasury and yes, we had 21:24:10some people saying, we've got to confirm timothy geithner as the secretary of the treasury, because he worked with paulson in the early days of tarp. he knows the plan that tells me he should never have been 21:24:24confirmed if he worked with paulson on the original plan because it was a disaster and it should never have been allowed to have happened as it did. but now we've got these guys, federal reserve, head of the treasury, they're going to pick 21:24:39the winners and losers in the country. i yield. Gohmert (R-TX):would we go choose some mainline i.v. drug user off the street to go in and do i.v.'s in the hospital because they happen to have had the kind of experience that they're good at it, even though it's 21:24:57illegal? if somebody was proficient in how they operated turbo tax, was able to avoid their taxes that means they'd be a good person to have as head of the i.r.s., so they could set up a system to prevent other people 21:25:13paying a -- paying taxes? Gohmert (R-TX):it's an interesting issue. secretary geithner had great problems complying with his certification four years in a row where he swore he would pay the tax that was shown on the form and certified that they 21:25:29would just pay him that money, he would pay it, then he didn't pay it. but in answer to the question, i guess an analogy comes to mind, the f.b.i., for example, the gentleman that was -- there 21:25:47was a movie about, shofse good at forging and acting as someone else, he could create a forged document out of anything. the f.b.i. ended up hiring him because he was so good at forging checks and making fraudulent checks, the f.b.i. 21:26:04hired him because he knew more about ways to cheat other people and to cheat the government, they felt like he could be of immense help and apparently was and has helped -- as i understand it, helped 21:26:20prepare more secure documents and more secure institutions because he was so good at cheating those very institutions. Gohmert (R-TX):so that's not tax cheelts. 21:26:40Gohmert (R-TX):maybe that was the thinking, this guy would be the expert of not paying taxes, maybe that's who we want in charge of the tax entity, the i.r.s. it's an interesting point. but it still cuts to my core to think that the land of the 21:26:59free, home of the brave is being converted into a land of the unfree, where liberties are taken away because people have decided the secretary of 21:27:17treasury, the federal reserve chairman, get to pick and choose what entities, what banks get to stand when the smoke clears. what happened to competition? why not let people play and 21:27:33play fairly and just enforce their rules. that's why -- that's what is needed here. we don't need a federal government telling what companies that they are going to support and never let them 21:27:47fail, because as soon as the federal government says, we're not going to ever let this bank or this company fail, then that's going to be the last one standing because they know they can operate in the red and their competition can't do that. 21:28:02and at the send of the day that government-supported entity or bank will end up being the one left. that is outrageous. it is un-american. and anybody that would stand for that proposition, that we're not going to let these companies compete fairly, we're 21:28:20going to come in and pick the winners and losers. they need to start wearing a name tag that says, king george iii wannabe. i want to pick the winners and losers. i want to tell you who prevails and who doesn't. 21:28:34i will tell you who ends up getting to be the dominant force in america. instead of letting people live in freedom and in liberty and pursue happiness and pursue opportunity. the constitution never 21:28:51guaranteed equality of outcome. it guaranteed equality of opportunity. and that's what ought to be done. anybody that says they support a systemic risk council that gets to pick the winners and 21:29:09losers, these are too big to fail, we can't let them fail, they are enemies of this country, as it was founded. Gohmert (R-TX):reclaiming my time, then i have to pose the question, if you're in business if you're an investment banker, for example, if you have a 21:29:24large credit operation going on, and you've watched the barney frank bill and the chris dodd bill and now your knees have to be knocking on what might be going on in a future conference committee that's going to produce a bill that likely spills out here here to the house for passage, sent to 21:29:41the senate and rammed through there, put on the president's desk we know the president will sign the bill. but what is your business model? say you're providing credit transactions, mr. speaker, to a large portion of america, whether it's credit cards or whether it is the toxic assets 21:29:57of mortgage-backed securities, the subprime loans that might be out there. whatever it might be. now if you're sitting there with billions of dollars in those kinds of assets and you're making your profit off those margins of the assets 21:30:11going through, i'm going to suggest that if you don't already have a lobbyist, you better hire a bunch of them. bring them into this congress and start to convince people like chairman of the financial services committee, barney frank and the majority of the members on that committee, 21:30:28others, perhaps through the ways and means committee, start to work your ankle. because your business mot el, mr. speaker, is no longer that of providing the most competitive, most service oriented, most customer-focused service there is. your business model is, do what 21:30:44you have to do out here on the streets in the business world of america, treat customers fine, come to washington and get that playing field, not level, but tipped in your favor, because you can't do business without so you have the kind of chips when the time comes that the regulators would 21:31:00come in and take a look at your balance sheet and determine, well you weren't quite big enough to be allowed to fail so we're going to shove you into receivership and we'll chop you up and deal you out to our preferred companies. i know the model, i know the 21:31:16papt patern, even though it's done in a pretty good fashion with the fdic when a company has to go under. in the 1980's we had 3,000 banks that went under. they were split up, sometimes, and dealt out and sold to other investors that had a better 21:31:33track record with managing banks. all right. that was good and it works well in the micro version. but when you -- when you get into the macro version of big business and you have tim geithner as the secretary of the 21:31:49treasury making the decision on a business that's too big to be allowed to fail and calling in sheila bare and calling in ben bernanke and saying, don't you agree, they're too big to be alloyd to fail, so -- allowed to fail so let's prop these people 21:32:06up? what would help is if we deal the assets of that company over into the company that's too big to fail. you pick the winners and pick the losers out of government and who wins? the people that pay the lobbyists, the people that have 21:32:19paid for the most political influence. government cannot make rational decisions on business. they make political decisions on business. peter walson spoke today on fannie mae and freddie mac. the american enterprise institute scholar, one of the 21:32:35brightest minds that we have on free enterprise economics in america. a very solid man and many times i've listened to him imlume nate the issue -- illuminate the issue for me. he spoke today about fannie mae and freddie mac. and his sense is that they 21:32:51aren't yet nationalized. that they're still a quasi-government. my position is that they aren't actualized because the government calls all their shots and we've got roughly $50 billion each dumped into each of them and another $50 billion rolled on top that have $100 billion so around $130 billion 21:33:09range peter thinks that thress not $360 billion but $400 billion in losses that will have to be swallowed up by the american taxpayers. and we knew, and we know now that we were looking at $5.5 trillion in contingent 21:33:24liabilities that the federal taxpayers would have to swallow if fannie and freddie were flushed down completely the way the markets might drive them. Gohmert (R-TX):will the gentleman yield? king concluding my statement and yielding, that was -- Gohmert (R-TX):concluding my 21:33:39statement and yielding, fannie mae and freddie mac is an example of how government can't set values, neither can they evaluate risk because they're doing political calculations based on political pressure, not economic calculations based upon the risk of success and failure. i yield to the gentleman from texas. Gohmert (R-TX):just asking will 21:33:55the gentleman yield for a question, if he would? Gohmert (R-TX):i would. Gohmert (R-TX):with regard to the financial deform package that apparently is going to be coming 21:34:08to the house, is the gentleman aware of whether or not these two entities, fannie and freddie, that kicked us into a spiral downward in the fall of 2008, whether they're included 21:34:24in this reform package? is there any reform of these two entities that nearly brought our economic house of cards down? i yield back. King, S. (R-IA):reclaiming. in scowering the financial reform package in the barney 21:34:41frank bill or the chris dodd bill and setting up the word search and chasing it through there, mr. speaker, i don't find anything in either one of those bills that addresses the necessary form for fannie mae and freddie mac. they are completely insulated and i recall the debate here on 21:34:58the floor of the house in october 26, 2005, that the chairman of the financial services committee, mr. frank, was very much engaged in. he came to the floor to vigorously oppose an amendment that was offered by mr. leech of iowa that would have established 21:35:15higher levels of collateralization for fannie mae and freddie mac, higher stads -- standards for underwriting in the secondary market and higher standards for capitalization for fannie and freddie. the vigorous opposition that mr. 21:35:29frank flowed out on that day and the gentleman from texas remembers the exchange that took place on the thursday before easter in 2009, here on this floor, the gentleman from texas was there. the gentleman from massachusetts 21:35:44there. i think me up there somewhere. as we talked about what had happened with fannie mae and freddie mac and in that debate on october 26, 2005, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. frank, said, if you're going to invest in shares of fannie and freddie, don't do so 21:36:00believing that he would ever vote to bail out fannie mae and freddie mac. because he would never do that. he would let them go down instead. that's the core and the essence of the statement that was headpy -- made by the gentleman from massachusetts who now is the chairman of the financial services committee. well, we know what's happened. 21:36:17fannie and freddie have been bailed out. and on that day the gentleman from massachusetts said that he wasn't biased, in favor of or against fannie or freddie, because the man whom he'd had an intimate relationship was not a 21:36:33senior executive. it's in the congressional record. i don't pull this out of thin air. i suggest, mr. speaker, that you check the record. for me, that's an astonishing confession, to draw a fine line between the reason for bias and not bias is because this 21:36:50individual was not a senior but more apparently a junior executive for fannie mae. and so that's a little too ins mat -- intimate for me, mr. speaker. i don't choose to go there any further except to point out that a lot of things going on in this 21:37:05united states government that are not what meets the eye. there are undercurrents here that threaten to swallow up the united states of america. there's a driven philosophy on this side of the aisle that wants to swallow up free enterprise capitalism, that 21:37:19abhors the words of capitalism. there's a driven philosophy that's reflected by 77 members of the progressive caucus, who come to this floor with their blue charts and say, come visit our website. well, not that long ago, a few years ago, the progressive website was hosted by, managed 21:37:38by and taken care of by the socialists in america. but when they took a little bit of heat, they decided they would manage their own website, so they didn't have to take the criticism. so the socialists ran the 21:37:52progressives' website. and now the d.s.a. -- dsausa.org. it stands for democratic socialists of america, dsausa.org, mr. speaker, you should go visit that website and understand who your colleagues 21:38:09are. 77 of them are self-professed progressives. the progressives, according to the socialist website, are their legislative arm. they write that they are not communists, they're socialists. 21:38:24that's a step above a communist. they don't want to nationalize everything, they just want to nationalize the fortune 500 companies in america. and they've got a big start on it. and they don't run candidates on the banner or under the 21:38:39political party calls the socialists because there's a stigma attached to being a socialist in america. so what do they could, mr. speaker? -- do, mr. speaker? they push the candidates that are self-professed progressives. progressives are not distinct from socialist, they're one and 21:38:55the same. they're just wearing a little bit different color jersey and they're the people here who have driven the idea that we should national ites the fortune 500 companies, nationalize the oil refinery industry, mr. hinchey 21:39:08of new york, take over the oil industry, maxine watters from los angeles, and operate these fortune 500 companies and i quote, for the benefit of the people affected about i them, closed quote -- by them, closed 21:39:21quote. that's the unions. the speaker is a member. the speaker advocated and said that she would not give, in the case of the car companies, bargaining advantage of the automakers over that of the unions. right off of the web page of the 21:39:37socialists. and she followed through on it and today 17.5% of general motors is owned by the unions without a cash outlay, without a concession of any kind, the president of the united states, who voted to the left of self-professed senator bernie 21:39:52sanders, crammed that down the throats of the investors, the security investors in general motors and now we have the unions owning 17.5%. the federal government owning 61% and the canadian government owning 12.5% of general motors. exactly off of the playbook of 21:40:10the socialist website, mr. speaker. the american people need to go visit the website, they need to understand the playbook is written. it's being carried out by the progressives in this congress, 77 of them are the core driving force here. 21:40:25when you add to that the congressional black caucus, the hispanic caucus, a whole lot of these people that are self-segregating caucuses instead of integrated caucuses, you understand who's running america today, mr. speaker. i yield to the gentleman from texas. King, S. (R-IA):if we go back to 21:40:41the day that the wall street bailout passed, that first week in october of 2008, i made the statement that when the federal government buys private assets 21:41:00and holds them in order to try to make money, when the federal government decides it's going to start trying to make money for the taxpayer, it's called socialism. 21:41:17and i was belittled by colleagues that served here in this body for saying that it was socialist. one person even said, well, i only know three socialists in america and they're all against the wall street bailout. well, i was pretty depressed and 21:41:36devastated when the wall street bailout passed. the next morning, saturday morning, i was watching neil cavuto and he had the presidential nominee of the 21:41:50socialist party and the socialist candidate for president being interviewed by neil cavuto, was asked, basically, what's the deal? i thought you guys were against 21:42:05the tarp bailout, the wall street bailout? and now this morning you're saying it was a good thing. and in essence, the presidential nominee of the socialist party said, well, yes, they were against the tarp wall street 21:42:23bailout, in essence they didn't feel like the government should pay anything to take over the assets they were taking over. but once it passed and was signed into law, they realized, this is probably the greatest 21:42:38day for socialists in american history. because the federal government has begun the takeover in a substantial way of private assets. and of course he went on to say now that they've made this 21:42:55wonderful great step of taking over socializing, nationalizing private assets from the financial sector, the government just needs to go in and finish taking over the rest of the financial sector because, as he said, because we know then the 21:43:13government takeover of all of that area would not be done out of greed and so they would do a much better job of spreading the wealth around the country and under the present system greed rules the day and just that 21:43:31great wonderful step of the tarp bailout, socializing america, as he saw it, just needed to be followed by the final step of completing the takeover of the financial sector. 21:43:43so the gentleman from iowa is exactly right according to the presidential candidate of the socialist party in 2008, this is a socialist move to nationalize more and more of the assets just 21:44:00as the presidential nominee of the socialist had hoped would happen. 21:44:06i yield back. King, S. (R-IA):reclaiming and thanking the gentleman from texas, i'd point out into the record, mr. speaker, that some months ago the secretary of the treasury, tim geithner, came before a couple of committees, financial services and ag. and the question that i posed to him and he was bound to answer 21:44:21that question under oath was, made the point that president obama was elected at least in part because he had declared and effectively made an argument, however it might have been true or untrue, that president bush had gone into iraq without an 21:44:38exit strategy. so i made the point in my question that president obama had engaged in, supported and participated in the nationalization of about half of our private sector. and that is the three large investment banks, a.i.g., fannie 21:44:53mae and freddie mac, general motors, chrysler, i didn't go on into the nationalization of our skin and everything inside it, which is obamacare, but in that letter that he was obligated to answer under oath, two months late irgot a response back. i do want to give secretary 21:45:10geithner credit. there are some members of this cabinet that simply don't answer my letters. they have -- they apparently don't think they're accountable to members of congress and they don't think that we might decide to send them a little less money when they decide to do the budget. 21:45:24geithner did answer the letter. it was seven pages long and took two months to get it back and it's not a particular complaint of mine because i know that it's difficult to make the machinery of government work. but this those seven pages of answering the question, what is 21:45:40your exit strategy for taking over all of these huge chunks of the private sector? his answer was, well, it's not a written strategy and he would know when the time was right and he would execute that when the time is right. in other words, don't you be 21:46:01asking me. i'm secretary of the treasury, i don't answer to you or anybody else. i'm going to submit this. there is no plan. there's no exit strategy. the president of the united states is delighted to have these companies taken over by 21:46:20the federal government, as are most of the members of the cabinet, because it fits in with the website of the democratic socialist of america there used to be some resistance on this side of the aisle when someone applied -- 21:46:39when when someone implied the president is a socialist. but president obama voted to 21:46:56the left of bernie sanders, and when i saw the picture of the president next to hugo chavez 21:47:10and he's doing that double-grip glad-hand handshake, you know what, hugo chavez is a piker when it comes to nationalizing. barack obama has way outdone him. 21:47:26i don't think he would have been a man who could have done that on his own he surrounded himself with people who for years worked through this vision. had i been assigned the task of writing the screen play, trying to turn america into a socialist state and if they even created for me a 21:47:43charismatic figure that matches that of the president and started me down the path on my imagination and with three years to get ready to do it, could not have unfolded a scenario close to what's reality today for the 21:47:56businesses taken over by the federal government. neither could have anticipated some of the things they're seeking to do now. but when you add these up and you add up the takeover of three large investment banks, bank of america, bear stearns, citigroup, when you see that 21:48:16a.i.g., for $180 billion, swallowed up by the federal government and fannie mae and freddie mac to the tune of $130 billion and perhaps another $400 billion piled on top of that and still remaining at $5.5 trillion in contingent 21:48:32liability and the takeover of general motors and chrysler, both of them now under the control or influence of the federal government being managed now exactly off the socialist website, run for the benefit of the people affected 21:48:46by them, close quote? the unions who made no concession whatsoever except to concede future claims that they think are going to be paid anyway by obamacare. and the student loan program, 21:49:02taken over completely, exactly within the mold of what 21:49:06happened when we had federal flood insurance that came in to provide one more competitor for the private market back in 1963, now there is no private market. now the federal government runs it all. when the federal government steps in to compete on student loans, people said, well, you 21:49:22know, we need to keep these people honest. somebody is making money off these students. now the federal government runs it all. and the president's idea was that he would set up one more insurance company to provide health insurance for americans to compete against these 21:49:38insurance company whoms he demagogued relentlessly, forgetting one more company, correct. but there existed up until obamacare passed, 1,300 health insurance companies in america. 1,300 companies that produced a 21:49:56variety of policies numbering to 100,000 policies. so who could imagine that one more company and a handful more policies was going to provide more options for people that would help with the competition, take some of the 21:50:10profits out of the industry? if these 1,300 companies competing against each other, mr. speaker, could take the profit out of the industry, how could the federal government do that? regulate and subsidize. that's what governments do. they regulate and subsidize their competition out of 21:50:27existence like they did on the flood insurance programs in 1963 and the student loan programs, cullmy nated this year and now here -- culminated this year, and now here we are, obamacare, the law of the land 21:50:43that nationalized not just three large investment banks, fannie and freddie, and student loan, now they've nationalized our body the most sovereign thing we have, the federal government has taken over the management of our skin and everything inside it and 21:50:59decided who will buy what policy and what the premium will be. and now they're trying to decide our diet. and now they're deciding on a mission across the country that the retailers need to cut $1.5 trillion calories out of the 21:51:14products going to these kids because 1/3 of our kids are obese, they want to cut the calories on the bag of do retoes. i think they just take a few calories out of the do retoes. 21:51:33a 150 calorie power bar gets redeuced to 90 calories because some fat kids will eat too many. but what do with we do with the 2/3 of the kid that are too skinny that need measure 150 21:51:49calories, or what we do with the fat kid who hordes three power barses for 270 calories as opposed to one at 150 calories, but we cannot put a one size fits all regulation and reduce calories going into 21:52:06kids for energy and growth. more kids need more food, rather than all kids need less food. so those kids that are overweight they need more exercise. and maybe they need to watch their diet a little bit, that's education and that's parents, 21:52:20yes. but don't starve the hungry kids to so that those who are eating too much have to work harder to keep getting too much. the super nanny state that -- the recycling of all these components. here, the speaker of the house and the house of 21:52:36representatives has decreed that you can't go to the cafe over here and eat an only let unless the eggs that are broken from are from a free-range hen. i think the chicken is probably not free range, it doesn't taste like free range to me. 21:52:53but the eggs are from a free range hen. the paper, the napkins around the capitol, most of them are brown. because they're recycled paper. when i go look at my coffee filters, i wonder why they're running over, they're recycled paper. 21:53:09so we have these decrees that come down from on high and the light bulbs themselveses are regulated by the speaker of the house. how much nanny state does this country need? and how much nanny state can we stand? 21:53:25i want american people making their own decisions. free market economy. i want to be able to exercise all their constitutional rights. i want them to be able to own guns and defend themselves and hunt and target shoot and be in a position to defend us against tyranny. 21:53:41if we do not -- there's something about constitutional rights and liberty. it's use it or lose it. if you don't use it, you'll lose it. you've got to use your freedom of speech, religion, assembly, press, second amendment right, you've got to exercise those 21:53:57rights. we must do so. mr. speaker, we have to take this country back. and i yield back the balance of my time. i thank the gentleman from 21:54:05texas for joining me tonight. THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE:under the speaker's announced spoil of january 6, 2009, the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from arizona, ms. giffords, for 60 minutes. 21:54:37Giffords (D-AZ):thank you, mr. speaker. i rise tonight to address the border security crisis that's part of daily life in my southern arizona district, in arizona's eighth congressional district. i'm proud to represent one of the most diverse parts of the entire country. i represent a district that's 21:54:56over 9,000 square miles and is one of 10 u.s.-mexico border districts. the u.s.-mexico -- mexico border has changed a lot over the years. i'm a third generation arizonan. 21:55:10i represent a lot of people who are multigeneration arizonans. after years of building up the word for the california and texas, there's been a systematic funneling of illegal immigration, the flow of traffic, illegally, through southern arizona. this has become the most po 21:55:27rouse part of the u.s.-mexico border. today, together, my constituents live in a situation on the front lines of a national border security crisis. we live and breathe the federal government's failure to secure the board we are mexico and every day, my constituents are 21:55:43subjected to home invasions and to burglaries and to cut water lines and to graffiti, an unbelievable amount of garbage and trash left behind by illegal immigrants who are crossing through the border and by people increasingly who are drug smugglers, people that are 21:56:01human smugglers, the cutting of fences, the threats and intimidation by armed smugglers and the violence they experience on their own land, their own ranches, their own property. in this hour, i'm going to talk 21:56:16about action i and others have taken along the u.s.-mexico border. more importantly, i'm going to talk about the lives of people i represent, the people of cochise county, the ranchers who live on the u.s.-mexico border. 21:56:30it's always been my belief that if the decisionmaker here's in washington if they could hear, the stories, the impact that illegal immigration has on the lives my constituents there would be greater action here in washington. a decision -- that decisionmakers, elected 21:56:46official, people in the administration, they would move to greatly enhance the security along the u.s.-mexico border. so that's what we're going to talk about tonight. i think it's important to begin this hour with the most heart-wrenching story of all. 21:57:02the tragic death of robert trents, a fourth generation rancher, whose family has been on his land for over 100 years. actually, the cents family has had their ranch before arizona achieved statehood. 21:57:18on march 27, rob crants was murdered by an assailant, who was tracked to the mexico border. he and his dog were both ruthlessly murdered on his land. they were left to die. they were shot. law enforcement officials 21:57:33belief that rob was killed by a smuggler. next to me is a photograph of rob and his brother phil, the two crents brothers. this was -- cents brothers. this was run of the front page of the "tucson weekly." 21:57:52this tells it all. you see them, the tack room their boots, their hands, their lives represented. reportedly -- a reporter wrote the companion story in which he interviewed the family and 21:58:08neighbors. he wrote, what has to be noted first is the nevittability of what happened. something like the krentz murder was coming and everybody knew it. the stories residents told this newspaper of the frustration they feel in trying to keep property and family safe in 21:58:27smuggler-occupied territory were like a freight train in the night. down the tracks you see the faint light coming closer and closer. on march 27 in cochise county, the train arrived. the aftershock has been so 21:58:42powerful because the killing exploded the lie about the secure boarder that washington, d.c. has been working hard to promote. its front page, "the tucson weekly" asked the question, will the murder of a respected cochise county rancher change 21:58:57anything on our board her tonight, i ask the same question. will the murder of robert krenz 21:59:07, a respected rancher in my district, will it change anything on the board her it has changed. we know that today. the president announced the deployment of the national guard to the u.s.-mexico border. i knew rob krentz, i knew his family he participated in 21:59:24meetings i convened between ranchers and border patrol. he was a family man. he was a good neighbor. and he was a friend to all who knew him. he was described as a humanitarian who would give 21:59:38water and aid to illegal immigrants who suffered from heat exhaustion and physical injury as they treked from mexico across his land. he was, like fellow ranchers out in cochise county a straight talker and he, like them, saw their lives change by 21:59:54the increased flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers. tonight i'll share additional stories about the ranchers in this area and call on my colleague in demanding that our government step up and co-more, the responsibility here in

WHAT PRICE FREEDOM?

Busan, Busanjin-gu - August 12 2024: This is a Drone Shot of Busan, Busanjin-gu, Bujeon 2-dong Community Service Center / South Korea

Gyeonggi-do, Gwangmyeong-si - July 14 2024: This is a Drone Shot of Gyeonggi-do, Gwangmyeong-si, Gwangmyeong North side Highschool / South Korea

FS23 WH PRESS BRFG HEAD ON POOL 3 CBS POOL WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING WITH JEN PSAKI [13:06:19] PSAKI>> Hello. So, joining us today is Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, coordinator for the southern border. was the U. S ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018. She previously served as U.S Assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. Fairs I had the pleasure of working with her at that time, and has focused on Latin America for more than 30 years as a career civil servant. She's going to give some remarks and then happy to take some questions. And as always, I will be the bad cop. Thank you for joining. So Thank you all. JACOBSON>> Good afternoon. Wasn't Biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system. Doing so means truly building back better. Because we can't just undo four years of the previous [13:07:22] administration's actions overnight. 130718 Those actions didn't just neglect our immigration system. They intentionally made it worse. When you add a pandemic to that, it's clear it will take significant time to overcome. We must build a better immigration system that reflects our values as Americans, enforces our laws, safeguards public health, and moves away from cycles of irregular migration. 130742 Today, I'm here to talk about what we are doing with partners in Mexico and Central America to ensure that people don't make this dangerous journey and instead have opportunities for economic advancement and safety at home. The President has committed to seeking $4 billion over four years to address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence, and economic devastation exacerbated by climate change. [13:08:09] As part of that plan, we will address the causes that compel individuals to migrate, including improving governance and providing a foundation for investment and economic opportunity. Strengthening civilian security and the rule of law. Working across the whole of government. We will look at access to international protection and refugee resettlement. And rethinking asylum processing to ensure fair and faster consideration. Only by addressing those root causes. Can we break the cycle of desperation and provide hope for families who clearly would prefer to stay in their countries and provide a better future for their Children? President Biden when he was vice president visited the region many times and is clear eyed about the challenge. Insists now, as he did, then the government's commit to being true partners in creating the conditions for growth and security. I want to emphasize that the funds were asking for from Congress don't go to government leaders. They go to communities to training to climate mitigation to violence prevention to anti gang programs. In other words, they [13:09:23] go to the people who otherwise migrate in search of hope. And they will have to have the participation of the private sector's in those countries. For too long, have evaded taxes, underpaid workers and failed to be part of the solution to creating safe, prosperous and democratic countries. We've already begun. Specific actions to both undo the previous administration's policies and to advance a new vision of immigration. We have ended the so called migrant protection protocols, which sent people back to Mexico to wait sometimes for years for a chance to present their asylum claims. Working with the government of Mexico international organizations and ngos. We have safely admitted over 1400 migrants and closed the most dangerous face of the mpp. Matamoros Migrant camp. Today we're announcing the restarting of the Central American Minors Program for Children to be reunited with he parent who is legally in the United States. This program was ended abruptly by the [13:10:23] previous administration, leaving around 3000 Children already approved for travel stranded. In Phase two will be working to improve the camp program to expand safe and legal avenues for to the United States. 131033 I want to be clear. Neither in this -- neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U. S in an irregular fashion. The border is not open. [13:10:51] Going forward. We will continue to look for ways to provide legal avenues in the region for people needing protection while we continue to enforce our laws. This is a process. We have a great deal to do. But this administration has made significant progress and we will continue to do so. It reflects who we are as Americans putting our values at the center of our policy. Thank you. Q>> You were doing this refer [13:11:25] to this $4 billion that the administration is seeking. Are you seeking this as part of a larger comprehensive immigration package or as a stand alone Bill? 131128 JACOBSON> Well, I think what you'll see is that $4 billion in a Central American Northern Triangle strategy will be part of our foreign assistance request and will focus on the things we know that work. [13:11:43] Obviously it's not our first rodeo, that vice president the president when he was vice president worked on these issues. We know how to get money to communities that are most likely. To send migrants but also that are suffering the greatest effective to hurricanes this season, etcetera, so it will be part of our overall foreign assistance package. In the meantime, we're focused on getting humanitarian assistance to these countries after hurricane said to an iota, so in that sense, it's part of a larger plan. But obviously there are parts of this that will be on the domestic side as [13:12:25] well to fix the whole extent of our immigration processing. Q>> What is the administration doing right now? To work with these home countries to send a message? People don't come here. Don't send your Children here, right? JACOBSON>> Well I think you know, one of the most important things is to make sure that. We get communications right? And the message right and I'm happy to repeat that, 131247 But I think it's also important that we work with the international organizations that have very credible voices and have very good networks among migrant sending communities to dispel the myths and misinformation that smugglers are using. Right? When we talk about the border not being open, and, you know, the ways in which we're trying to dissuade people from making that dangerous journeys, the smugglers are conveying exactly the opposite people. [13:13:15] So we need to make sure we get that message out. We also need to be looking at things like the camp program. The Central American Minors Program as they talked about. And how we can expand that How we can make that. You know, eligibility greater, 131330 But the next step is to look at solutions in the region, right? What more can we do to process people legally who really do require protection so they don't have to make that journey? [13:13:44] and we're looking at all of those things. Q>> And finally you said that this isn't your first rodeo. Should the administration have been better prepared to handle? This influx of Children before it changed the policy, allowing them to stay in the country. JACOBSON>> I think there's a couple things I think What we're doing right now is making a difference in the home countries beginning to work with governments. You know that couldn't start until January. 20th there. There is one government at a time. You can't start changing processes of government building facilities. All of this is part of the plan as quickly as possible to make sure that our [13:14:28] domestic processes work more smoothly more quickly as I mentioned, but also to work with foreign governments, and you can't do that. Obviously till January 20th when you when you take over, but. Have been multiple engagements with the government of Mexico it very high level with the government of Guatemala with the hunger and government in Salvadoran In the first six weeks of government, So I think we've gotten off to a big start a fast start. In that engagement. Thank you, Gentle man Investor on Honduras. How did the administration downs his need for cooperation from that government with ongoing concerns about corruption there? Particularly federal prosecutors, who would say that the president is working on a plan to flood the United States with cocaine. I think one of the things that I made clear in the opening comments, which I want to reiterate, is that none of the money that we're looking to get from from Congress from the taxpayers of the United States goes to government leaders. So I don't think that [13:15:30] means that presidents are unimportant in these countries, but I do think that it's important to understand that we will be working with civil society. With international organizations and international ngos on the ground. We will work with officials that we can work with, but we also think it's really important. But these countries make commitments really explicit commitments to advancing on anti corruption. And in some places that will be hard to do if you've got officials for whom. There is a cloud and I think we need to work with the organizations that we can in countries. In some places. We will work with religious organizations, ngos with etcetera. It's a challenge in countries that have confronted serious corruption risks. What mechanism is in place where how do you possibly safeguard. That [13:16:32] funding to make sure it stays out of the hands and perhaps crept politicians. Well I think one of the things that we've always done. Always and 31. Years of the state Department has taught me this is we do end use monitoring right? Our embassies and people that we work with are looked at before their recipients of funds. And we do checks and we look at what's being done with the funds, right? We also don't deliver money. In most cases, we delivered training we deliver. New lighting facilities that reduce violence and crime S. Oh, so a lot of what you do, it's not handing over blank checks, and I think that's really important in this. Q>> Thank you very much. You're talking about restarting Cam. These other long term goals for what immigration policy should look like. But right now, New CNN reporting shows that unaccompanied migrant Children are being held in these border patrol facilities. Or on average 107 hours That's up from I believe 77 hours on average last week. So what is the bite [13:17:32] administration doing right now to fix that? JACOBSON>> I think you know my part of this focuses. Much more on what we're doing at the end of this process in Central America and Mexico. 131741 I think all of us at every stage of this process are doing everything we can to make sure that children are well cared for and moved into facilities that are appropriate for them. [13:17:55] But I want to make a point again that it's really important that people not make the dangerous journey in the first place that we provide them with alternatives to making that journey. Because it's not safe. On route on dsa. So you know if I could just emphasize that that it's really important that that message get out because the perception is not the same as the reality in terms of the border, not being open. We want to provide through camp through [13:18:34] other mechanisms, ways for some of these young people to be reunited with family members in the United States. [SPEAKING SPANISH] 131855 Q>> You're telling them not to come -- just to follow up quickly. You're telling them they should not come. Would you describe what's happening on the border as a crisis given how these numbers are spiking so much week by week? 131905 You know, I think that I really -- I'm not trying to be cute here. But I think the fact of the matter is we have to do what we do regardless of what anybody calls the situation. And the fact is, we are all focused on improving the situation, on changing to a more humane and efficient system. And whatever you call it, it wouldn't change what we're doing, because we have urgency from the president on down to fix our system and make sure that we are better at dealing with the hopes and the dreams of these migrants in their home country. 131945 Q>> Do you think it's a coincidence that as soon as Trump and his immigration policy were on the way out and Biden and his stated policy were on the way in, this historic surge at the border started? 131956 JACOBSON>>> Well, first of all, one of the things I think is important is we've seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope. And there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of, you know, pent up demand. So, I don't know whether I would call that a coincidence. But I certainly think that the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision. 132027 But perhaps more importantly, it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, to spread disinformation about what was now possible. [13:20:40] Q>> We know that the change in administrations brought hope. Then from your perspective is this search good? JACOBSON>> I don't think that's what I just said. I think it's a reflection of how migrants feel at a particular time. I think what we are doing is making sure that we respond to that hope for people who need protection. We respond to that hope in a way that their cases can be adjudicated more quickly. But I don't think anybody would say that coming to the United States in an irregular fashion is a good thing. That's why I've tried repeatedly to dissuade. People from from listening to those smugglers, but we're going to try our best to do everything we can at each end of this in the United States, but especially in Central America and Mexico. To ensure we have safe, orderly and legal migration. President fighting [13:21:42] when he was president, very active on working with the northward triangle countries, and I was just wondering where their lessons that you are here. Other administration officials, many whom are in jobs in this administration. Have learned about how to deal with those countries or how to deal with foreign aid to them that are informing how you're approaching things now, and that's the kind of follow up a little bitn what Peter was asking. Uh, Are you concerned at all of that kind of mixed messaging tt at the same time that you're telling people not to come that the journey is dangerous because you are offering this this talk about more humanitarian process that people. Not, you know, pay attention to the fact that they could apply from home from their home country that they would still come that they're still so hopeful that there really is kind of a conflicting message coming from Washington. Your federal. So on the first question the question of learning things from when the vice president was leading a lot of our efforts in Central America Previously, I think, [13:22:43] yes, that's a resounding yes. Both the president and all of us who worked with him on that for him on that learned a great deal, and I think that it's really important that we put that to use. Now. One of the things he thinks is so important is being really explicit. With leadership in the countries from which migrants are coming about commitments that they need to make because overcing the reasons people migrate. He's not gonna be the United States job alone, right if we realize that it's lack of good governance, economic opportunity and security issues of violence. Then some of those require commitments by the governments on anti corruption and transparency on creating governments that function better to provide services for their country. So He's very clear on being. Sure that we gethose commitments from leaders and holding them to it right. The money is not a tap [13:23:44] that gets turned on all at once. You have to make sure that you're continuing to follow those issues. So I think there's a lot of things we learned. And a lot of things we learned about ensuring that funds get to Communities that are really in need, whether it's post Hurricane or coffee rust, which was ravaging Guatemala and Honduras, or, you know a historic drought. 132401 I think when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now, and that is what we're trying to do. And I -- I will certainly agree that we are trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. We are trying to convey to everybody in the region that we will have legal processes for people in the future, and we're standing those up as soon as we can. 132437 But, at the same time, you cannot come through irregular means. It's dangerous, and, you know, the majority of people will be sent out of the United States, because that is the truth of it. We want to be honest with people. And so, we are trying to send both messages and smugglers are only trying to send one message. [13:25:04] So we're relying on every means we can to get that. Message out there and that leads me to wanna reiterate as I did before L a from terrorists Tessera. Yes. No Anselmo Mental winning guru Momenta is a propaganda. The tells in the money. Iraq. Drew. Say a word more about what you're talking about You from the private sector. Explain what your enjoy winning there and like, what exactly do you need? And then just to sort of the second question. You kno you're talking about being really explicit with these countries. But what sort of leverage does the United States actually have. To Effect change [13:25:53] in those countries. But what exactly can you do? Yeah. Let me take that second one first only because. Look in the end. I think the implication of your question which is quite right is we can't make the changes. We can encourage them. We can help. Support them with resource is both technical assistance and funding, but we can't make those changes. The changes have to come in the Northern Triangle countries. What I should say is my own experience from traveling to those places. There are myriad people in organizations who are trying to make those changes and part of what we want to do is empower them. Whether that's more effective, um, you know, Economic support, whether it's training for young people, whether it's anti gang programs, whher it's mother's clubs and empowering local communities, all of that gets done through people on the ground, not by the United States. So we want [13:26:53] to be able to empower those actors. I also think that it's really important when you say what leverage do you have? Well I do think that working as partners with these countries means sitting down and talking about what we could do together. 132705 But also if American taxpayers' funds are going to be used, then that is a certain amount of leverage. The President really wants to move forward on this, but he won't unless he feels he has those commitments on an ongoing basis. Is that leverage? You know, funds are -- are sometimes important means of having that conversation. [13:27:28] Your first question was on. Q>> Let me let me discuss it with. You can't follow up. You have to go back to the first one will you? I mean, are you saying exicitly? The U. S could withhold funding. With the Red State Department aide Rusch JACOBSON>> You know, I think I think the really important thing to know is [13:27:53] we're looking forward to getting this, um. Proposal before Congress and having Congress Act on it and what comes after that, You know, I just don't know. You know, the unexamined of branch can always. You know, adjust things like that. I also think it's really important to understand you asked about the private sector. 132808 The private sector in all of these countries, in Central America in particular, is a really important player here. And I think, to be very honest, we have not seen them step up. [13:28:22] One of the mechanisms that was really effective under the Obama Biden administration was for every dollar that the U. S put into an assistance program. We asked for private sector organizations, local chambers of commerce or business organizations. To either match us or exceed us. This gives the private sector skin in the game it make sure that they are part of the solution. If the government's in these countries don't always [13:28:54] have enough resource is to do what they should to improve the economic opportunity for people. There are private sector organizations and members of the private sector, the business community. We need to be part of that solution, and so we just feel that that's really an important element to this. We talked about international organizations, Governments, ngos, I don't want to leave out the business community as a participant ok, last two less three if you have time. Thank you. To follow up a number of question. I mean, I understand what you're saying. You have to empower the civil societies at least part countries, But can you make the link between empowering those civil societies and actually eliminate eliminating the push back there to stop him from coming? To this country, so how much of it is an international age policy versus an anti, You know, um, immigration policy. That's my first question. And then the second one if you could speak more specifically about the requirements that you're. Making to these countries in terms of anti [13:29:55] corruption practices. What are the specific measures of success and how to ensure that there? Yeah, well on the first question, I think this is. Both unturned national aid issue as well as as a policy issue both for us and the countries that we're working with. On the one hand, it is clearly a resource issue. You have to greater than category for hurricanes and then iota within a 15 Day period. You've got reports that suggest that. Literally multiple millions of people in Guatemala and Honduras are food insecure Now that is clearly something you need to be looking at humanitarian assistance and aid to try and remedy. Now in the longer term. When you're looking at increased pace of natural disastersecause of climate change, or you're looking at ways to. Ensure that agricultural policy changes in [13:30:55] countries or that training is given or that students, including girls remain in school. Those are longer term policy questions. That need to be addressed with our partners in the region because they all have an impact on whether migration flows increase or not. And so when the president talks about root causes. Some of this is immediate humanitarian aid, but a lot of it is policy and aid together, making sure that you tackle the root causes of migration. Otherwise, what you see is continued cycles. Right to break that cycle of migration sustainably, you have to work both. On the on the specific commitments for governments. I think that's something that we would want to discuss with the countries involved before we discuss it publicly. Things. The president's executive powers. Do you think the president will consider using his executive powers to reunite families who have been separated under a 00 tolerance? [13:31:57] Well, that certainly. Outside of the family Reunification task force that was created which is exactly to do that. You know that. Are you talking about people who are not in the same country families that were that was separated what the president used anymore. Executive powers. I'm sorry, but you need families who were separated when in the United States are doing zero tolerance and well, that's exactly what the family reunification task force is doing Nothing beyond that. It deals with the whole universe of people separated during that policy, so not that I know of. Okay Last turn back. Questions Congress appropriated almost $1.4 billion with this fiscal year for the border wall that you're not building how much of that is left? Are you guys redirecting it at all? And what along the border right now. Secondly you discussed messaging arguably your predecessors entire theory of their immigration agenda was that they were trying to send [13:32:57] this message. Don't come. America is closed the regular migration. So obviously you're pursuing something policies But what can you actually do differently than they did to try to get that message? If you know it wasn't fixed already with that kind of oppressive messages. On the first question regarding the border while the president has been very clear about ending the national emergency or the emergency of the border that was used to justify the wall, and obviously not proceeding with it. T he exact. Legal requirements and where that those funds might go. I just I just don't know. I'm sorry. Let me let me talk about the message issue. I mean, I think. I think it's really important to understand that Okay? 133344 You can't and shouldn't say in this administration's opinion that the only way to message "do not come in irregular fashion" is to act as cruelly as you possibly can, separate children from their parents, return people to places that, like the camp -- migrant camp in Matamoros, you know for up to two plus years at a time, and that's the only way that you could get your message across. 133411 This administration's belief is that we can get our message across that it is a more humane policy by opening up avenues of legal migration which will encourage people to take those legal options and go through the asylum process if they're seeking that and not take the irregular road. 133436 I think you have to find different ways to message. But if messaging reflects your actions, that is why we are increasing the actions for legal migration so that the message is, you have another option. I'm from back. Q>> Thank [13:35:00] you. Let me ask you a question in Spanish for our audience [SPANISH] [13:35:14] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:36:51] Q>> [SPANISH] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:37:59] PSAKI>> Okay? I can't promise you'll always be that rapid when I promised to bring someone to the briefing room, But we'll try. We'll do our best. Well, we'll do our best couple of other items for all of you at the top. 133813 With today's expected passage of the Rescue Plan, I can announce that the President will sign the bill at the White House on Friday afternoon. We've spent a lot of time, of course, from the podium talking about the mechanics of how a bill becomes a law, and I know there's lots of interest in what comes next. So once it's passed, the bill text will be rechecked, printed, and signed by the appropriate leaders in the House and Senate. 133834 The House coach will then deliver it to the White House for the president's signature. We expect that delivery to happen sometime tomorrow, and then the President will sign it on Friday. [13:38:44] We, of course, are moving full speed ahead on the implementation of the bill because we know the American people need help. I need it as soon as possible. The way we are also working on looking ahead to implementation. I wanted to make sure you all saw [13:39:03] Secretary Yellen speech before the National League of Cities yesterday, promising to get at eight out to state and local governments. Obviously this is a key component of the package and one that will help keep. Cops, firefighters. Local officials in their jobs on we're looking there. They're looking for ways to maximize, of course, the impact of every dollar. That's exactly what the president did when he served as the point person on the implementation of the Recovery Act in 2009, partnering with mayors, governors and other officials to get help to them quickly and in a way that kept waste fraud and abuse to 2/10 of 1, 133935 So he knows directly that the passage and signing of the bill is just the beginning, and he will -- he plans to appoint somebody to run point on implementation. I don't have any personnel announcements today, but that will certainly be part of our path moving forward. Also today, as you know, the President will join the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck to discuss their historic partnership that will produce more lifesaving vaccines for Americans and the world. 134002 President Biden also announced that he is directing -- he is planning to direct -- he's directing, I should say, Jeff Zients, our covid coordinator, and HHS, and the HHS team to procure an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He's doing this because in a wartime effort, which is what we consider this, we need maximum flexibility. 134023 We want to be oversupplied and over-prepared. There's also a chance that we'll encounter an unexpected challenge on new need in our vaccination efforts, and we're preparing for just that. [13:40:32] The president also discussed the meeting today at the meeting is having today during his remarks and also address, of course, are the passage of the rescue plan during those remarks as well. Last item. I believe here. What's going on here today? On March 18th 19th, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken will meet with Director Gangjee Tour and State [13:41:04] Councilor Wang G. And Anchorage of China. Of course, the meeting will follow the president's convening of the quad at the leader level, as well as his participation in the G seven. Leaders meeting just a few weeks ago, Secretary Blinken on Secretary Austin's trip to Japan and Korea, two of our closest regional allies and national security Advisor Sullivan's multiple engagements with Japanese Korean, Australian, Canadian and European counterparts, including European quad meeting next week. It was important to us that this administration's first meeting with Chinese officials be held American soil and occur after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe. And as you know, my number of those conversations have happened at the presidential level and, of course at the secretary of state and National Secity Advisor level as well. Meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including ones where we have deep disagreements. We intend to discuss her expectations and will be frank and explaining Beijing's actions and behavior behavior Challenge. To the [13:42:06] security, prosperity and our concerns about challenges. They post the security on values of the United States and our allies and partners. We will also talk about areas where we can cooperate of mutual interests on we're coming to these discussions, of course. Clear eyed. The meeting also provides an opportunity to emphasize H the United States will stand up for the rules based international system and a free and open Endo Pacific. As the president has said, We approach our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength in lockstep with our allies and partners. That Go ahead, Jonathan. Q>> Thanks Judge. You said the president will be signing the bill on Friday and you walk us through what will happen next? The president himself has expressed regret that the 2009 got recovery happened was not sold. Well, let's put it to yourself that acknowledge that others veterans of the demonstration field similarly. Can you explain to us what we're going to see from the president from surrogates? How is this message to deliver to the American people? How do you sell this bill? 134258 PSAKI>> Sure. Well, the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second gentleman, a number of members of our Cabinet will be communicating directly with the American people, engaging directly with the American people, and all sending a clear message: help is on the way. [13:43:15] Over the next few weeks. We're going to swiftly put in place implementation plans. I've touched on a little bit of that. Andre plans to get aid to the people in places that need it the most as quickly as possible. This'll is, of course, a continuation of the work we've done over the last two months to build support for the rescue plan, communicating directly with the American people building support among mayors, governors, labor leaders, the business community and other stakeholders. 134338 We'll be emphasizing a number of components that are in the package and really having a conversation. This is important to the president personally. Having a conversation directly with people about how they could benefit, addressing questions they have, even taking their feedback on implementation and how to make it clear. [13:43:55] and we've talked a little bit about in here. People of questions like. Do I need to do anything to get my check? How do I benefit from the health benefits? What about you know what? What Funding will go to my school? He wants to ensure that people have access to the instant formacion 134410 So, he will be hitting the road. The vice president will be hitting the road. The first lady will be hitting the road. We will have people out communicating directly in communities, but we'll also use a range of tools at our disposal, including engaging in -- communicating through digital means, doing local interviews, and also utilizing a number of members of our Cabinet cabinet who have key roles in the implementation. [13:44:34] I referenced Secretary Yellin, of course in her role. Obviously the Iris has some key roles here, but he will be tapping into the Cabinet to also play a role in communicating and engaging with the public. Following this and one other matter on this, you know President Auntie is addressing the nation's right in prime time. Is this part of it? The idea of what happens next because of the package going to be. Part of that speech. We preview a little bit about what the message the American people is going to be to morning I expect we'll have more toe say tomorrow about the speech, and I want to just give him a [13:45:11] chance to go through the speech again and make sure I'm previewing it in a way that is consistent with where it will land. 134511 But as I've talked about a little bit in here, this is -- tomorrow marks the 50th day of the administration. It also marks one year since the country shut down. And the President believes it is important to take a look back of the journey the American people have been on, the sacrifices that have been made, the lives that have been lost, and also look ahead. And he will be talking more about how he will approach this war against the pandemic moving forward and lay out some more specifics of what the American people can expect. [13:45:43] U N report out today says the U. S Is among the countries lagging behind on climate friendly projects in covid Economic recovery Spending Club What is this administration has started moving forward on the $2 trillion climate change package that was such a big part of that candidate. Fighting's campaign. PSAKI>> It's only day 49. Jonathan We're about to pass a [13:46:11] historic the most Progressive bill in American history. It's be a passing today. Look I would say that the president believes that and he talked about this on the campaign trail is a zoo you mentioned was certainly a promise of his that. We can create the United States and many other countries around the world will will focus on here can create good paying union jobs that are also consistent with our objective of just addreing the climate crisis, and certainly that is central to how he's thinking about his agenda. Moving forward. Those policy discussions Air Sil ongoing but I can assure you that. He intends to Dever on the promises he made on the campaign trail on intends to deliver on the promises he made about creating good paying union jobs that also are consistent with his goal of addressing climate. ISIS. I should say, Go ahead on the 100 million new does since you said that the goal is to be over supply. What's the goal for that over supplies to be held in reserve for kids? Is it to be donated to other countries? Is it. To be held in reserve in [13:47:13] case people need to get shots again next year. What's the plan for that extra dosage Well first, the president's focus every day when he makes up is ensuring every American week. We can ensure that every American has access to a vaccine and that we are vaccinating the people in this country. But here a couple of the factors that we're have have weighed in on our decision to purchase. An additional 100 million doses. 134731 We still don't know which vaccine will be most effective on kids. We still don't know the impact of variants or the need for booster shots. And these doses can be used for booster shots as well as needed. Obviously, that's still being studied by the FDA. But, again, we want to be over prepared, as I noted earlier. 134749 We also need maximum flexibility. So Johnson & Johnson, the vaccine has unique benefits. It's a one shot vaccine. It can be stored in the fridge and not a freezer. It's highly effective, as the others are as well, against hospitalization and death. But we are really looking for maximum flexibility here, as we are still considering a couple of those pieces I mentioned, which is most effective with children, the effectiveness on addressing variants, and, and, of course, boosters as I noted. 134819 Q>> And then on the COVID relief bill, which is being voted on in the House right now, how quickly will school districts be able to access that money, and will they be able to implement it in time to make safety changes for this school year, which in many parts of the country is only the last another three months? 134836 You're absolutely right, and a fair amount of the funding is also -- we expect will be likely used for forward planning, right? So, so schools that need to plan for, we need to hire temporary teachers right now, but we need to ensure we can keep them on the job in a year, in two years. We need to make facility upgrades. 134854 It really depends school to school. In terms of the timeline for implementation, I know that's something that our Department of Education is going to be looking at. [13:49:02] And of course, the implementation team that will be focused on getting these dollars out the door so we will certainly plan to give you an update as we have a [13:49:16] better time line on the on the calendar. Q>> On another front registered journalist, Andrea Support is currently on trial over her coverage of a racial justice protest. Last summer. She's been charged with failure to disperse and interference with official access. The find administration believes that these charges should be dropped and will the president or anyone in the administration urged Polk County, Iowa prosecutors. Drop the charges. PSAKI>> I'm happy to discuss this with our team. I'm not as familiar with the case, but I will look into it. We'll get you back and answer. Q>> Sure Dracula first off has President Biden been briefed yet by his delegation that went to the border over the weekend. And does he now feel the need to go to the border if he has been briefed by the. 134951 PSAKI>> Sure. Well I can confirm for you that the President did receive a briefing earlier today from members of his team that visited the border region this past weekend. I will note, he receives regular briefings on immigration, and the economy, on COVID, on a range of issues that the country and the administration is facing. He heard from the delegation on what they observed during their visit to the border region and the facilities they toured. 135015 But they all -- they spent the majority of their time discussing what steps can be taken to expedite processes to move more quickly, to move the process more quickly to meet the administration's goal of getting these children placed with vetted and confirmed families. Moving them quickly, as related to your question earlier, out of border patrol facilities and into these shelters and then ultimately into these homes. 135037 I don't have anything to preview for you in terms of a trip. Obviously, a delegation going to the border and visiting these facilities is something that can be done with a much smaller footprint than the president of the United States traveling, but I don't have anything to preview in terms of a trip. [13:50:52] Q>> And earlier you said you're going to where the president is going to pick someone to kind of run the implementation of the coronavirus relief package. Does the White House anticipate that there could be delays in implementing that because it is such a big bill? PSAKI>> No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't imply our I was not trying to imply that on Lee that we know that this will not all be implemented in four days [13:51:19] or a week or what have you This will take some time on. 135116 And we want to ensure that there is a person responsible and accountable to the implementation. That's something the president felt worked when he was vice president, and so it was an indication of that. [13:51:25] But there are a number of Cabinet members who also played pivotal roles here. A reference, of course, Secretary Yellen Secretary Cardona will play a pivotal role, of course in the reopening of schools, and so they're already officials within the administration. But this this could be it has been used in the past is that more of a coordinating mechanism and how long do you think that implementation will take? I can't give you really a timeline of that. Obviously there are things they're different components as you well know, right, getting the checks out the door. Our Treasury, a team and our economic team are crunching the numbers on that. We hope to have an update for all of you soon on that. Obviously reopening schools, as Nancy was asking AUT it really is school district of school district in terms of what their needs what their needs will be which schools need funding which district's need funding? There are things like unemployment insurance, which [13:52:20] obviously is applied through different mechanisms. So there are pieces of this that are just going to be implemented over time. Some that could be Dunmore. Rapidly and quickly, but obviously this is our focus and are our priority in the days ahead. Last question on Johnson and Johnson, he is going to announce that they were trying to get another. 100 million doses this afternoon, but the administration told governors yesterday on their weekly called They should only expect to get 400,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine next week. That is far behind what the Johnson Johnson contract with the federal government. They were supposed to have ready when it was authorized by the fda. So is he going to confront the Johnson and Johnson executives? He's meeting with today about why they are so far behind on production. Well, as you know, Caitlyn, we hey, invoked the Defense Production act in part because he wanted Torno and our team Jeff Science and others have been working closely with Johnson and Johnson and Merck, of course, to expedite the production of vaccines to ensure that they could be. Available on the timeline they've committed to. 135319 I will say that this 100 million that was announced -- that's being announced this afternoon is more for the second half of this year and not for -- it's not -- we're not adding additional doses expected on that same timeline. But I'm certain they will be discussing, of course, the need to ensure that the deadlines are met and that, that we have the vaccines and the doses needed to get them in the arms of the American people. Go ahead, Andrew. Q>> So other vaccine the head of the W T, O and others are calling for greater efforts to be made by advanced economies, big countries in rich countries to get more vaccine into developing countries. You just announced that you wanna be over para here in the U. S. And what is the United States soon and sure that these vaccines get out to other countries and do you favor a waiver of intellectual property? Protections under the wt O to ensure that that moves more quickly, or, you know what's [13:54:24] your perspective and a kind of a third way that would be just increasing license? PSAKI>> First the president is deeply focused on the issue of expanding global vaccinations and manufacturing and delivery, which will be critical to end the pandemic. But as we've also said he is first and foremost focused on ensuring Americans have access to vaccines as soon as possible. Uh in the in this period of time on, we've obviously made a great deal of progress on that front. I don't anything more to preview for you in terms of what that will look like we first need to focus on right now. We're still in a circumstance where there isn't enough supply for the for the number of Americans who want to get the vaccination, so that's really our focus at this point in time, but certainly it's a point of discussion. With his counterparts and with a the counter parts of other members of our national security team. Say anything about the river. I don't have anything more for you to predict that question of vaccinating Children. You mentioned that you're not sure which vaccine will be most effective. Actually has talked [13:55:25] about getting high school students vaccinated fell in elementary school kids in the spring. You have a sense of when every American. Could be death. Maybe I mean, you know, you know, we've talked about having enough on hand for adults to be vaccinated by this summer. By the end of May, actually, Well, we will have enough supply right? But the president is the first to say that we can't do this alone, And that's certainly a component of this That is vitally important is ensuring that. People understand across the country that these vaccines are safe and they are effective and we're still going to focus on combating the issues of misinformation. And of course, the vaccine hesitancy in a range of communities you have today, as you know, would be the ones running point on approval of vaccines for Children. I can't really predict. When Children will be vaccinated. We don't know when the fda may approve a vaccine, but our role is ensuring [13:56:26] there's enough supply and that there is enough distribution. We've made a great deal of progress on that more work to be done, but I can't make any predictions beyond that. But. A couple things first President Biden when he was vice president, Kind of was the person who ran point on the 2009 recovery Bill. Would you expect that Vice President Harris might take on civil rule he had, you know? Give General lot put her in a very similar position to the one that he had with President Obama. That's true. I mean, the president has said that he wants the vice president to be the first in the room and the last in the room when he has important briefings when they're important policy decisions and discussions that are taking place, And that certainly is how he is operating, or they're operating as a team together in terms of what role she may play in the implementation. I don't have anything to preview for you on that She will certainly be traveling. She's a key. Voice and asset for the [13:57:26] administration, and she'll be communicating about the impact of the of the American rescue plan and how it's going to help with the American people over the course of the next few weeks. Lank Lean said last night that the president's speech to a joint session of Congress will be for a few weeks. He was kind of suggesting there was gonna be this time period. The administration. It's focused on. Promoting the bill that just passed. Can you kind of confirm that and provide any more information on sort of how you're thinking about the rest of March into April? You know, promoting this. They're fever since moving on to the fullback Better Sure, I don't have an exact breakdown of timeline. And I don't think Ron wasn't intending to give one either on Lee to convey, which is, I think what? You're asking that the president, the vice president and all of us in the administration believe it's important to take a moment to or a few moments I should say to communicate directly with the American people about. The [13:58:26] benefits of the package to ensure they understand that help is on the way and a range of forms and to do that, in communities and directly with people who were hoping understand the benefits of this package S O I expect that to mean a couple of trips for the president, the vice president, others, but I don't have kind of an end date for that on certainly par of the part of the focus internally is on ongoing discussions about what is next and what components of the president's build back. Better agenda. What the order is the format the size and there's just those decisions have been finalized quite yet. One other thing that you'd kind of into you might have an answer for yesterday, which is another thing related to Ron. That clearing National Clearinghouse for Vaccine informatio. Way here in the Blue Merc theater heard, And Justify no answer on very excited about the website, which which many people are. You know, I would say, you know. As you know it, the website is being implemented as a vaccine finder, I should say [13:59:27] is being implemented as a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding the pilot program, and we're certainly looking into that. We're also looking into, and others have asked this question. How we can better assist state and local governments who have their own websites where they are utilized by many members of the local community and effective but sometimes they have. Technical issues, So we're looking at addressing it from. Ah, couple of, um. Different directions, but every option remains on the table were also considering setting up call centers. Organizing navigators help to help individuals schedule appointments, which sometimes can be the issue so I don't have a major update, other than to convey that. It's a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding it on. Certainly a range of options remain on the table and sometimes in some states. Their local website is working quite well, and they just need some technical assistance. What. Q>> Jen you've been telling migrants from right there for a month now, probably back to February 10. But now is not the time to come, but ey are coming in [14:00:28] bigger numbers every day. 140025 So, do you have a messaging problem? 140027 PSAKI>> Well, I would say that in the last administration, we had a morality problem, and children were being pulled from the arms of their parents, and kids were being sent back on a treacherous journey, and that's not the approach of this administration. So, certainly we understand that means there will be more kids who are crossing the border. 140047 We made a policy decision that that was the right, humane step to take. But, I think it's also important for people to understand that the vast majority of people who come to our border are turned away, are sent back to their countries. What we're talking about here are unaccompanied children. [14:01:04] and what our focus is on is ensuring that there are safe places for these kids to go that have accent where they have access to educational resource is health and medical attention, legal assistance as need, and that we can expedite the vetting so that they can get to families and sponsors where they can have their case is adjudicated. 140125 Q>> But since the last administration is gone, tomorrow is 50 days of Biden, there are migrants showing up, wearing t-shirts that say, "Biden, please let us in." And candidate Biden is the one who said, "I would end this notion for the first time in history, the people seeking asylum have to be in squalor on the other side of the river." Why doesn't he come out and just say now is not the time? 140145 PSAKI>> Well, he actually did an interview with Univision about a week or week and a half ago where he conveyed a similar message. And we've conveyed that at every opportunity that we have. [14:01:55] I will say we are, as you noted almost 50 days in. We are Diggle digging ourselves out of a broken and dismantled system. Roberta Master Jacobson referenced this in her opening as well when it comes to engage with countries addressing the root causes. We couldn't start doing that until January. 20th There are programs like the relaunching of the Central American Minors Program, which was ended by the prior administration in 2017. And that meant that that that program which would have allowed for people to apply from the region. We had to restart that program, so we're working to fix the mess of the last couple of years. It's going to take some time. But this is clearly a priority for the president. We're looking at a range of options, which include the opening of additional facilities. It includes steps we can take to expedite the processing and includes application and implementation of the CDC guidelines that were just came out that allow for more Children to be house safely in these facilities, so we're looking at every option possible to help address the [14:03:05] challenges. We're facing a life in the White House. It's a problem that when the CDC tells these migrant shelter facilities that they can be a full capacity that they're careful about covid. Many of them do. But when the C D C tells schools that they can open in person at full capacity, many of them don't. Is there a school in particular that you have is an example that didn't do that? Our most schools in this country at full capacity within person learning. Are there a specific school, though that is not following the CDC guidelines of implementing the mitigation steps so they can re open the CDC saying schools you can't be at every school can be at full capacity. With the CDC guys. This CDC guidelines is to be clear because I think this is very important to be very clear and specific on. They gave eight mitigation steps that schools can take to safely reopen. A number of schools have actually recently reopened Schools and Washington D. C [14:04:05] Some have schools in many districts across the country. Each school district needs to make the decision about whether they are able to take those mitigation steps. The president has also been clear. Some of these school district's need additional funding. There's $160 billion in this package that he's going to sign into law later this week. Secretary of Education will be quite focused on working with school district's to help them reopen, but more school district's are reopening. More kids are in classrooms every single day since they are not all back from an administration position or from your perspective. Have the border Patrol unions and the HHS Union's been easier to work with than the teachers unions. I think that's a little bit of mixing different circumstances. I would say that in tight quarters Uhh I mean a classroom, but. Not quite. Not quite. I would say that. Let's let's take a responsible approach to the two issues. Okay, One is schools reopening, [14:05:06] There's been eight mitigation steps that have been announced by the CDC to implement right. Every school district is going to work to implement those on a timeline that is, they can effectively do. Many school districts are reopening right. Many are re opening every single weekend day and week, right, That is a different circumstance than what we're seeing at the border and the HHS overseas defense. These facilities, right they're working with. They're working on ensuring we could have more kids safely. They are working to implement CDC guidelines, but they're different circumstances and certainly we're working with the school district's and we're also working with HHS to open these facilities there to ensure that kids are treated With safety and care in these facilities. Okay, Go ahead. Thanks Dan. Just little bit more on the Clark. You mentioned yesterday that one of the issues that will be discussed it is how the leaders can work together to combat the pandemic. Might. That discussion include a strategy to counter Brexit diplomacy from China and Russia. You know, I think [14:06:10] they'll be a range of topics discussed and I know that is a concern of a number of leaders around the world, including, of course, President Biden on I'm sure we'll have a readout of the quad meeting tomorrow. Once it's completed. More on the announcement that you complete viewers. Can we expect anything in terms of how the spark. He was here in terms of helping others. Again I know they'll discuss a range of issues tomorrow, but I think it's important to just take a quick a little bit of a step back because this is a meeting that covers a range of topics. Of course, I'm sure covid which is a pandemic everyone in the world is dealing with will be a topic of discussion, but they'll be issues like climate that our address economic cooperation. I'm sure they'll have a range of issues to bring up and we will provide a readout when the meeting concludes tomorrow, the military balance I mean, we know that China just amount of huge defense spending 6.8% I believe for this year. Is that also a top item indigent? PSAKI>> I [14:07:13] don't think I have more to preview than what we've already offered. We will, of course, have a readout on the meeting concludes There are a range of topics on the minds of all of these leaders. As I've noted in here before we anticipate the meeting, discussing. ------ ---We'll bring up a number of issues and we'll have a robust readout when the meeting concludes. Go ahead. [14:07:33] Q>> A few questions. Sure. So, in California republicans are seeking to nationalize a recall after governor Gavin Newsom and really make it a referendum on on public policies you know the other day, Bernie Sanders tweeted that it's time for Democrats to unite and rally on his behalf against the Republicans, does the President have any plans to personally or otherwise support us and if this does make it on the ballot and you know becomes an off year campaign, PSAKI>> we're not quite there yet we've spoken out in support of Governor Newsome and against the recall so that remains our position. Q>> Also in California. He at the San Francisco Chronicle are finding that school districts are saying, even with this influx of money coming from the package, there's still lots of reasons they're not sure if they can reopen even unify this fall through building consensus around how to do it. There's been some criticism that the CDC guidance is actually too conservative and prohibitive, including the six feet distance rule that schools either have to ignore or not open. If there are still schools that aren't open by this fall that the administration considered a failure and what more could they possibly do to help those schools. [14:08:45] PSAKI>> We have several months before the fall sub six months, five months, I will stop doing math now. This is our Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, this is his number one priority what he is focused on the President has asked him to lead this effort. And he's holding a school summit, he will be working with school districts including I'm sure in California and San Francisco and others to work to address what they feel the challenges are to reopening, whether it's funding that's needed whether it's consensus building that needs to happen, the President wants schools to be open, five days a week, once kids to be learning in school and we're going to do everything we can to ensure that's happening. Q>> And lastly on the subject of today's briefing, you know. Immigration and Border policy it covers so many different agencies there's Public Security there's HHS as we discussed, there's State Department, Department of Justice, which we'll talk about as much as a huge piece of this. Is there someone in this administration who is coordinating all of these disparate pieces. Ultimately, you know, where does the buck stop who is making sure that all these different agencies are coordinating to the administration, [14:09:55] PSAKI>> Overall, well, ultimately, the President is responsible for the policy on key issues and key challenges for countries facing and immigration is certainly one of them. You're right. There are a number of agencies involved in this effort, but I will say, I would say they're all playing a pivotal role, the Department of Homeland Security. The. We don't have a Health and Human Services Secretary confirmed yet, when he is he will play a pivotal role but a whole team at HHS, as you know. So, this is being coordinated on part from our national security team but ultimately, it's the president who makes decisions about the policy that's why he asked the team to go to the border and my he asked to receive a briefing and that's something as I noted that happened this morning. Go ahead. [14:10:33] Q>> Okay, on the package implementation for your specific lessons that President Biden when he was in charge of this in 2009, that he learned about that effort that will be applied this effort, particularly in terms of efficiency and reducing waste and fraud that kinds of things but in general any specific lessons that he learned, other than it's good to have one person in charge. PSAKI>> Sure, is structured very differently as you remember, and I'm sure many people remember that a big chunk of the recovery out was around shovel ready project losses of course it very different type of bill. I think some of the lessons were already implementing, including having a point person in charge and including ensuring there's a sustained campaign that is not just about the President of the United States or the Vice President of the United States speaking about the benefits but that really engages our partners and allies, [14:11:28] whether it's Governor's or mayor's local community leaders to ensure there is effective implementation and communication about the package. He also wants to lift up and this is something that's been important to him in general but it's very applicable to this package, members of his cabinet so that they can be front facing and play a very public role in engaging with the public and ensuring the understand components and pieces of a package like this. There are pieces in this package that of course are related to the helping veterans there are pieces of this package that really relate to helping rural communities and he wants to ensure that members of his cabinet are are playing key roles there. That's something that, of course, was done a little bit in 2009 but can can definitely be built on and I think we would venture to do that. [14:12:18] Q>> Equal Rights Amendment The house is expected to vote soon I think next week on eliminating the now expired deadline for ratification and of course Virginia last year became the 38th state to ratify but last year the Justice Department issued a memo saying that we can't do that, that if people feel and move it to an area of constitution so starting the ratification process over. My question is whether the administration is going to rescind that memo and some Democrats have asked him to do. PSAKI>> That's an excellent question. I will have to talk to our team about that and get an update on it, which will then try to do for you after everything go ahead. Q>> Thanks a couple questions on behalf of printful for reporters who couldn't be here. One of my own. Jesse Hellman with modern healthcare wanted to know when President signs executives today from Johnson and Johnson and Mark does he practice he planned to press them on increasing costs of prescription drugs, [14:13:16] bring up his own agenda to lower drug prices, and PSAKI>> the primary focus of this meeting is on working together the two companies who have long been competitors, working together to ensure the efficient and effective manufacturing of vaccines. Q>> Tommy Christopher from media had a question on the filibuster said that President Biden expressed some openness filibuster reform during the campaign, you've said more recently, that it's not process to change the rules we wants to know if the john lewis Voting Rights Act represents a red line if Republicans do not support that that does not move forward in the Senate. Is that a red line that would prompt him to consider filibuster reform. [14:13:58] PSAKI>> Well, the President's preference is not to make changes to the filibuster rules, he believes that voting rights and access to voting, ensuring it's easier for the American people is enough of a huge priority it should be for everyone that's why you signed some executive orders, use the power. hesitancy to do that this weekend, and he is hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can work together to get that done. Q>> And then one last question on the overall agenda, you were saying earlier, you know, when you look at built back better you're sort of thinking through kind of what's next, but broadly speaking is infrastructure. The next big legislative priority on Capitol Hill for this administration. [14:1437] There's also pressure for an immigration bill to go through what's next for you guys, what is the next big priority after the bill that you're hoping to sign that's present don't miss out on Friday. PSAKI>> It's a very popular question, understandably, but our focus is on getting American rescue plan implemented. We will have more to say the President will have more to say on his build back better agenda and what the components of that look like, what the size the proposals the order of events will be, but I don't have anything to preview for you. [14:15:08] Q>> Before an immigration bill on Capitol Hill, 141509 PSAKI>> Well, I don't have a legislative order to preview for you either. I will say, given all of the conversations we're having, understandably, about the border and questions about the border, in the President's proposed immigration package, he has funding for -- to address the root causes in the region, as we talked about a little bit earlier, he has a pathway to citizenship, he proposes a pathway to citizenship -- citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and he also proposes an investment in smart security. 141537 So, given all of the concern by many in Congress about immigration and what's happening at the border, it sure seems like a good time to move that initiative forward. Go in the back. [14:15:51] Q>> Thank you, Jen, I understand you don't want to call it a crisis from this podium little funny you say, border patrol agents at the border or especially those within the union, who are calling it a crisis and who are saying that they're overworked and there's just too many encounters day in and day out. PSAKI>> We are saying that we recognize that are incumbent upon us and this administration is continuing to continue to work day and night to expedite the process of ensuring there are the resources and processes in place to move children from the border patrol facilities to the shelters. We are saying that it is incumbent upon our administration to look for additional facilities that can safely house children and incumbent upon us to ensure that we are communicating effectively and efficiently to the region as [14:16:42] Ambassador Jacobson talked about at the top of this briefing and those are all focuses of the President on down. You know, every single day. Q>> The Mexican government today, reports that over 4000 unaccompanied minors were actually deported back to Mexico between January and March. Can you confirm that this was done under the previous administration or any of those unaccompanied minors deported, under the Biden administration. PSAKI>> I know that CBP provides numbers and data on a regular basis and I think there's more data coming soon. From there, so I would certainly send to them for any statistics and data our policies that we don't turn children under 18 away at the border on of course as you know, though, even if, when they are in homes of family members or in sponsored homes that they still can go through processing [14:17:33] and may need to return home, Q>> the stimulus package you find me one last question I know I think this came up yesterday, but I wanted to ask the question, now that the stimulus package is passed on many undocumented immigrants are not benefited in any way by the money that's going out, the president blended the executive action or anything else to do to help that population. PSAKI>> Sorry I missed part of the last sentence. Q>> Now that the stimulus package has yes and the undocumented population. Many of the millions are not benefited in any way, does a president blind any executive actions or anything else to help a population. [14:18:06] PSAKI>> Well, certainly I think the President's priority given he proposed an immigration bill on the first day is to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, of course, in this country. He's also been clear that, ensuring that everybody in this country is vaccinated and receives that so COVID COVID-19 vaccine is a key priority. And of course this is just the beginning of his agenda but I don't have anything more to preview for you. Go ahead Q>> and Vicki judge, given the current premise of vaccination around the world, what would your President consider organizing these climates in person in DC here for you to avoid practice. PSAKI>> I don't think we have any I think at this point the intention is to do it remotely [14:18:45] I believe and I don't think there's an intention to change that, but I'm happy to check on that for you. Q>> Do you know roughly how many states expert for the Chinese president will be one of them. PSAKI>> I don't have any more details on the summit I know it's coming up in about six weeks, five weeks, and I expect as we get closer we'll have more to preview, go into that part Q>> yeah just a follow up on filibusters I've said many times that President Biden's preference is not to change the rules around filibuster but if the next big pieces of his agenda are stymied in the Senate. Are there changes to the filibuster that he can live with such as talking filibuster. [14:19:22] PSAKI>> Well, the President believes that there are a range of issues where there's historic. There's historic precedent of Democrats and Republicans working together, whether it's infrastructure as we've been talking about or modernizing the immigration system. He's obviously had a number of bipartisan meetings in the Oval Office. So that's where his energy and focus will be moving forward, go in the back. Q>> Thank you. So the could just have held trouble than containing a dissident, a woman released from prison weeks ago, is it a sign that the White House message regarding the human rights abuse in the kingdom is not strong enough, PSAKI>> what you were referring to a human rights, somebody, a human rights activist who was released from prison, but Q>> was not able to travel outside the kingdom. PSAKI>> I would have to look into more specific details of that [14:20:15] I know we were pleased with the release, but I'd have to look into more specific details of the travel restrictions, Q>> but do you have any sort of eta for when the next cabinet secretaries will be approved, and when you're going to start nominating ambassadors PSAKI>> go ask our friends in the Senate. We expect that some will move forward with and we are hopeful, I should say that we will get a couple of additional cabinet members, confirmed in the coming days or over the course of the next week, the Presidents looking forward to that. They're certainly looking forward to at some point having a full cabinet meeting, [14:20:46] the President hasn't made any decisions about Ambassador all nominees so I don't expect them to be confirmed anytime soon, given we have to nominate them first. Well, again, it's really up to the Senate on the timeline for that but we are hopeful that they move forward with the remaining members of the Cabinet, given we are almost two months into an administration. Q>> Just to follow up on something that Ambassador Jacobson said, and I think you may have gotten a note about this, that she first time she said that the border is not closed and she then insist when she was speaking in Spanish and then you know later on spoken Spanish again for the border is closed. [14:21:32] I mean, it seems like she, I guess misspoke, the first time consider your overall message but your concern, but now that she is misspoken that that's going to be, you know, picked up and disseminated across the Spanish speaking world is the message from the administration, PSAKI>> well given she also said that the border is closed, we're hopeful that that is what will be picked up and that is clearly and consistently been our message. So, that is certainly our hope Q>> you're having a messaging, difficulty around this issue. hat just means and [14:22:05] PSAKI>> we certainly hope not. We have the power of the media here to make sure you're communicating effectively with the messages and as we knew we all have moments where we where we say something slightly differently than we would like to and we quickly try to correct it to make it easier to communicate with the administration's, you know, goals and policies are. Thanks everyone. [END]

Freedom Highway

FS37 WH PRESS BRFG ROBO CUTS 1230 ABC UNI WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING WITH JEN PSAKI [13:06:19] PSAKI>> Hello. So, joining us today is Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, coordinator for the southern border. was the U. S ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018. She previously served as U.S Assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. Fairs I had the pleasure of working with her at that time, and has focused on Latin America for more than 30 years as a career civil servant. She's going to give some remarks and then happy to take some questions. And as always, I will be the bad cop. Thank you for joining. So Thank you all. JACOBSON>> Good afternoon. Wasn't Biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system. Doing so means truly building back better. Because we can't just undo four years of the previous [13:07:22] administration's actions overnight. 130718 Those actions didn't just neglect our immigration system. They intentionally made it worse. When you add a pandemic to that, it's clear it will take significant time to overcome. We must build a better immigration system that reflects our values as Americans, enforces our laws, safeguards public health, and moves away from cycles of irregular migration. 130742 Today, I'm here to talk about what we are doing with partners in Mexico and Central America to ensure that people don't make this dangerous journey and instead have opportunities for economic advancement and safety at home. The President has committed to seeking $4 billion over four years to address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence, and economic devastation exacerbated by climate change. [13:08:09] As part of that plan, we will address the causes that compel individuals to migrate, including improving governance and providing a foundation for investment and economic opportunity. Strengthening civilian security and the rule of law. Working across the whole of government. We will look at access to international protection and refugee resettlement. And rethinking asylum processing to ensure fair and faster consideration. Only by addressing those root causes. Can we break the cycle of desperation and provide hope for families who clearly would prefer to stay in their countries and provide a better future for their Children? President Biden when he was vice president visited the region many times and is clear eyed about the challenge. Insists now, as he did, then the government's commit to being true partners in creating the conditions for growth and security. I want to emphasize that the funds were asking for from Congress don't go to government leaders. They go to communities to training to climate mitigation to violence prevention to anti gang programs. In other words, they [13:09:23] go to the people who otherwise migrate in search of hope. And they will have to have the participation of the private sector's in those countries. For too long, have evaded taxes, underpaid workers and failed to be part of the solution to creating safe, prosperous and democratic countries. We've already begun. Specific actions to both undo the previous administration's policies and to advance a new vision of immigration. We have ended the so called migrant protection protocols, which sent people back to Mexico to wait sometimes for years for a chance to present their asylum claims. Working with the government of Mexico international organizations and ngos. We have safely admitted over 1400 migrants and closed the most dangerous face of the mpp. Matamoros Migrant camp. Today we're announcing the restarting of the Central American Minors Program for Children to be reunited with he parent who is legally in the United States. This program was ended abruptly by the [13:10:23] previous administration, leaving around 3000 Children already approved for travel stranded. In Phase two will be working to improve the camp program to expand safe and legal avenues for to the United States. 131033 I want to be clear. Neither in this -- neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U. S in an irregular fashion. The border is not open. [13:10:51] Going forward. We will continue to look for ways to provide legal avenues in the region for people needing protection while we continue to enforce our laws. This is a process. We have a great deal to do. But this administration has made significant progress and we will continue to do so. It reflects who we are as Americans putting our values at the center of our policy. Thank you. Q>> You were doing this refer [13:11:25] to this $4 billion that the administration is seeking. Are you seeking this as part of a larger comprehensive immigration package or as a stand alone Bill? 131128 JACOBSON> Well, I think what you'll see is that $4 billion in a Central American Northern Triangle strategy will be part of our foreign assistance request and will focus on the things we know that work. [13:11:43] Obviously it's not our first rodeo, that vice president the president when he was vice president worked on these issues. We know how to get money to communities that are most likely. To send migrants but also that are suffering the greatest effective to hurricanes this season, etcetera, so it will be part of our overall foreign assistance package. In the meantime, we're focused on getting humanitarian assistance to these countries after hurricane said to an iota, so in that sense, it's part of a larger plan. But obviously there are parts of this that will be on the domestic side as [13:12:25] well to fix the whole extent of our immigration processing. Q>> What is the administration doing right now? To work with these home countries to send a message? People don't come here. Don't send your Children here, right? JACOBSON>> Well I think you know, one of the most important things is to make sure that. We get communications right? And the message right and I'm happy to repeat that, 131247 But I think it's also important that we work with the international organizations that have very credible voices and have very good networks among migrant sending communities to dispel the myths and misinformation that smugglers are using. Right? When we talk about the border not being open, and, you know, the ways in which we're trying to dissuade people from making that dangerous journeys, the smugglers are conveying exactly the opposite people. [13:13:15] So we need to make sure we get that message out. We also need to be looking at things like the camp program. The Central American Minors Program as they talked about. And how we can expand that How we can make that. You know, eligibility greater, 131330 But the next step is to look at solutions in the region, right? What more can we do to process people legally who really do require protection so they don't have to make that journey? [13:13:44] and we're looking at all of those things. Q>> And finally you said that this isn't your first rodeo. Should the administration have been better prepared to handle? This influx of Children before it changed the policy, allowing them to stay in the country. JACOBSON>> I think there's a couple things I think What we're doing right now is making a difference in the home countries beginning to work with governments. You know that couldn't start until January. 20th there. There is one government at a time. You can't start changing processes of government building facilities. All of this is part of the plan as quickly as possible to make sure that our [13:14:28] domestic processes work more smoothly more quickly as I mentioned, but also to work with foreign governments, and you can't do that. Obviously till January 20th when you when you take over, but. Have been multiple engagements with the government of Mexico it very high level with the government of Guatemala with the hunger and government in Salvadoran In the first six weeks of government, So I think we've gotten off to a big start a fast start. In that engagement. Thank you, Gentle man Investor on Honduras. How did the administration downs his need for cooperation from that government with ongoing concerns about corruption there? Particularly federal prosecutors, who would say that the president is working on a plan to flood the United States with cocaine. I think one of the things that I made clear in the opening comments, which I want to reiterate, is that none of the money that we're looking to get from from Congress from the taxpayers of the United States goes to government leaders. So I don't think that [13:15:30] means that presidents are unimportant in these countries, but I do think that it's important to understand that we will be working with civil society. With international organizations and international ngos on the ground. We will work with officials that we can work with, but we also think it's really important. But these countries make commitments really explicit commitments to advancing on anti corruption. And in some places that will be hard to do if you've got officials for whom. There is a cloud and I think we need to work with the organizations that we can in countries. In some places. We will work with religious organizations, ngos with etcetera. It's a challenge in countries that have confronted serious corruption risks. What mechanism is in place where how do you possibly safeguard. That [13:16:32] funding to make sure it stays out of the hands and perhaps crept politicians. Well I think one of the things that we've always done. Always and 31. Years of the state Department has taught me this is we do end use monitoring right? Our embassies and people that we work with are looked at before their recipients of funds. And we do checks and we look at what's being done with the funds, right? We also don't deliver money. In most cases, we delivered training we deliver. New lighting facilities that reduce violence and crime S. Oh, so a lot of what you do, it's not handing over blank checks, and I think that's really important in this. Q>> Thank you very much. You're talking about restarting Cam. These other long term goals for what immigration policy should look like. But right now, New CNN reporting shows that unaccompanied migrant Children are being held in these border patrol facilities. Or on average 107 hours That's up from I believe 77 hours on average last week. So what is the bite [13:17:32] administration doing right now to fix that? JACOBSON>> I think you know my part of this focuses. Much more on what we're doing at the end of this process in Central America and Mexico. 131741 I think all of us at every stage of this process are doing everything we can to make sure that children are well cared for and moved into facilities that are appropriate for them. [13:17:55] But I want to make a point again that it's really important that people not make the dangerous journey in the first place that we provide them with alternatives to making that journey. Because it's not safe. On route on dsa. So you know if I could just emphasize that that it's really important that that message get out because the perception is not the same as the reality in terms of the border, not being open. We want to provide through camp through [13:18:34] other mechanisms, ways for some of these young people to be reunited with family members in the United States. [SPEAKING SPANISH] 131855 Q>> You're telling them not to come -- just to follow up quickly. You're telling them they should not come. Would you describe what's happening on the border as a crisis given how these numbers are spiking so much week by week? 131905 You know, I think that I really -- I'm not trying to be cute here. But I think the fact of the matter is we have to do what we do regardless of what anybody calls the situation. And the fact is, we are all focused on improving the situation, on changing to a more humane and efficient system. And whatever you call it, it wouldn't change what we're doing, because we have urgency from the president on down to fix our system and make sure that we are better at dealing with the hopes and the dreams of these migrants in their home country. 131945 Q>> Do you think it's a coincidence that as soon as Trump and his immigration policy were on the way out and Biden and his stated policy were on the way in, this historic surge at the border started? 131956 JACOBSON>>> Well, first of all, one of the things I think is important is we've seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope. And there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of, you know, pent up demand. So, I don't know whether I would call that a coincidence. But I certainly think that the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision. 132027 But perhaps more importantly, it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, to spread disinformation about what was now possible. [13:20:40] Q>> We know that the change in administrations brought hope. Then from your perspective is this search good? JACOBSON>> I don't think that's what I just said. I think it's a reflection of how migrants feel at a particular time. I think what we are doing is making sure that we respond to that hope for people who need protection. We respond to that hope in a way that their cases can be adjudicated more quickly. But I don't think anybody would say that coming to the United States in an irregular fashion is a good thing. That's why I've tried repeatedly to dissuade. People from from listening to those smugglers, but we're going to try our best to do everything we can at each end of this in the United States, but especially in Central America and Mexico. To ensure we have safe, orderly and legal migration. President fighting [13:21:42] when he was president, very active on working with the northward triangle countries, and I was just wondering where their lessons that you are here. Other administration officials, many whom are in jobs in this administration. Have learned about how to deal with those countries or how to deal with foreign aid to them that are informing how you're approaching things now, and that's the kind of follow up a little bitn what Peter was asking. Uh, Are you concerned at all of that kind of mixed messaging tt at the same time that you're telling people not to come that the journey is dangerous because you are offering this this talk about more humanitarian process that people. Not, you know, pay attention to the fact that they could apply from home from their home country that they would still come that they're still so hopeful that there really is kind of a conflicting message coming from Washington. Your federal. So on the first question the question of learning things from when the vice president was leading a lot of our efforts in Central America Previously, I think, [13:22:43] yes, that's a resounding yes. Both the president and all of us who worked with him on that for him on that learned a great deal, and I think that it's really important that we put that to use. Now. One of the things he thinks is so important is being really explicit. With leadership in the countries from which migrants are coming about commitments that they need to make because overcing the reasons people migrate. He's not gonna be the United States job alone, right if we realize that it's lack of good governance, economic opportunity and security issues of violence. Then some of those require commitments by the governments on anti corruption and transparency on creating governments that function better to provide services for their country. So He's very clear on being. Sure that we gethose commitments from leaders and holding them to it right. The money is not a tap [13:23:44] that gets turned on all at once. You have to make sure that you're continuing to follow those issues. So I think there's a lot of things we learned. And a lot of things we learned about ensuring that funds get to Communities that are really in need, whether it's post Hurricane or coffee rust, which was ravaging Guatemala and Honduras, or, you know a historic drought. 132401 I think when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now, and that is what we're trying to do. And I -- I will certainly agree that we are trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. We are trying to convey to everybody in the region that we will have legal processes for people in the future, and we're standing those up as soon as we can. 132437 But, at the same time, you cannot come through irregular means. It's dangerous, and, you know, the majority of people will be sent out of the United States, because that is the truth of it. We want to be honest with people. And so, we are trying to send both messages and smugglers are only trying to send one message. [13:25:04] So we're relying on every means we can to get that. Message out there and that leads me to wanna reiterate as I did before L a from terrorists Tessera. Yes. No Anselmo Mental winning guru Momenta is a propaganda. The tells in the money. Iraq. Drew. Say a word more about what you're talking about You from the private sector. Explain what your enjoy winning there and like, what exactly do you need? And then just to sort of the second question. You kno you're talking about being really explicit with these countries. But what sort of leverage does the United States actually have. To Effect change [13:25:53] in those countries. But what exactly can you do? Yeah. Let me take that second one first only because. Look in the end. I think the implication of your question which is quite right is we can't make the changes. We can encourage them. We can help. Support them with resource is both technical assistance and funding, but we can't make those changes. The changes have to come in the Northern Triangle countries. What I should say is my own experience from traveling to those places. There are myriad people in organizations who are trying to make those changes and part of what we want to do is empower them. Whether that's more effective, um, you know, Economic support, whether it's training for young people, whether it's anti gang programs, whher it's mother's clubs and empowering local communities, all of that gets done through people on the ground, not by the United States. So we want [13:26:53] to be able to empower those actors. I also think that it's really important when you say what leverage do you have? Well I do think that working as partners with these countries means sitting down and talking about what we could do together. 132705 But also if American taxpayers' funds are going to be used, then that is a certain amount of leverage. The President really wants to move forward on this, but he won't unless he feels he has those commitments on an ongoing basis. Is that leverage? You know, funds are -- are sometimes important means of having that conversation. [13:27:28] Your first question was on. Q>> Let me let me discuss it with. You can't follow up. You have to go back to the first one will you? I mean, are you saying exicitly? The U. S could withhold funding. With the Red State Department aide Rusch JACOBSON>> You know, I think I think the really important thing to know is [13:27:53] we're looking forward to getting this, um. Proposal before Congress and having Congress Act on it and what comes after that, You know, I just don't know. You know, the unexamined of branch can always. You know, adjust things like that. I also think it's really important to understand you asked about the private sector. 132808 The private sector in all of these countries, in Central America in particular, is a really important player here. And I think, to be very honest, we have not seen them step up. [13:28:22] One of the mechanisms that was really effective under the Obama Biden administration was for every dollar that the U. S put into an assistance program. We asked for private sector organizations, local chambers of commerce or business organizations. To either match us or exceed us. This gives the private sector skin in the game it make sure that they are part of the solution. If the government's in these countries don't always [13:28:54] have enough resource is to do what they should to improve the economic opportunity for people. There are private sector organizations and members of the private sector, the business community. We need to be part of that solution, and so we just feel that that's really an important element to this. We talked about international organizations, Governments, ngos, I don't want to leave out the business community as a participant ok, last two less three if you have time. Thank you. To follow up a number of question. I mean, I understand what you're saying. You have to empower the civil societies at least part countries, But can you make the link between empowering those civil societies and actually eliminate eliminating the push back there to stop him from coming? To this country, so how much of it is an international age policy versus an anti, You know, um, immigration policy. That's my first question. And then the second one if you could speak more specifically about the requirements that you're. Making to these countries in terms of anti [13:29:55] corruption practices. What are the specific measures of success and how to ensure that there? Yeah, well on the first question, I think this is. Both unturned national aid issue as well as as a policy issue both for us and the countries that we're working with. On the one hand, it is clearly a resource issue. You have to greater than category for hurricanes and then iota within a 15 Day period. You've got reports that suggest that. Literally multiple millions of people in Guatemala and Honduras are food insecure Now that is clearly something you need to be looking at humanitarian assistance and aid to try and remedy. Now in the longer term. When you're looking at increased pace of natural disastersecause of climate change, or you're looking at ways to. Ensure that agricultural policy changes in [13:30:55] countries or that training is given or that students, including girls remain in school. Those are longer term policy questions. That need to be addressed with our partners in the region because they all have an impact on whether migration flows increase or not. And so when the president talks about root causes. Some of this is immediate humanitarian aid, but a lot of it is policy and aid together, making sure that you tackle the root causes of migration. Otherwise, what you see is continued cycles. Right to break that cycle of migration sustainably, you have to work both. On the on the specific commitments for governments. I think that's something that we would want to discuss with the countries involved before we discuss it publicly. Things. The president's executive powers. Do you think the president will consider using his executive powers to reunite families who have been separated under a 00 tolerance? [13:31:57] Well, that certainly. Outside of the family Reunification task force that was created which is exactly to do that. You know that. Are you talking about people who are not in the same country families that were that was separated what the president used anymore. Executive powers. I'm sorry, but you need families who were separated when in the United States are doing zero tolerance and well, that's exactly what the family reunification task force is doing Nothing beyond that. It deals with the whole universe of people separated during that policy, so not that I know of. Okay Last turn back. Questions Congress appropriated almost $1.4 billion with this fiscal year for the border wall that you're not building how much of that is left? Are you guys redirecting it at all? And what along the border right now. Secondly you discussed messaging arguably your predecessors entire theory of their immigration agenda was that they were trying to send [13:32:57] this message. Don't come. America is closed the regular migration. So obviously you're pursuing something policies But what can you actually do differently than they did to try to get that message? If you know it wasn't fixed already with that kind of oppressive messages. On the first question regarding the border while the president has been very clear about ending the national emergency or the emergency of the border that was used to justify the wall, and obviously not proceeding with it. T he exact. Legal requirements and where that those funds might go. I just I just don't know. I'm sorry. Let me let me talk about the message issue. I mean, I think. I think it's really important to understand that Okay? 133344 You can't and shouldn't say in this administration's opinion that the only way to message "do not come in irregular fashion" is to act as cruelly as you possibly can, separate children from their parents, return people to places that, like the camp -- migrant camp in Matamoros, you know for up to two plus years at a time, and that's the only way that you could get your message across. 133411 This administration's belief is that we can get our message across that it is a more humane policy by opening up avenues of legal migration which will encourage people to take those legal options and go through the asylum process if they're seeking that and not take the irregular road. 133436 I think you have to find different ways to message. But if messaging reflects your actions, that is why we are increasing the actions for legal migration so that the message is, you have another option. I'm from back. Q>> Thank [13:35:00] you. Let me ask you a question in Spanish for our audience [SPANISH] [13:35:14] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:36:51] Q>> [SPANISH] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:37:59] PSAKI>> Okay? I can't promise you'll always be that rapid when I promised to bring someone to the briefing room, But we'll try. We'll do our best. Well, we'll do our best couple of other items for all of you at the top. 133813 With today's expected passage of the Rescue Plan, I can announce that the President will sign the bill at the White House on Friday afternoon. We've spent a lot of time, of course, from the podium talking about the mechanics of how a bill becomes a law, and I know there's lots of interest in what comes next. So once it's passed, the bill text will be rechecked, printed, and signed by the appropriate leaders in the House and Senate. 133834 The House coach will then deliver it to the White House for the president's signature. We expect that delivery to happen sometime tomorrow, and then the President will sign it on Friday. [13:38:44] We, of course, are moving full speed ahead on the implementation of the bill because we know the American people need help. I need it as soon as possible. The way we are also working on looking ahead to implementation. I wanted to make sure you all saw [13:39:03] Secretary Yellen speech before the National League of Cities yesterday, promising to get at eight out to state and local governments. Obviously this is a key component of the package and one that will help keep. Cops, firefighters. Local officials in their jobs on we're looking there. They're looking for ways to maximize, of course, the impact of every dollar. That's exactly what the president did when he served as the point person on the implementation of the Recovery Act in 2009, partnering with mayors, governors and other officials to get help to them quickly and in a way that kept waste fraud and abuse to 2/10 of 1, 133935 So he knows directly that the passage and signing of the bill is just the beginning, and he will -- he plans to appoint somebody to run point on implementation. I don't have any personnel announcements today, but that will certainly be part of our path moving forward. Also today, as you know, the President will join the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck to discuss their historic partnership that will produce more lifesaving vaccines for Americans and the world. 134002 President Biden also announced that he is directing -- he is planning to direct -- he's directing, I should say, Jeff Zients, our covid coordinator, and HHS, and the HHS team to procure an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He's doing this because in a wartime effort, which is what we consider this, we need maximum flexibility. 134023 We want to be oversupplied and over-prepared. There's also a chance that we'll encounter an unexpected challenge on new need in our vaccination efforts, and we're preparing for just that. [13:40:32] The president also discussed the meeting today at the meeting is having today during his remarks and also address, of course, are the passage of the rescue plan during those remarks as well. Last item. I believe here. What's going on here today? On March 18th 19th, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken will meet with Director Gangjee Tour and State [13:41:04] Councilor Wang G. And Anchorage of China. Of course, the meeting will follow the president's convening of the quad at the leader level, as well as his participation in the G seven. Leaders meeting just a few weeks ago, Secretary Blinken on Secretary Austin's trip to Japan and Korea, two of our closest regional allies and national security Advisor Sullivan's multiple engagements with Japanese Korean, Australian, Canadian and European counterparts, including European quad meeting next week. It was important to us that this administration's first meeting with Chinese officials be held American soil and occur after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe. And as you know, my number of those conversations have happened at the presidential level and, of course at the secretary of state and National Secity Advisor level as well. Meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including ones where we have deep disagreements. We intend to discuss her expectations and will be frank and explaining Beijing's actions and behavior behavior Challenge. To the [13:42:06] security, prosperity and our concerns about challenges. They post the security on values of the United States and our allies and partners. We will also talk about areas where we can cooperate of mutual interests on we're coming to these discussions, of course. Clear eyed. The meeting also provides an opportunity to emphasize H the United States will stand up for the rules based international system and a free and open Endo Pacific. As the president has said, We approach our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength in lockstep with our allies and partners. That Go ahead, Jonathan. Q>> Thanks Judge. You said the president will be signing the bill on Friday and you walk us through what will happen next? The president himself has expressed regret that the 2009 got recovery happened was not sold. Well, let's put it to yourself that acknowledge that others veterans of the demonstration field similarly. Can you explain to us what we're going to see from the president from surrogates? How is this message to deliver to the American people? How do you sell this bill? 134258 PSAKI>> Sure. Well, the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second gentleman, a number of members of our Cabinet will be communicating directly with the American people, engaging directly with the American people, and all sending a clear message: help is on the way. [13:43:15] Over the next few weeks. We're going to swiftly put in place implementation plans. I've touched on a little bit of that. Andre plans to get aid to the people in places that need it the most as quickly as possible. This'll is, of course, a continuation of the work we've done over the last two months to build support for the rescue plan, communicating directly with the American people building support among mayors, governors, labor leaders, the business community and other stakeholders. 134338 We'll be emphasizing a number of components that are in the package and really having a conversation. This is important to the president personally. Having a conversation directly with people about how they could benefit, addressing questions they have, even taking their feedback on implementation and how to make it clear. [13:43:55] and we've talked a little bit about in here. People of questions like. Do I need to do anything to get my check? How do I benefit from the health benefits? What about you know what? What Funding will go to my school? He wants to ensure that people have access to the instant formacion 134410 So, he will be hitting the road. The vice president will be hitting the road. The first lady will be hitting the road. We will have people out communicating directly in communities, but we'll also use a range of tools at our disposal, including engaging in -- communicating through digital means, doing local interviews, and also utilizing a number of members of our Cabinet cabinet who have key roles in the implementation. [13:44:34] I referenced Secretary Yellin, of course in her role. Obviously the Iris has some key roles here, but he will be tapping into the Cabinet to also play a role in communicating and engaging with the public. Following this and one other matter on this, you know President Auntie is addressing the nation's right in prime time. Is this part of it? The idea of what happens next because of the package going to be. Part of that speech. We preview a little bit about what the message the American people is going to be to morning I expect we'll have more toe say tomorrow about the speech, and I want to just give him a [13:45:11] chance to go through the speech again and make sure I'm previewing it in a way that is consistent with where it will land. 134511 But as I've talked about a little bit in here, this is -- tomorrow marks the 50th day of the administration. It also marks one year since the country shut down. And the President believes it is important to take a look back of the journey the American people have been on, the sacrifices that have been made, the lives that have been lost, and also look ahead. And he will be talking more about how he will approach this war against the pandemic moving forward and lay out some more specifics of what the American people can expect. [13:45:43] U N report out today says the U. S Is among the countries lagging behind on climate friendly projects in covid Economic recovery Spending Club What is this administration has started moving forward on the $2 trillion climate change package that was such a big part of that candidate. Fighting's campaign. PSAKI>> It's only day 49. Jonathan We're about to pass a [13:46:11] historic the most Progressive bill in American history. It's be a passing today. Look I would say that the president believes that and he talked about this on the campaign trail is a zoo you mentioned was certainly a promise of his that. We can create the United States and many other countries around the world will will focus on here can create good paying union jobs that are also consistent with our objective of just addreing the climate crisis, and certainly that is central to how he's thinking about his agenda. Moving forward. Those policy discussions Air Sil ongoing but I can assure you that. He intends to Dever on the promises he made on the campaign trail on intends to deliver on the promises he made about creating good paying union jobs that also are consistent with his goal of addressing climate. ISIS. I should say, Go ahead on the 100 million new does since you said that the goal is to be over supply. What's the goal for that over supplies to be held in reserve for kids? Is it to be donated to other countries? Is it. To be held in reserve in [13:47:13] case people need to get shots again next year. What's the plan for that extra dosage Well first, the president's focus every day when he makes up is ensuring every American week. We can ensure that every American has access to a vaccine and that we are vaccinating the people in this country. But here a couple of the factors that we're have have weighed in on our decision to purchase. An additional 100 million doses. 134731 We still don't know which vaccine will be most effective on kids. We still don't know the impact of variants or the need for booster shots. And these doses can be used for booster shots as well as needed. Obviously, that's still being studied by the FDA. But, again, we want to be over prepared, as I noted earlier. 134749 We also need maximum flexibility. So Johnson & Johnson, the vaccine has unique benefits. It's a one shot vaccine. It can be stored in the fridge and not a freezer. It's highly effective, as the others are as well, against hospitalization and death. But we are really looking for maximum flexibility here, as we are still considering a couple of those pieces I mentioned, which is most effective with children, the effectiveness on addressing variants, and, and, of course, boosters as I noted. 134819 Q>> And then on the COVID relief bill, which is being voted on in the House right now, how quickly will school districts be able to access that money, and will they be able to implement it in time to make safety changes for this school year, which in many parts of the country is only the last another three months? 134836 You're absolutely right, and a fair amount of the funding is also -- we expect will be likely used for forward planning, right? So, so schools that need to plan for, we need to hire temporary teachers right now, but we need to ensure we can keep them on the job in a year, in two years. We need to make facility upgrades. 134854 It really depends school to school. In terms of the timeline for implementation, I know that's something that our Department of Education is going to be looking at. [13:49:02] And of course, the implementation team that will be focused on getting these dollars out the door so we will certainly plan to give you an update as we have a [13:49:16] better time line on the on the calendar. Q>> On another front registered journalist, Andrea Support is currently on trial over her coverage of a racial justice protest. Last summer. She's been charged with failure to disperse and interference with official access. The find administration believes that these charges should be dropped and will the president or anyone in the administration urged Polk County, Iowa prosecutors. Drop the charges. PSAKI>> I'm happy to discuss this with our team. I'm not as familiar with the case, but I will look into it. We'll get you back and answer. Q>> Sure Dracula first off has President Biden been briefed yet by his delegation that went to the border over the weekend. And does he now feel the need to go to the border if he has been briefed by the. 134951 PSAKI>> Sure. Well I can confirm for you that the President did receive a briefing earlier today from members of his team that visited the border region this past weekend. I will note, he receives regular briefings on immigration, and the economy, on COVID, on a range of issues that the country and the administration is facing. He heard from the delegation on what they observed during their visit to the border region and the facilities they toured. 135015 But they all -- they spent the majority of their time discussing what steps can be taken to expedite processes to move more quickly, to move the process more quickly to meet the administration's goal of getting these children placed with vetted and confirmed families. Moving them quickly, as related to your question earlier, out of border patrol facilities and into these shelters and then ultimately into these homes. 135037 I don't have anything to preview for you in terms of a trip. Obviously, a delegation going to the border and visiting these facilities is something that can be done with a much smaller footprint than the president of the United States traveling, but I don't have anything to preview in terms of a trip. [13:50:52] Q>> And earlier you said you're going to where the president is going to pick someone to kind of run the implementation of the coronavirus relief package. Does the White House anticipate that there could be delays in implementing that because it is such a big bill? PSAKI>> No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't imply our I was not trying to imply that on Lee that we know that this will not all be implemented in four days [13:51:19] or a week or what have you This will take some time on. 135116 And we want to ensure that there is a person responsible and accountable to the implementation. That's something the president felt worked when he was vice president, and so it was an indication of that. [13:51:25] But there are a number of Cabinet members who also played pivotal roles here. A reference, of course, Secretary Yellen Secretary Cardona will play a pivotal role, of course in the reopening of schools, and so they're already officials within the administration. But this this could be it has been used in the past is that more of a coordinating mechanism and how long do you think that implementation will take? I can't give you really a timeline of that. Obviously there are things they're different components as you well know, right, getting the checks out the door. Our Treasury, a team and our economic team are crunching the numbers on that. We hope to have an update for all of you soon on that. Obviously reopening schools, as Nancy was asking AUT it really is school district of school district in terms of what their needs what their needs will be which schools need funding which district's need funding? There are things like unemployment insurance, which [13:52:20] obviously is applied through different mechanisms. So there are pieces of this that are just going to be implemented over time. Some that could be Dunmore. Rapidly and quickly, but obviously this is our focus and are our priority in the days ahead. Last question on Johnson and Johnson, he is going to announce that they were trying to get another. 100 million doses this afternoon, but the administration told governors yesterday on their weekly called They should only expect to get 400,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine next week. That is far behind what the Johnson Johnson contract with the federal government. They were supposed to have ready when it was authorized by the fda. So is he going to confront the Johnson and Johnson executives? He's meeting with today about why they are so far behind on production. Well, as you know, Caitlyn, we hey, invoked the Defense Production act in part because he wanted Torno and our team Jeff Science and others have been working closely with Johnson and Johnson and Merck, of course, to expedite the production of vaccines to ensure that they could be. Available on the timeline they've committed to. 135319 I will say that this 100 million that was announced -- that's being announced this afternoon is more for the second half of this year and not for -- it's not -- we're not adding additional doses expected on that same timeline. But I'm certain they will be discussing, of course, the need to ensure that the deadlines are met and that, that we have the vaccines and the doses needed to get them in the arms of the American people. Go ahead, Andrew. Q>> So other vaccine the head of the W T, O and others are calling for greater efforts to be made by advanced economies, big countries in rich countries to get more vaccine into developing countries. You just announced that you wanna be over para here in the U. S. And what is the United States soon and sure that these vaccines get out to other countries and do you favor a waiver of intellectual property? Protections under the wt O to ensure that that moves more quickly, or, you know what's [13:54:24] your perspective and a kind of a third way that would be just increasing license? PSAKI>> First the president is deeply focused on the issue of expanding global vaccinations and manufacturing and delivery, which will be critical to end the pandemic. But as we've also said he is first and foremost focused on ensuring Americans have access to vaccines as soon as possible. Uh in the in this period of time on, we've obviously made a great deal of progress on that front. I don't anything more to preview for you in terms of what that will look like we first need to focus on right now. We're still in a circumstance where there isn't enough supply for the for the number of Americans who want to get the vaccination, so that's really our focus at this point in time, but certainly it's a point of discussion. With his counterparts and with a the counter parts of other members of our national security team. Say anything about the river. I don't have anything more for you to predict that question of vaccinating Children. You mentioned that you're not sure which vaccine will be most effective. Actually has talked [13:55:25] about getting high school students vaccinated fell in elementary school kids in the spring. You have a sense of when every American. Could be death. Maybe I mean, you know, you know, we've talked about having enough on hand for adults to be vaccinated by this summer. By the end of May, actually, Well, we will have enough supply right? But the president is the first to say that we can't do this alone, And that's certainly a component of this That is vitally important is ensuring that. People understand across the country that these vaccines are safe and they are effective and we're still going to focus on combating the issues of misinformation. And of course, the vaccine hesitancy in a range of communities you have today, as you know, would be the ones running point on approval of vaccines for Children. I can't really predict. When Children will be vaccinated. We don't know when the fda may approve a vaccine, but our role is ensuring [13:56:26] there's enough supply and that there is enough distribution. We've made a great deal of progress on that more work to be done, but I can't make any predictions beyond that. But. A couple things first President Biden when he was vice president, Kind of was the person who ran point on the 2009 recovery Bill. Would you expect that Vice President Harris might take on civil rule he had, you know? Give General lot put her in a very similar position to the one that he had with President Obama. That's true. I mean, the president has said that he wants the vice president to be the first in the room and the last in the room when he has important briefings when they're important policy decisions and discussions that are taking place, And that certainly is how he is operating, or they're operating as a team together in terms of what role she may play in the implementation. I don't have anything to preview for you on that She will certainly be traveling. She's a key. Voice and asset for the [13:57:26] administration, and she'll be communicating about the impact of the of the American rescue plan and how it's going to help with the American people over the course of the next few weeks. Lank Lean said last night that the president's speech to a joint session of Congress will be for a few weeks. He was kind of suggesting there was gonna be this time period. The administration. It's focused on. Promoting the bill that just passed. Can you kind of confirm that and provide any more information on sort of how you're thinking about the rest of March into April? You know, promoting this. They're fever since moving on to the fullback Better Sure, I don't have an exact breakdown of timeline. And I don't think Ron wasn't intending to give one either on Lee to convey, which is, I think what? You're asking that the president, the vice president and all of us in the administration believe it's important to take a moment to or a few moments I should say to communicate directly with the American people about. The [13:58:26] benefits of the package to ensure they understand that help is on the way and a range of forms and to do that, in communities and directly with people who were hoping understand the benefits of this package S O I expect that to mean a couple of trips for the president, the vice president, others, but I don't have kind of an end date for that on certainly par of the part of the focus internally is on ongoing discussions about what is next and what components of the president's build back. Better agenda. What the order is the format the size and there's just those decisions have been finalized quite yet. One other thing that you'd kind of into you might have an answer for yesterday, which is another thing related to Ron. That clearing National Clearinghouse for Vaccine informatio. Way here in the Blue Merc theater heard, And Justify no answer on very excited about the website, which which many people are. You know, I would say, you know. As you know it, the website is being implemented as a vaccine finder, I should say [13:59:27] is being implemented as a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding the pilot program, and we're certainly looking into that. We're also looking into, and others have asked this question. How we can better assist state and local governments who have their own websites where they are utilized by many members of the local community and effective but sometimes they have. Technical issues, So we're looking at addressing it from. Ah, couple of, um. Different directions, but every option remains on the table were also considering setting up call centers. Organizing navigators help to help individuals schedule appointments, which sometimes can be the issue so I don't have a major update, other than to convey that. It's a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding it on. Certainly a range of options remain on the table and sometimes in some states. Their local website is working quite well, and they just need some technical assistance. What. Q>> Jen you've been telling migrants from right there for a month now, probably back to February 10. But now is not the time to come, but ey are coming in [14:00:28] bigger numbers every day. 140025 So, do you have a messaging problem? 140027 PSAKI>> Well, I would say that in the last administration, we had a morality problem, and children were being pulled from the arms of their parents, and kids were being sent back on a treacherous journey, and that's not the approach of this administration. So, certainly we understand that means there will be more kids who are crossing the border. 140047 We made a policy decision that that was the right, humane step to take. But, I think it's also important for people to understand that the vast majority of people who come to our border are turned away, are sent back to their countries. What we're talking about here are unaccompanied children. [14:01:04] and what our focus is on is ensuring that there are safe places for these kids to go that have accent where they have access to educational resource is health and medical attention, legal assistance as need, and that we can expedite the vetting so that they can get to families and sponsors where they can have their case is adjudicated. 140125 Q>> But since the last administration is gone, tomorrow is 50 days of Biden, there are migrants showing up, wearing t-shirts that say, "Biden, please let us in." And candidate Biden is the one who said, "I would end this notion for the first time in history, the people seeking asylum have to be in squalor on the other side of the river." Why doesn't he come out and just say now is not the time? 140145 PSAKI>> Well, he actually did an interview with Univision about a week or week and a half ago where he conveyed a similar message. And we've conveyed that at every opportunity that we have. [14:01:55] I will say we are, as you noted almost 50 days in. We are Diggle digging ourselves out of a broken and dismantled system. Roberta Master Jacobson referenced this in her opening as well when it comes to engage with countries addressing the root causes. We couldn't start doing that until January. 20th There are programs like the relaunching of the Central American Minors Program, which was ended by the prior administration in 2017. And that meant that that that program which would have allowed for people to apply from the region. We had to restart that program, so we're working to fix the mess of the last couple of years. It's going to take some time. But this is clearly a priority for the president. We're looking at a range of options, which include the opening of additional facilities. It includes steps we can take to expedite the processing and includes application and implementation of the CDC guidelines that were just came out that allow for more Children to be house safely in these facilities, so we're looking at every option possible to help address the [14:03:05] challenges. We're facing a life in the White House. It's a problem that when the CDC tells these migrant shelter facilities that they can be a full capacity that they're careful about covid. Many of them do. But when the C D C tells schools that they can open in person at full capacity, many of them don't. Is there a school in particular that you have is an example that didn't do that? Our most schools in this country at full capacity within person learning. Are there a specific school, though that is not following the CDC guidelines of implementing the mitigation steps so they can re open the CDC saying schools you can't be at every school can be at full capacity. With the CDC guys. This CDC guidelines is to be clear because I think this is very important to be very clear and specific on. They gave eight mitigation steps that schools can take to safely reopen. A number of schools have actually recently reopened Schools and Washington D. C [14:04:05] Some have schools in many districts across the country. Each school district needs to make the decision about whether they are able to take those mitigation steps. The president has also been clear. Some of these school district's need additional funding. There's $160 billion in this package that he's going to sign into law later this week. Secretary of Education will be quite focused on working with school district's to help them reopen, but more school district's are reopening. More kids are in classrooms every single day since they are not all back from an administration position or from your perspective. Have the border Patrol unions and the HHS Union's been easier to work with than the teachers unions. I think that's a little bit of mixing different circumstances. I would say that in tight quarters Uhh I mean a classroom, but. Not quite. Not quite. I would say that. Let's let's take a responsible approach to the two issues. Okay, One is schools reopening, [14:05:06] There's been eight mitigation steps that have been announced by the CDC to implement right. Every school district is going to work to implement those on a timeline that is, they can effectively do. Many school districts are reopening right. Many are re opening every single weekend day and week, right, That is a different circumstance than what we're seeing at the border and the HHS overseas defense. These facilities, right they're working with. They're working on ensuring we could have more kids safely. They are working to implement CDC guidelines, but they're different circumstances and certainly we're working with the school district's and we're also working with HHS to open these facilities there to ensure that kids are treated With safety and care in these facilities. Okay, Go ahead. Thanks Dan. Just little bit more on the Clark. You mentioned yesterday that one of the issues that will be discussed it is how the leaders can work together to combat the pandemic. Might. That discussion include a strategy to counter Brexit diplomacy from China and Russia. You know, I think [14:06:10] they'll be a range of topics discussed and I know that is a concern of a number of leaders around the world, including, of course, President Biden on I'm sure we'll have a readout of the quad meeting tomorrow. Once it's completed. More on the announcement that you complete viewers. Can we expect anything in terms of how the spark. He was here in terms of helping others. Again I know they'll discuss a range of issues tomorrow, but I think it's important to just take a quick a little bit of a step back because this is a meeting that covers a range of topics. Of course, I'm sure covid which is a pandemic everyone in the world is dealing with will be a topic of discussion, but they'll be issues like climate that our address economic cooperation. I'm sure they'll have a range of issues to bring up and we will provide a readout when the meeting concludes tomorrow, the military balance I mean, we know that China just amount of huge defense spending 6.8% I believe for this year. Is that also a top item indigent? PSAKI>> I [14:07:13] don't think I have more to preview than what we've already offered. We will, of course, have a readout on the meeting concludes There are a range of topics on the minds of all of these leaders. As I've noted in here before we anticipate the meeting, discussing. ------ ---We'll bring up a number of issues and we'll have a robust readout when the meeting concludes. Go ahead. [14:07:33] Q>> A few questions. Sure. So, in California republicans are seeking to nationalize a recall after governor Gavin Newsom and really make it a referendum on on public policies you know the other day, Bernie Sanders tweeted that it's time for Democrats to unite and rally on his behalf against the Republicans, does the President have any plans to personally or otherwise support us and if this does make it on the ballot and you know becomes an off year campaign, PSAKI>> we're not quite there yet we've spoken out in support of Governor Newsome and against the recall so that remains our position. Q>> Also in California. He at the San Francisco Chronicle are finding that school districts are saying, even with this influx of money coming from the package, there's still lots of reasons they're not sure if they can reopen even unify this fall through building consensus around how to do it. There's been some criticism that the CDC guidance is actually too conservative and prohibitive, including the six feet distance rule that schools either have to ignore or not open. If there are still schools that aren't open by this fall that the administration considered a failure and what more could they possibly do to help those schools. [14:08:45] PSAKI>> We have several months before the fall sub six months, five months, I will stop doing math now. This is our Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, this is his number one priority what he is focused on the President has asked him to lead this effort. And he's holding a school summit, he will be working with school districts including I'm sure in California and San Francisco and others to work to address what they feel the challenges are to reopening, whether it's funding that's needed whether it's consensus building that needs to happen, the President wants schools to be open, five days a week, once kids to be learning in school and we're going to do everything we can to ensure that's happening. Q>> And lastly on the subject of today's briefing, you know. Immigration and Border policy it covers so many different agencies there's Public Security there's HHS as we discussed, there's State Department, Department of Justice, which we'll talk about as much as a huge piece of this. Is there someone in this administration who is coordinating all of these disparate pieces. Ultimately, you know, where does the buck stop who is making sure that all these different agencies are coordinating to the administration, [14:09:55] PSAKI>> Overall, well, ultimately, the President is responsible for the policy on key issues and key challenges for countries facing and immigration is certainly one of them. You're right. There are a number of agencies involved in this effort, but I will say, I would say they're all playing a pivotal role, the Department of Homeland Security. The. We don't have a Health and Human Services Secretary confirmed yet, when he is he will play a pivotal role but a whole team at HHS, as you know. So, this is being coordinated on part from our national security team but ultimately, it's the president who makes decisions about the policy that's why he asked the team to go to the border and my he asked to receive a briefing and that's something as I noted that happened this morning. Go ahead. [14:10:33] Q>> Okay, on the package implementation for your specific lessons that President Biden when he was in charge of this in 2009, that he learned about that effort that will be applied this effort, particularly in terms of efficiency and reducing waste and fraud that kinds of things but in general any specific lessons that he learned, other than it's good to have one person in charge. PSAKI>> Sure, is structured very differently as you remember, and I'm sure many people remember that a big chunk of the recovery out was around shovel ready project losses of course it very different type of bill. I think some of the lessons were already implementing, including having a point person in charge and including ensuring there's a sustained campaign that is not just about the President of the United States or the Vice President of the United States speaking about the benefits but that really engages our partners and allies, [14:11:28] whether it's Governor's or mayor's local community leaders to ensure there is effective implementation and communication about the package. He also wants to lift up and this is something that's been important to him in general but it's very applicable to this package, members of his cabinet so that they can be front facing and play a very public role in engaging with the public and ensuring the understand components and pieces of a package like this. There are pieces in this package that of course are related to the helping veterans there are pieces of this package that really relate to helping rural communities and he wants to ensure that members of his cabinet are are playing key roles there. That's something that, of course, was done a little bit in 2009 but can can definitely be built on and I think we would venture to do that. [14:12:18] Q>> Equal Rights Amendment The house is expected to vote soon I think next week on eliminating the now expired deadline for ratification and of course Virginia last year became the 38th state to ratify but last year the Justice Department issued a memo saying that we can't do that, that if people feel and move it to an area of constitution so starting the ratification process over. My question is whether the administration is going to rescind that memo and some Democrats have asked him to do. PSAKI>> That's an excellent question. I will have to talk to our team about that and get an update on it, which will then try to do for you after everything go ahead. Q>> Thanks a couple questions on behalf of printful for reporters who couldn't be here. One of my own. Jesse Hellman with modern healthcare wanted to know when President signs executives today from Johnson and Johnson and Mark does he practice he planned to press them on increasing costs of prescription drugs, [14:13:16] bring up his own agenda to lower drug prices, and PSAKI>> the primary focus of this meeting is on working together the two companies who have long been competitors, working together to ensure the efficient and effective manufacturing of vaccines. Q>> Tommy Christopher from media had a question on the filibuster said that President Biden expressed some openness filibuster reform during the campaign, you've said more recently, that it's not process to change the rules we wants to know if the john lewis Voting Rights Act represents a red line if Republicans do not support that that does not move forward in the Senate. Is that a red line that would prompt him to consider filibuster reform. [14:13:58] PSAKI>> Well, the President's preference is not to make changes to the filibuster rules, he believes that voting rights and access to voting, ensuring it's easier for the American people is enough of a huge priority it should be for everyone that's why you signed some executive orders, use the power. hesitancy to do that this weekend, and he is hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can work together to get that done. Q>> And then one last question on the overall agenda, you were saying earlier, you know, when you look at built back better you're sort of thinking through kind of what's next, but broadly speaking is infrastructure. The next big legislative priority on Capitol Hill for this administration. [14:1437] There's also pressure for an immigration bill to go through what's next for you guys, what is the next big priority after the bill that you're hoping to sign that's present don't miss out on Friday. PSAKI>> It's a very popular question, understandably, but our focus is on getting American rescue plan implemented. We will have more to say the President will have more to say on his build back better agenda and what the components of that look like, what the size the proposals the order of events will be, but I don't have anything to preview for you. [14:15:08] Q>> Before an immigration bill on Capitol Hill, 141509 PSAKI>> Well, I don't have a legislative order to preview for you either. I will say, given all of the conversations we're having, understandably, about the border and questions about the border, in the President's proposed immigration package, he has funding for -- to address the root causes in the region, as we talked about a little bit earlier, he has a pathway to citizenship, he proposes a pathway to citizenship -- citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and he also proposes an investment in smart security. 141537 So, given all of the concern by many in Congress about immigration and what's happening at the border, it sure seems like a good time to move that initiative forward. Go in the back. [14:15:51] Q>> Thank you, Jen, I understand you don't want to call it a crisis from this podium little funny you say, border patrol agents at the border or especially those within the union, who are calling it a crisis and who are saying that they're overworked and there's just too many encounters day in and day out. PSAKI>> We are saying that we recognize that are incumbent upon us and this administration is continuing to continue to work day and night to expedite the process of ensuring there are the resources and processes in place to move children from the border patrol facilities to the shelters. We are saying that it is incumbent upon our administration to look for additional facilities that can safely house children and incumbent upon us to ensure that we are communicating effectively and efficiently to the region as [14:16:42] Ambassador Jacobson talked about at the top of this briefing and those are all focuses of the President on down. You know, every single day. Q>> The Mexican government today, reports that over 4000 unaccompanied minors were actually deported back to Mexico between January and March. Can you confirm that this was done under the previous administration or any of those unaccompanied minors deported, under the Biden administration. PSAKI>> I know that CBP provides numbers and data on a regular basis and I think there's more data coming soon. From there, so I would certainly send to them for any statistics and data our policies that we don't turn children under 18 away at the border on of course as you know, though, even if, when they are in homes of family members or in sponsored homes that they still can go through processing [14:17:33] and may need to return home, Q>> the stimulus package you find me one last question I know I think this came up yesterday, but I wanted to ask the question, now that the stimulus package is passed on many undocumented immigrants are not benefited in any way by the money that's going out, the president blended the executive action or anything else to do to help that population. PSAKI>> Sorry I missed part of the last sentence. Q>> Now that the stimulus package has yes and the undocumented population. Many of the millions are not benefited in any way, does a president blind any executive actions or anything else to help a population. [14:18:06] PSAKI>> Well, certainly I think the President's priority given he proposed an immigration bill on the first day is to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, of course, in this country. He's also been clear that, ensuring that everybody in this country is vaccinated and receives that so COVID COVID-19 vaccine is a key priority. And of course this is just the beginning of his agenda but I don't have anything more to preview for you. Go ahead Q>> and Vicki judge, given the current premise of vaccination around the world, what would your President consider organizing these climates in person in DC here for you to avoid practice. PSAKI>> I don't think we have any I think at this point the intention is to do it remotely [14:18:45] I believe and I don't think there's an intention to change that, but I'm happy to check on that for you. Q>> Do you know roughly how many states expert for the Chinese president will be one of them. PSAKI>> I don't have any more details on the summit I know it's coming up in about six weeks, five weeks, and I expect as we get closer we'll have more to preview, go into that part Q>> yeah just a follow up on filibusters I've said many times that President Biden's preference is not to change the rules around filibuster but if the next big pieces of his agenda are stymied in the Senate. Are there changes to the filibuster that he can live with such as talking filibuster. [14:19:22] PSAKI>> Well, the President believes that there are a range of issues where there's historic. There's historic precedent of Democrats and Republicans working together, whether it's infrastructure as we've been talking about or modernizing the immigration system. He's obviously had a number of bipartisan meetings in the Oval Office. So that's where his energy and focus will be moving forward, go in the back. Q>> Thank you. So the could just have held trouble than containing a dissident, a woman released from prison weeks ago, is it a sign that the White House message regarding the human rights abuse in the kingdom is not strong enough, PSAKI>> what you were referring to a human rights, somebody, a human rights activist who was released from prison, but Q>> was not able to travel outside the kingdom. PSAKI>> I would have to look into more specific details of that [14:20:15] I know we were pleased with the release, but I'd have to look into more specific details of the travel restrictions, Q>> but do you have any sort of eta for when the next cabinet secretaries will be approved, and when you're going to start nominating ambassadors PSAKI>> go ask our friends in the Senate. We expect that some will move forward with and we are hopeful, I should say that we will get a couple of additional cabinet members, confirmed in the coming days or over the course of the next week, the Presidents looking forward to that. They're certainly looking forward to at some point having a full cabinet meeting, [14:20:46] the President hasn't made any decisions about Ambassador all nominees so I don't expect them to be confirmed anytime soon, given we have to nominate them first. Well, again, it's really up to the Senate on the timeline for that but we are hopeful that they move forward with the remaining members of the Cabinet, given we are almost two months into an administration. Q>> Just to follow up on something that Ambassador Jacobson said, and I think you may have gotten a note about this, that she first time she said that the border is not closed and she then insist when she was speaking in Spanish and then you know later on spoken Spanish again for the border is closed. [14:21:32] I mean, it seems like she, I guess misspoke, the first time consider your overall message but your concern, but now that she is misspoken that that's going to be, you know, picked up and disseminated across the Spanish speaking world is the message from the administration, PSAKI>> well given she also said that the border is closed, we're hopeful that that is what will be picked up and that is clearly and consistently been our message. So, that is certainly our hope Q>> you're having a messaging, difficulty around this issue. hat just means and [14:22:05] PSAKI>> we certainly hope not. We have the power of the media here to make sure you're communicating effectively with the messages and as we knew we all have moments where we where we say something slightly differently than we would like to and we quickly try to correct it to make it easier to communicate with the administration's, you know, goals and policies are. Thanks everyone. [END]

Asian woman and friends drinking coffee and hot green tea She and her friend were chatting and enjoying and relaxing on their day off at a cafe.

FS36 WH PRESS BRFG ROBO STIX 1230 ABC UNI WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING WITH JEN PSAKI [13:06:19] PSAKI>> Hello. So, joining us today is Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, coordinator for the southern border. was the U. S ambassador to Mexico from 2016 to 2018. She previously served as U.S Assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere. Fairs I had the pleasure of working with her at that time, and has focused on Latin America for more than 30 years as a career civil servant. She's going to give some remarks and then happy to take some questions. And as always, I will be the bad cop. Thank you for joining. So Thank you all. JACOBSON>> Good afternoon. Wasn't Biden has made clear from day one that he wants to change our immigration system. Doing so means truly building back better. Because we can't just undo four years of the previous [13:07:22] administration's actions overnight. 130718 Those actions didn't just neglect our immigration system. They intentionally made it worse. When you add a pandemic to that, it's clear it will take significant time to overcome. We must build a better immigration system that reflects our values as Americans, enforces our laws, safeguards public health, and moves away from cycles of irregular migration. 130742 Today, I'm here to talk about what we are doing with partners in Mexico and Central America to ensure that people don't make this dangerous journey and instead have opportunities for economic advancement and safety at home. The President has committed to seeking $4 billion over four years to address the root causes of migration, including corruption, violence, and economic devastation exacerbated by climate change. [13:08:09] As part of that plan, we will address the causes that compel individuals to migrate, including improving governance and providing a foundation for investment and economic opportunity. Strengthening civilian security and the rule of law. Working across the whole of government. We will look at access to international protection and refugee resettlement. And rethinking asylum processing to ensure fair and faster consideration. Only by addressing those root causes. Can we break the cycle of desperation and provide hope for families who clearly would prefer to stay in their countries and provide a better future for their Children? President Biden when he was vice president visited the region many times and is clear eyed about the challenge. Insists now, as he did, then the government's commit to being true partners in creating the conditions for growth and security. I want to emphasize that the funds were asking for from Congress don't go to government leaders. They go to communities to training to climate mitigation to violence prevention to anti gang programs. In other words, they [13:09:23] go to the people who otherwise migrate in search of hope. And they will have to have the participation of the private sector's in those countries. For too long, have evaded taxes, underpaid workers and failed to be part of the solution to creating safe, prosperous and democratic countries. We've already begun. Specific actions to both undo the previous administration's policies and to advance a new vision of immigration. We have ended the so called migrant protection protocols, which sent people back to Mexico to wait sometimes for years for a chance to present their asylum claims. Working with the government of Mexico international organizations and ngos. We have safely admitted over 1400 migrants and closed the most dangerous face of the mpp. Matamoros Migrant camp. Today we're announcing the restarting of the Central American Minors Program for Children to be reunited with he parent who is legally in the United States. This program was ended abruptly by the [13:10:23] previous administration, leaving around 3000 Children already approved for travel stranded. In Phase two will be working to improve the camp program to expand safe and legal avenues for to the United States. 131033 I want to be clear. Neither in this -- neither this announcement nor any of the other measures suggest that anyone, especially children and families with young children should make the dangerous trip to try and enter the U. S in an irregular fashion. The border is not open. [13:10:51] Going forward. We will continue to look for ways to provide legal avenues in the region for people needing protection while we continue to enforce our laws. This is a process. We have a great deal to do. But this administration has made significant progress and we will continue to do so. It reflects who we are as Americans putting our values at the center of our policy. Thank you. Q>> You were doing this refer [13:11:25] to this $4 billion that the administration is seeking. Are you seeking this as part of a larger comprehensive immigration package or as a stand alone Bill? 131128 JACOBSON> Well, I think what you'll see is that $4 billion in a Central American Northern Triangle strategy will be part of our foreign assistance request and will focus on the things we know that work. [13:11:43] Obviously it's not our first rodeo, that vice president the president when he was vice president worked on these issues. We know how to get money to communities that are most likely. To send migrants but also that are suffering the greatest effective to hurricanes this season, etcetera, so it will be part of our overall foreign assistance package. In the meantime, we're focused on getting humanitarian assistance to these countries after hurricane said to an iota, so in that sense, it's part of a larger plan. But obviously there are parts of this that will be on the domestic side as [13:12:25] well to fix the whole extent of our immigration processing. Q>> What is the administration doing right now? To work with these home countries to send a message? People don't come here. Don't send your Children here, right? JACOBSON>> Well I think you know, one of the most important things is to make sure that. We get communications right? And the message right and I'm happy to repeat that, 131247 But I think it's also important that we work with the international organizations that have very credible voices and have very good networks among migrant sending communities to dispel the myths and misinformation that smugglers are using. Right? When we talk about the border not being open, and, you know, the ways in which we're trying to dissuade people from making that dangerous journeys, the smugglers are conveying exactly the opposite people. [13:13:15] So we need to make sure we get that message out. We also need to be looking at things like the camp program. The Central American Minors Program as they talked about. And how we can expand that How we can make that. You know, eligibility greater, 131330 But the next step is to look at solutions in the region, right? What more can we do to process people legally who really do require protection so they don't have to make that journey? [13:13:44] and we're looking at all of those things. Q>> And finally you said that this isn't your first rodeo. Should the administration have been better prepared to handle? This influx of Children before it changed the policy, allowing them to stay in the country. JACOBSON>> I think there's a couple things I think What we're doing right now is making a difference in the home countries beginning to work with governments. You know that couldn't start until January. 20th there. There is one government at a time. You can't start changing processes of government building facilities. All of this is part of the plan as quickly as possible to make sure that our [13:14:28] domestic processes work more smoothly more quickly as I mentioned, but also to work with foreign governments, and you can't do that. Obviously till January 20th when you when you take over, but. Have been multiple engagements with the government of Mexico it very high level with the government of Guatemala with the hunger and government in Salvadoran In the first six weeks of government, So I think we've gotten off to a big start a fast start. In that engagement. Thank you, Gentle man Investor on Honduras. How did the administration downs his need for cooperation from that government with ongoing concerns about corruption there? Particularly federal prosecutors, who would say that the president is working on a plan to flood the United States with cocaine. I think one of the things that I made clear in the opening comments, which I want to reiterate, is that none of the money that we're looking to get from from Congress from the taxpayers of the United States goes to government leaders. So I don't think that [13:15:30] means that presidents are unimportant in these countries, but I do think that it's important to understand that we will be working with civil society. With international organizations and international ngos on the ground. We will work with officials that we can work with, but we also think it's really important. But these countries make commitments really explicit commitments to advancing on anti corruption. And in some places that will be hard to do if you've got officials for whom. There is a cloud and I think we need to work with the organizations that we can in countries. In some places. We will work with religious organizations, ngos with etcetera. It's a challenge in countries that have confronted serious corruption risks. What mechanism is in place where how do you possibly safeguard. That [13:16:32] funding to make sure it stays out of the hands and perhaps crept politicians. Well I think one of the things that we've always done. Always and 31. Years of the state Department has taught me this is we do end use monitoring right? Our embassies and people that we work with are looked at before their recipients of funds. And we do checks and we look at what's being done with the funds, right? We also don't deliver money. In most cases, we delivered training we deliver. New lighting facilities that reduce violence and crime S. Oh, so a lot of what you do, it's not handing over blank checks, and I think that's really important in this. Q>> Thank you very much. You're talking about restarting Cam. These other long term goals for what immigration policy should look like. But right now, New CNN reporting shows that unaccompanied migrant Children are being held in these border patrol facilities. Or on average 107 hours That's up from I believe 77 hours on average last week. So what is the bite [13:17:32] administration doing right now to fix that? JACOBSON>> I think you know my part of this focuses. Much more on what we're doing at the end of this process in Central America and Mexico. 131741 I think all of us at every stage of this process are doing everything we can to make sure that children are well cared for and moved into facilities that are appropriate for them. [13:17:55] But I want to make a point again that it's really important that people not make the dangerous journey in the first place that we provide them with alternatives to making that journey. Because it's not safe. On route on dsa. So you know if I could just emphasize that that it's really important that that message get out because the perception is not the same as the reality in terms of the border, not being open. We want to provide through camp through [13:18:34] other mechanisms, ways for some of these young people to be reunited with family members in the United States. [SPEAKING SPANISH] 131855 Q>> You're telling them not to come -- just to follow up quickly. You're telling them they should not come. Would you describe what's happening on the border as a crisis given how these numbers are spiking so much week by week? 131905 You know, I think that I really -- I'm not trying to be cute here. But I think the fact of the matter is we have to do what we do regardless of what anybody calls the situation. And the fact is, we are all focused on improving the situation, on changing to a more humane and efficient system. And whatever you call it, it wouldn't change what we're doing, because we have urgency from the president on down to fix our system and make sure that we are better at dealing with the hopes and the dreams of these migrants in their home country. 131945 Q>> Do you think it's a coincidence that as soon as Trump and his immigration policy were on the way out and Biden and his stated policy were on the way in, this historic surge at the border started? 131956 JACOBSON>>> Well, first of all, one of the things I think is important is we've seen surges before. Surges tend to respond to hope. And there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of, you know, pent up demand. So, I don't know whether I would call that a coincidence. But I certainly think that the idea that a more humane policy would be in place may have driven people to make that decision. 132027 But perhaps more importantly, it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, to spread disinformation about what was now possible. [13:20:40] Q>> We know that the change in administrations brought hope. Then from your perspective is this search good? JACOBSON>> I don't think that's what I just said. I think it's a reflection of how migrants feel at a particular time. I think what we are doing is making sure that we respond to that hope for people who need protection. We respond to that hope in a way that their cases can be adjudicated more quickly. But I don't think anybody would say that coming to the United States in an irregular fashion is a good thing. That's why I've tried repeatedly to dissuade. People from from listening to those smugglers, but we're going to try our best to do everything we can at each end of this in the United States, but especially in Central America and Mexico. To ensure we have safe, orderly and legal migration. President fighting [13:21:42] when he was president, very active on working with the northward triangle countries, and I was just wondering where their lessons that you are here. Other administration officials, many whom are in jobs in this administration. Have learned about how to deal with those countries or how to deal with foreign aid to them that are informing how you're approaching things now, and that's the kind of follow up a little bitn what Peter was asking. Uh, Are you concerned at all of that kind of mixed messaging tt at the same time that you're telling people not to come that the journey is dangerous because you are offering this this talk about more humanitarian process that people. Not, you know, pay attention to the fact that they could apply from home from their home country that they would still come that they're still so hopeful that there really is kind of a conflicting message coming from Washington. Your federal. So on the first question the question of learning things from when the vice president was leading a lot of our efforts in Central America Previously, I think, [13:22:43] yes, that's a resounding yes. Both the president and all of us who worked with him on that for him on that learned a great deal, and I think that it's really important that we put that to use. Now. One of the things he thinks is so important is being really explicit. With leadership in the countries from which migrants are coming about commitments that they need to make because overcing the reasons people migrate. He's not gonna be the United States job alone, right if we realize that it's lack of good governance, economic opportunity and security issues of violence. Then some of those require commitments by the governments on anti corruption and transparency on creating governments that function better to provide services for their country. So He's very clear on being. Sure that we gethose commitments from leaders and holding them to it right. The money is not a tap [13:23:44] that gets turned on all at once. You have to make sure that you're continuing to follow those issues. So I think there's a lot of things we learned. And a lot of things we learned about ensuring that funds get to Communities that are really in need, whether it's post Hurricane or coffee rust, which was ravaging Guatemala and Honduras, or, you know a historic drought. 132401 I think when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now, and that is what we're trying to do. And I -- I will certainly agree that we are trying to walk and chew gum at the same time. We are trying to convey to everybody in the region that we will have legal processes for people in the future, and we're standing those up as soon as we can. 132437 But, at the same time, you cannot come through irregular means. It's dangerous, and, you know, the majority of people will be sent out of the United States, because that is the truth of it. We want to be honest with people. And so, we are trying to send both messages and smugglers are only trying to send one message. [13:25:04] So we're relying on every means we can to get that. Message out there and that leads me to wanna reiterate as I did before L a from terrorists Tessera. Yes. No Anselmo Mental winning guru Momenta is a propaganda. The tells in the money. Iraq. Drew. Say a word more about what you're talking about You from the private sector. Explain what your enjoy winning there and like, what exactly do you need? And then just to sort of the second question. You kno you're talking about being really explicit with these countries. But what sort of leverage does the United States actually have. To Effect change [13:25:53] in those countries. But what exactly can you do? Yeah. Let me take that second one first only because. Look in the end. I think the implication of your question which is quite right is we can't make the changes. We can encourage them. We can help. Support them with resource is both technical assistance and funding, but we can't make those changes. The changes have to come in the Northern Triangle countries. What I should say is my own experience from traveling to those places. There are myriad people in organizations who are trying to make those changes and part of what we want to do is empower them. Whether that's more effective, um, you know, Economic support, whether it's training for young people, whether it's anti gang programs, whher it's mother's clubs and empowering local communities, all of that gets done through people on the ground, not by the United States. So we want [13:26:53] to be able to empower those actors. I also think that it's really important when you say what leverage do you have? Well I do think that working as partners with these countries means sitting down and talking about what we could do together. 132705 But also if American taxpayers' funds are going to be used, then that is a certain amount of leverage. The President really wants to move forward on this, but he won't unless he feels he has those commitments on an ongoing basis. Is that leverage? You know, funds are -- are sometimes important means of having that conversation. [13:27:28] Your first question was on. Q>> Let me let me discuss it with. You can't follow up. You have to go back to the first one will you? I mean, are you saying exicitly? The U. S could withhold funding. With the Red State Department aide Rusch JACOBSON>> You know, I think I think the really important thing to know is [13:27:53] we're looking forward to getting this, um. Proposal before Congress and having Congress Act on it and what comes after that, You know, I just don't know. You know, the unexamined of branch can always. You know, adjust things like that. I also think it's really important to understand you asked about the private sector. 132808 The private sector in all of these countries, in Central America in particular, is a really important player here. And I think, to be very honest, we have not seen them step up. [13:28:22] One of the mechanisms that was really effective under the Obama Biden administration was for every dollar that the U. S put into an assistance program. We asked for private sector organizations, local chambers of commerce or business organizations. To either match us or exceed us. This gives the private sector skin in the game it make sure that they are part of the solution. If the government's in these countries don't always [13:28:54] have enough resource is to do what they should to improve the economic opportunity for people. There are private sector organizations and members of the private sector, the business community. We need to be part of that solution, and so we just feel that that's really an important element to this. We talked about international organizations, Governments, ngos, I don't want to leave out the business community as a participant ok, last two less three if you have time. Thank you. To follow up a number of question. I mean, I understand what you're saying. You have to empower the civil societies at least part countries, But can you make the link between empowering those civil societies and actually eliminate eliminating the push back there to stop him from coming? To this country, so how much of it is an international age policy versus an anti, You know, um, immigration policy. That's my first question. And then the second one if you could speak more specifically about the requirements that you're. Making to these countries in terms of anti [13:29:55] corruption practices. What are the specific measures of success and how to ensure that there? Yeah, well on the first question, I think this is. Both unturned national aid issue as well as as a policy issue both for us and the countries that we're working with. On the one hand, it is clearly a resource issue. You have to greater than category for hurricanes and then iota within a 15 Day period. You've got reports that suggest that. Literally multiple millions of people in Guatemala and Honduras are food insecure Now that is clearly something you need to be looking at humanitarian assistance and aid to try and remedy. Now in the longer term. When you're looking at increased pace of natural disastersecause of climate change, or you're looking at ways to. Ensure that agricultural policy changes in [13:30:55] countries or that training is given or that students, including girls remain in school. Those are longer term policy questions. That need to be addressed with our partners in the region because they all have an impact on whether migration flows increase or not. And so when the president talks about root causes. Some of this is immediate humanitarian aid, but a lot of it is policy and aid together, making sure that you tackle the root causes of migration. Otherwise, what you see is continued cycles. Right to break that cycle of migration sustainably, you have to work both. On the on the specific commitments for governments. I think that's something that we would want to discuss with the countries involved before we discuss it publicly. Things. The president's executive powers. Do you think the president will consider using his executive powers to reunite families who have been separated under a 00 tolerance? [13:31:57] Well, that certainly. Outside of the family Reunification task force that was created which is exactly to do that. You know that. Are you talking about people who are not in the same country families that were that was separated what the president used anymore. Executive powers. I'm sorry, but you need families who were separated when in the United States are doing zero tolerance and well, that's exactly what the family reunification task force is doing Nothing beyond that. It deals with the whole universe of people separated during that policy, so not that I know of. Okay Last turn back. Questions Congress appropriated almost $1.4 billion with this fiscal year for the border wall that you're not building how much of that is left? Are you guys redirecting it at all? And what along the border right now. Secondly you discussed messaging arguably your predecessors entire theory of their immigration agenda was that they were trying to send [13:32:57] this message. Don't come. America is closed the regular migration. So obviously you're pursuing something policies But what can you actually do differently than they did to try to get that message? If you know it wasn't fixed already with that kind of oppressive messages. On the first question regarding the border while the president has been very clear about ending the national emergency or the emergency of the border that was used to justify the wall, and obviously not proceeding with it. T he exact. Legal requirements and where that those funds might go. I just I just don't know. I'm sorry. Let me let me talk about the message issue. I mean, I think. I think it's really important to understand that Okay? 133344 You can't and shouldn't say in this administration's opinion that the only way to message "do not come in irregular fashion" is to act as cruelly as you possibly can, separate children from their parents, return people to places that, like the camp -- migrant camp in Matamoros, you know for up to two plus years at a time, and that's the only way that you could get your message across. 133411 This administration's belief is that we can get our message across that it is a more humane policy by opening up avenues of legal migration which will encourage people to take those legal options and go through the asylum process if they're seeking that and not take the irregular road. 133436 I think you have to find different ways to message. But if messaging reflects your actions, that is why we are increasing the actions for legal migration so that the message is, you have another option. I'm from back. Q>> Thank [13:35:00] you. Let me ask you a question in Spanish for our audience [SPANISH] [13:35:14] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:36:51] Q>> [SPANISH] JACOBSON>> [answers in Spanish] [13:37:59] PSAKI>> Okay? I can't promise you'll always be that rapid when I promised to bring someone to the briefing room, But we'll try. We'll do our best. Well, we'll do our best couple of other items for all of you at the top. 133813 With today's expected passage of the Rescue Plan, I can announce that the President will sign the bill at the White House on Friday afternoon. We've spent a lot of time, of course, from the podium talking about the mechanics of how a bill becomes a law, and I know there's lots of interest in what comes next. So once it's passed, the bill text will be rechecked, printed, and signed by the appropriate leaders in the House and Senate. 133834 The House coach will then deliver it to the White House for the president's signature. We expect that delivery to happen sometime tomorrow, and then the President will sign it on Friday. [13:38:44] We, of course, are moving full speed ahead on the implementation of the bill because we know the American people need help. I need it as soon as possible. The way we are also working on looking ahead to implementation. I wanted to make sure you all saw [13:39:03] Secretary Yellen speech before the National League of Cities yesterday, promising to get at eight out to state and local governments. Obviously this is a key component of the package and one that will help keep. Cops, firefighters. Local officials in their jobs on we're looking there. They're looking for ways to maximize, of course, the impact of every dollar. That's exactly what the president did when he served as the point person on the implementation of the Recovery Act in 2009, partnering with mayors, governors and other officials to get help to them quickly and in a way that kept waste fraud and abuse to 2/10 of 1, 133935 So he knows directly that the passage and signing of the bill is just the beginning, and he will -- he plans to appoint somebody to run point on implementation. I don't have any personnel announcements today, but that will certainly be part of our path moving forward. Also today, as you know, the President will join the CEOs of Johnson & Johnson and Merck to discuss their historic partnership that will produce more lifesaving vaccines for Americans and the world. 134002 President Biden also announced that he is directing -- he is planning to direct -- he's directing, I should say, Jeff Zients, our covid coordinator, and HHS, and the HHS team to procure an additional 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. He's doing this because in a wartime effort, which is what we consider this, we need maximum flexibility. 134023 We want to be oversupplied and over-prepared. There's also a chance that we'll encounter an unexpected challenge on new need in our vaccination efforts, and we're preparing for just that. [13:40:32] The president also discussed the meeting today at the meeting is having today during his remarks and also address, of course, are the passage of the rescue plan during those remarks as well. Last item. I believe here. What's going on here today? On March 18th 19th, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Tony Blinken will meet with Director Gangjee Tour and State [13:41:04] Councilor Wang G. And Anchorage of China. Of course, the meeting will follow the president's convening of the quad at the leader level, as well as his participation in the G seven. Leaders meeting just a few weeks ago, Secretary Blinken on Secretary Austin's trip to Japan and Korea, two of our closest regional allies and national security Advisor Sullivan's multiple engagements with Japanese Korean, Australian, Canadian and European counterparts, including European quad meeting next week. It was important to us that this administration's first meeting with Chinese officials be held American soil and occur after we have met and consulted closely with partners and allies in both Asia and Europe. And as you know, my number of those conversations have happened at the presidential level and, of course at the secretary of state and National Secity Advisor level as well. Meeting is an opportunity to address a wide range of issues, including ones where we have deep disagreements. We intend to discuss her expectations and will be frank and explaining Beijing's actions and behavior behavior Challenge. To the [13:42:06] security, prosperity and our concerns about challenges. They post the security on values of the United States and our allies and partners. We will also talk about areas where we can cooperate of mutual interests on we're coming to these discussions, of course. Clear eyed. The meeting also provides an opportunity to emphasize H the United States will stand up for the rules based international system and a free and open Endo Pacific. As the president has said, We approach our relationship with the Chinese from a position of strength in lockstep with our allies and partners. That Go ahead, Jonathan. Q>> Thanks Judge. You said the president will be signing the bill on Friday and you walk us through what will happen next? The president himself has expressed regret that the 2009 got recovery happened was not sold. Well, let's put it to yourself that acknowledge that others veterans of the demonstration field similarly. Can you explain to us what we're going to see from the president from surrogates? How is this message to deliver to the American people? How do you sell this bill? 134258 PSAKI>> Sure. Well, the president, the vice president, the first lady, the second gentleman, a number of members of our Cabinet will be communicating directly with the American people, engaging directly with the American people, and all sending a clear message: help is on the way. [13:43:15] Over the next few weeks. We're going to swiftly put in place implementation plans. I've touched on a little bit of that. Andre plans to get aid to the people in places that need it the most as quickly as possible. This'll is, of course, a continuation of the work we've done over the last two months to build support for the rescue plan, communicating directly with the American people building support among mayors, governors, labor leaders, the business community and other stakeholders. 134338 We'll be emphasizing a number of components that are in the package and really having a conversation. This is important to the president personally. Having a conversation directly with people about how they could benefit, addressing questions they have, even taking their feedback on implementation and how to make it clear. [13:43:55] and we've talked a little bit about in here. People of questions like. Do I need to do anything to get my check? How do I benefit from the health benefits? What about you know what? What Funding will go to my school? He wants to ensure that people have access to the instant formacion 134410 So, he will be hitting the road. The vice president will be hitting the road. The first lady will be hitting the road. We will have people out communicating directly in communities, but we'll also use a range of tools at our disposal, including engaging in -- communicating through digital means, doing local interviews, and also utilizing a number of members of our Cabinet cabinet who have key roles in the implementation. [13:44:34] I referenced Secretary Yellin, of course in her role. Obviously the Iris has some key roles here, but he will be tapping into the Cabinet to also play a role in communicating and engaging with the public. Following this and one other matter on this, you know President Auntie is addressing the nation's right in prime time. Is this part of it? The idea of what happens next because of the package going to be. Part of that speech. We preview a little bit about what the message the American people is going to be to morning I expect we'll have more toe say tomorrow about the speech, and I want to just give him a [13:45:11] chance to go through the speech again and make sure I'm previewing it in a way that is consistent with where it will land. 134511 But as I've talked about a little bit in here, this is -- tomorrow marks the 50th day of the administration. It also marks one year since the country shut down. And the President believes it is important to take a look back of the journey the American people have been on, the sacrifices that have been made, the lives that have been lost, and also look ahead. And he will be talking more about how he will approach this war against the pandemic moving forward and lay out some more specifics of what the American people can expect. [13:45:43] U N report out today says the U. S Is among the countries lagging behind on climate friendly projects in covid Economic recovery Spending Club What is this administration has started moving forward on the $2 trillion climate change package that was such a big part of that candidate. Fighting's campaign. PSAKI>> It's only day 49. Jonathan We're about to pass a [13:46:11] historic the most Progressive bill in American history. It's be a passing today. Look I would say that the president believes that and he talked about this on the campaign trail is a zoo you mentioned was certainly a promise of his that. We can create the United States and many other countries around the world will will focus on here can create good paying union jobs that are also consistent with our objective of just addreing the climate crisis, and certainly that is central to how he's thinking about his agenda. Moving forward. Those policy discussions Air Sil ongoing but I can assure you that. He intends to Dever on the promises he made on the campaign trail on intends to deliver on the promises he made about creating good paying union jobs that also are consistent with his goal of addressing climate. ISIS. I should say, Go ahead on the 100 million new does since you said that the goal is to be over supply. What's the goal for that over supplies to be held in reserve for kids? Is it to be donated to other countries? Is it. To be held in reserve in [13:47:13] case people need to get shots again next year. What's the plan for that extra dosage Well first, the president's focus every day when he makes up is ensuring every American week. We can ensure that every American has access to a vaccine and that we are vaccinating the people in this country. But here a couple of the factors that we're have have weighed in on our decision to purchase. An additional 100 million doses. 134731 We still don't know which vaccine will be most effective on kids. We still don't know the impact of variants or the need for booster shots. And these doses can be used for booster shots as well as needed. Obviously, that's still being studied by the FDA. But, again, we want to be over prepared, as I noted earlier. 134749 We also need maximum flexibility. So Johnson & Johnson, the vaccine has unique benefits. It's a one shot vaccine. It can be stored in the fridge and not a freezer. It's highly effective, as the others are as well, against hospitalization and death. But we are really looking for maximum flexibility here, as we are still considering a couple of those pieces I mentioned, which is most effective with children, the effectiveness on addressing variants, and, and, of course, boosters as I noted. 134819 Q>> And then on the COVID relief bill, which is being voted on in the House right now, how quickly will school districts be able to access that money, and will they be able to implement it in time to make safety changes for this school year, which in many parts of the country is only the last another three months? 134836 You're absolutely right, and a fair amount of the funding is also -- we expect will be likely used for forward planning, right? So, so schools that need to plan for, we need to hire temporary teachers right now, but we need to ensure we can keep them on the job in a year, in two years. We need to make facility upgrades. 134854 It really depends school to school. In terms of the timeline for implementation, I know that's something that our Department of Education is going to be looking at. [13:49:02] And of course, the implementation team that will be focused on getting these dollars out the door so we will certainly plan to give you an update as we have a [13:49:16] better time line on the on the calendar. Q>> On another front registered journalist, Andrea Support is currently on trial over her coverage of a racial justice protest. Last summer. She's been charged with failure to disperse and interference with official access. The find administration believes that these charges should be dropped and will the president or anyone in the administration urged Polk County, Iowa prosecutors. Drop the charges. PSAKI>> I'm happy to discuss this with our team. I'm not as familiar with the case, but I will look into it. We'll get you back and answer. Q>> Sure Dracula first off has President Biden been briefed yet by his delegation that went to the border over the weekend. And does he now feel the need to go to the border if he has been briefed by the. 134951 PSAKI>> Sure. Well I can confirm for you that the President did receive a briefing earlier today from members of his team that visited the border region this past weekend. I will note, he receives regular briefings on immigration, and the economy, on COVID, on a range of issues that the country and the administration is facing. He heard from the delegation on what they observed during their visit to the border region and the facilities they toured. 135015 But they all -- they spent the majority of their time discussing what steps can be taken to expedite processes to move more quickly, to move the process more quickly to meet the administration's goal of getting these children placed with vetted and confirmed families. Moving them quickly, as related to your question earlier, out of border patrol facilities and into these shelters and then ultimately into these homes. 135037 I don't have anything to preview for you in terms of a trip. Obviously, a delegation going to the border and visiting these facilities is something that can be done with a much smaller footprint than the president of the United States traveling, but I don't have anything to preview in terms of a trip. [13:50:52] Q>> And earlier you said you're going to where the president is going to pick someone to kind of run the implementation of the coronavirus relief package. Does the White House anticipate that there could be delays in implementing that because it is such a big bill? PSAKI>> No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't imply our I was not trying to imply that on Lee that we know that this will not all be implemented in four days [13:51:19] or a week or what have you This will take some time on. 135116 And we want to ensure that there is a person responsible and accountable to the implementation. That's something the president felt worked when he was vice president, and so it was an indication of that. [13:51:25] But there are a number of Cabinet members who also played pivotal roles here. A reference, of course, Secretary Yellen Secretary Cardona will play a pivotal role, of course in the reopening of schools, and so they're already officials within the administration. But this this could be it has been used in the past is that more of a coordinating mechanism and how long do you think that implementation will take? I can't give you really a timeline of that. Obviously there are things they're different components as you well know, right, getting the checks out the door. Our Treasury, a team and our economic team are crunching the numbers on that. We hope to have an update for all of you soon on that. Obviously reopening schools, as Nancy was asking AUT it really is school district of school district in terms of what their needs what their needs will be which schools need funding which district's need funding? There are things like unemployment insurance, which [13:52:20] obviously is applied through different mechanisms. So there are pieces of this that are just going to be implemented over time. Some that could be Dunmore. Rapidly and quickly, but obviously this is our focus and are our priority in the days ahead. Last question on Johnson and Johnson, he is going to announce that they were trying to get another. 100 million doses this afternoon, but the administration told governors yesterday on their weekly called They should only expect to get 400,000 doses of Johnson and Johnson vaccine next week. That is far behind what the Johnson Johnson contract with the federal government. They were supposed to have ready when it was authorized by the fda. So is he going to confront the Johnson and Johnson executives? He's meeting with today about why they are so far behind on production. Well, as you know, Caitlyn, we hey, invoked the Defense Production act in part because he wanted Torno and our team Jeff Science and others have been working closely with Johnson and Johnson and Merck, of course, to expedite the production of vaccines to ensure that they could be. Available on the timeline they've committed to. 135319 I will say that this 100 million that was announced -- that's being announced this afternoon is more for the second half of this year and not for -- it's not -- we're not adding additional doses expected on that same timeline. But I'm certain they will be discussing, of course, the need to ensure that the deadlines are met and that, that we have the vaccines and the doses needed to get them in the arms of the American people. Go ahead, Andrew. Q>> So other vaccine the head of the W T, O and others are calling for greater efforts to be made by advanced economies, big countries in rich countries to get more vaccine into developing countries. You just announced that you wanna be over para here in the U. S. And what is the United States soon and sure that these vaccines get out to other countries and do you favor a waiver of intellectual property? Protections under the wt O to ensure that that moves more quickly, or, you know what's [13:54:24] your perspective and a kind of a third way that would be just increasing license? PSAKI>> First the president is deeply focused on the issue of expanding global vaccinations and manufacturing and delivery, which will be critical to end the pandemic. But as we've also said he is first and foremost focused on ensuring Americans have access to vaccines as soon as possible. Uh in the in this period of time on, we've obviously made a great deal of progress on that front. I don't anything more to preview for you in terms of what that will look like we first need to focus on right now. We're still in a circumstance where there isn't enough supply for the for the number of Americans who want to get the vaccination, so that's really our focus at this point in time, but certainly it's a point of discussion. With his counterparts and with a the counter parts of other members of our national security team. Say anything about the river. I don't have anything more for you to predict that question of vaccinating Children. You mentioned that you're not sure which vaccine will be most effective. Actually has talked [13:55:25] about getting high school students vaccinated fell in elementary school kids in the spring. You have a sense of when every American. Could be death. Maybe I mean, you know, you know, we've talked about having enough on hand for adults to be vaccinated by this summer. By the end of May, actually, Well, we will have enough supply right? But the president is the first to say that we can't do this alone, And that's certainly a component of this That is vitally important is ensuring that. People understand across the country that these vaccines are safe and they are effective and we're still going to focus on combating the issues of misinformation. And of course, the vaccine hesitancy in a range of communities you have today, as you know, would be the ones running point on approval of vaccines for Children. I can't really predict. When Children will be vaccinated. We don't know when the fda may approve a vaccine, but our role is ensuring [13:56:26] there's enough supply and that there is enough distribution. We've made a great deal of progress on that more work to be done, but I can't make any predictions beyond that. But. A couple things first President Biden when he was vice president, Kind of was the person who ran point on the 2009 recovery Bill. Would you expect that Vice President Harris might take on civil rule he had, you know? Give General lot put her in a very similar position to the one that he had with President Obama. That's true. I mean, the president has said that he wants the vice president to be the first in the room and the last in the room when he has important briefings when they're important policy decisions and discussions that are taking place, And that certainly is how he is operating, or they're operating as a team together in terms of what role she may play in the implementation. I don't have anything to preview for you on that She will certainly be traveling. She's a key. Voice and asset for the [13:57:26] administration, and she'll be communicating about the impact of the of the American rescue plan and how it's going to help with the American people over the course of the next few weeks. Lank Lean said last night that the president's speech to a joint session of Congress will be for a few weeks. He was kind of suggesting there was gonna be this time period. The administration. It's focused on. Promoting the bill that just passed. Can you kind of confirm that and provide any more information on sort of how you're thinking about the rest of March into April? You know, promoting this. They're fever since moving on to the fullback Better Sure, I don't have an exact breakdown of timeline. And I don't think Ron wasn't intending to give one either on Lee to convey, which is, I think what? You're asking that the president, the vice president and all of us in the administration believe it's important to take a moment to or a few moments I should say to communicate directly with the American people about. The [13:58:26] benefits of the package to ensure they understand that help is on the way and a range of forms and to do that, in communities and directly with people who were hoping understand the benefits of this package S O I expect that to mean a couple of trips for the president, the vice president, others, but I don't have kind of an end date for that on certainly par of the part of the focus internally is on ongoing discussions about what is next and what components of the president's build back. Better agenda. What the order is the format the size and there's just those decisions have been finalized quite yet. One other thing that you'd kind of into you might have an answer for yesterday, which is another thing related to Ron. That clearing National Clearinghouse for Vaccine informatio. Way here in the Blue Merc theater heard, And Justify no answer on very excited about the website, which which many people are. You know, I would say, you know. As you know it, the website is being implemented as a vaccine finder, I should say [13:59:27] is being implemented as a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding the pilot program, and we're certainly looking into that. We're also looking into, and others have asked this question. How we can better assist state and local governments who have their own websites where they are utilized by many members of the local community and effective but sometimes they have. Technical issues, So we're looking at addressing it from. Ah, couple of, um. Different directions, but every option remains on the table were also considering setting up call centers. Organizing navigators help to help individuals schedule appointments, which sometimes can be the issue so I don't have a major update, other than to convey that. It's a pilot program. We've always been open to expanding it on. Certainly a range of options remain on the table and sometimes in some states. Their local website is working quite well, and they just need some technical assistance. What. Q>> Jen you've been telling migrants from right there for a month now, probably back to February 10. But now is not the time to come, but ey are coming in [14:00:28] bigger numbers every day. 140025 So, do you have a messaging problem? 140027 PSAKI>> Well, I would say that in the last administration, we had a morality problem, and children were being pulled from the arms of their parents, and kids were being sent back on a treacherous journey, and that's not the approach of this administration. So, certainly we understand that means there will be more kids who are crossing the border. 140047 We made a policy decision that that was the right, humane step to take. But, I think it's also important for people to understand that the vast majority of people who come to our border are turned away, are sent back to their countries. What we're talking about here are unaccompanied children. [14:01:04] and what our focus is on is ensuring that there are safe places for these kids to go that have accent where they have access to educational resource is health and medical attention, legal assistance as need, and that we can expedite the vetting so that they can get to families and sponsors where they can have their case is adjudicated. 140125 Q>> But since the last administration is gone, tomorrow is 50 days of Biden, there are migrants showing up, wearing t-shirts that say, "Biden, please let us in." And candidate Biden is the one who said, "I would end this notion for the first time in history, the people seeking asylum have to be in squalor on the other side of the river." Why doesn't he come out and just say now is not the time? 140145 PSAKI>> Well, he actually did an interview with Univision about a week or week and a half ago where he conveyed a similar message. And we've conveyed that at every opportunity that we have. [14:01:55] I will say we are, as you noted almost 50 days in. We are Diggle digging ourselves out of a broken and dismantled system. Roberta Master Jacobson referenced this in her opening as well when it comes to engage with countries addressing the root causes. We couldn't start doing that until January. 20th There are programs like the relaunching of the Central American Minors Program, which was ended by the prior administration in 2017. And that meant that that that program which would have allowed for people to apply from the region. We had to restart that program, so we're working to fix the mess of the last couple of years. It's going to take some time. But this is clearly a priority for the president. We're looking at a range of options, which include the opening of additional facilities. It includes steps we can take to expedite the processing and includes application and implementation of the CDC guidelines that were just came out that allow for more Children to be house safely in these facilities, so we're looking at every option possible to help address the [14:03:05] challenges. We're facing a life in the White House. It's a problem that when the CDC tells these migrant shelter facilities that they can be a full capacity that they're careful about covid. Many of them do. But when the C D C tells schools that they can open in person at full capacity, many of them don't. Is there a school in particular that you have is an example that didn't do that? Our most schools in this country at full capacity within person learning. Are there a specific school, though that is not following the CDC guidelines of implementing the mitigation steps so they can re open the CDC saying schools you can't be at every school can be at full capacity. With the CDC guys. This CDC guidelines is to be clear because I think this is very important to be very clear and specific on. They gave eight mitigation steps that schools can take to safely reopen. A number of schools have actually recently reopened Schools and Washington D. C [14:04:05] Some have schools in many districts across the country. Each school district needs to make the decision about whether they are able to take those mitigation steps. The president has also been clear. Some of these school district's need additional funding. There's $160 billion in this package that he's going to sign into law later this week. Secretary of Education will be quite focused on working with school district's to help them reopen, but more school district's are reopening. More kids are in classrooms every single day since they are not all back from an administration position or from your perspective. Have the border Patrol unions and the HHS Union's been easier to work with than the teachers unions. I think that's a little bit of mixing different circumstances. I would say that in tight quarters Uhh I mean a classroom, but. Not quite. Not quite. I would say that. Let's let's take a responsible approach to the two issues. Okay, One is schools reopening, [14:05:06] There's been eight mitigation steps that have been announced by the CDC to implement right. Every school district is going to work to implement those on a timeline that is, they can effectively do. Many school districts are reopening right. Many are re opening every single weekend day and week, right, That is a different circumstance than what we're seeing at the border and the HHS overseas defense. These facilities, right they're working with. They're working on ensuring we could have more kids safely. They are working to implement CDC guidelines, but they're different circumstances and certainly we're working with the school district's and we're also working with HHS to open these facilities there to ensure that kids are treated With safety and care in these facilities. Okay, Go ahead. Thanks Dan. Just little bit more on the Clark. You mentioned yesterday that one of the issues that will be discussed it is how the leaders can work together to combat the pandemic. Might. That discussion include a strategy to counter Brexit diplomacy from China and Russia. You know, I think [14:06:10] they'll be a range of topics discussed and I know that is a concern of a number of leaders around the world, including, of course, President Biden on I'm sure we'll have a readout of the quad meeting tomorrow. Once it's completed. More on the announcement that you complete viewers. Can we expect anything in terms of how the spark. He was here in terms of helping others. Again I know they'll discuss a range of issues tomorrow, but I think it's important to just take a quick a little bit of a step back because this is a meeting that covers a range of topics. Of course, I'm sure covid which is a pandemic everyone in the world is dealing with will be a topic of discussion, but they'll be issues like climate that our address economic cooperation. I'm sure they'll have a range of issues to bring up and we will provide a readout when the meeting concludes tomorrow, the military balance I mean, we know that China just amount of huge defense spending 6.8% I believe for this year. Is that also a top item indigent? PSAKI>> I [14:07:13] don't think I have more to preview than what we've already offered. We will, of course, have a readout on the meeting concludes There are a range of topics on the minds of all of these leaders. As I've noted in here before we anticipate the meeting, discussing. ------ ---We'll bring up a number of issues and we'll have a robust readout when the meeting concludes. Go ahead. [14:07:33] Q>> A few questions. Sure. So, in California republicans are seeking to nationalize a recall after governor Gavin Newsom and really make it a referendum on on public policies you know the other day, Bernie Sanders tweeted that it's time for Democrats to unite and rally on his behalf against the Republicans, does the President have any plans to personally or otherwise support us and if this does make it on the ballot and you know becomes an off year campaign, PSAKI>> we're not quite there yet we've spoken out in support of Governor Newsome and against the recall so that remains our position. Q>> Also in California. He at the San Francisco Chronicle are finding that school districts are saying, even with this influx of money coming from the package, there's still lots of reasons they're not sure if they can reopen even unify this fall through building consensus around how to do it. There's been some criticism that the CDC guidance is actually too conservative and prohibitive, including the six feet distance rule that schools either have to ignore or not open. If there are still schools that aren't open by this fall that the administration considered a failure and what more could they possibly do to help those schools. [14:08:45] PSAKI>> We have several months before the fall sub six months, five months, I will stop doing math now. This is our Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, this is his number one priority what he is focused on the President has asked him to lead this effort. And he's holding a school summit, he will be working with school districts including I'm sure in California and San Francisco and others to work to address what they feel the challenges are to reopening, whether it's funding that's needed whether it's consensus building that needs to happen, the President wants schools to be open, five days a week, once kids to be learning in school and we're going to do everything we can to ensure that's happening. Q>> And lastly on the subject of today's briefing, you know. Immigration and Border policy it covers so many different agencies there's Public Security there's HHS as we discussed, there's State Department, Department of Justice, which we'll talk about as much as a huge piece of this. Is there someone in this administration who is coordinating all of these disparate pieces. Ultimately, you know, where does the buck stop who is making sure that all these different agencies are coordinating to the administration, [14:09:55] PSAKI>> Overall, well, ultimately, the President is responsible for the policy on key issues and key challenges for countries facing and immigration is certainly one of them. You're right. There are a number of agencies involved in this effort, but I will say, I would say they're all playing a pivotal role, the Department of Homeland Security. The. We don't have a Health and Human Services Secretary confirmed yet, when he is he will play a pivotal role but a whole team at HHS, as you know. So, this is being coordinated on part from our national security team but ultimately, it's the president who makes decisions about the policy that's why he asked the team to go to the border and my he asked to receive a briefing and that's something as I noted that happened this morning. Go ahead. [14:10:33] Q>> Okay, on the package implementation for your specific lessons that President Biden when he was in charge of this in 2009, that he learned about that effort that will be applied this effort, particularly in terms of efficiency and reducing waste and fraud that kinds of things but in general any specific lessons that he learned, other than it's good to have one person in charge. PSAKI>> Sure, is structured very differently as you remember, and I'm sure many people remember that a big chunk of the recovery out was around shovel ready project losses of course it very different type of bill. I think some of the lessons were already implementing, including having a point person in charge and including ensuring there's a sustained campaign that is not just about the President of the United States or the Vice President of the United States speaking about the benefits but that really engages our partners and allies, [14:11:28] whether it's Governor's or mayor's local community leaders to ensure there is effective implementation and communication about the package. He also wants to lift up and this is something that's been important to him in general but it's very applicable to this package, members of his cabinet so that they can be front facing and play a very public role in engaging with the public and ensuring the understand components and pieces of a package like this. There are pieces in this package that of course are related to the helping veterans there are pieces of this package that really relate to helping rural communities and he wants to ensure that members of his cabinet are are playing key roles there. That's something that, of course, was done a little bit in 2009 but can can definitely be built on and I think we would venture to do that. [14:12:18] Q>> Equal Rights Amendment The house is expected to vote soon I think next week on eliminating the now expired deadline for ratification and of course Virginia last year became the 38th state to ratify but last year the Justice Department issued a memo saying that we can't do that, that if people feel and move it to an area of constitution so starting the ratification process over. My question is whether the administration is going to rescind that memo and some Democrats have asked him to do. PSAKI>> That's an excellent question. I will have to talk to our team about that and get an update on it, which will then try to do for you after everything go ahead. Q>> Thanks a couple questions on behalf of printful for reporters who couldn't be here. One of my own. Jesse Hellman with modern healthcare wanted to know when President signs executives today from Johnson and Johnson and Mark does he practice he planned to press them on increasing costs of prescription drugs, [14:13:16] bring up his own agenda to lower drug prices, and PSAKI>> the primary focus of this meeting is on working together the two companies who have long been competitors, working together to ensure the efficient and effective manufacturing of vaccines. Q>> Tommy Christopher from media had a question on the filibuster said that President Biden expressed some openness filibuster reform during the campaign, you've said more recently, that it's not process to change the rules we wants to know if the john lewis Voting Rights Act represents a red line if Republicans do not support that that does not move forward in the Senate. Is that a red line that would prompt him to consider filibuster reform. [14:13:58] PSAKI>> Well, the President's preference is not to make changes to the filibuster rules, he believes that voting rights and access to voting, ensuring it's easier for the American people is enough of a huge priority it should be for everyone that's why you signed some executive orders, use the power. hesitancy to do that this weekend, and he is hopeful that Democrats and Republicans can work together to get that done. Q>> And then one last question on the overall agenda, you were saying earlier, you know, when you look at built back better you're sort of thinking through kind of what's next, but broadly speaking is infrastructure. The next big legislative priority on Capitol Hill for this administration. [14:1437] There's also pressure for an immigration bill to go through what's next for you guys, what is the next big priority after the bill that you're hoping to sign that's present don't miss out on Friday. PSAKI>> It's a very popular question, understandably, but our focus is on getting American rescue plan implemented. We will have more to say the President will have more to say on his build back better agenda and what the components of that look like, what the size the proposals the order of events will be, but I don't have anything to preview for you. [14:15:08] Q>> Before an immigration bill on Capitol Hill, 141509 PSAKI>> Well, I don't have a legislative order to preview for you either. I will say, given all of the conversations we're having, understandably, about the border and questions about the border, in the President's proposed immigration package, he has funding for -- to address the root causes in the region, as we talked about a little bit earlier, he has a pathway to citizenship, he proposes a pathway to citizenship -- citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and he also proposes an investment in smart security. 141537 So, given all of the concern by many in Congress about immigration and what's happening at the border, it sure seems like a good time to move that initiative forward. Go in the back. [14:15:51] Q>> Thank you, Jen, I understand you don't want to call it a crisis from this podium little funny you say, border patrol agents at the border or especially those within the union, who are calling it a crisis and who are saying that they're overworked and there's just too many encounters day in and day out. PSAKI>> We are saying that we recognize that are incumbent upon us and this administration is continuing to continue to work day and night to expedite the process of ensuring there are the resources and processes in place to move children from the border patrol facilities to the shelters. We are saying that it is incumbent upon our administration to look for additional facilities that can safely house children and incumbent upon us to ensure that we are communicating effectively and efficiently to the region as [14:16:42] Ambassador Jacobson talked about at the top of this briefing and those are all focuses of the President on down. You know, every single day. Q>> The Mexican government today, reports that over 4000 unaccompanied minors were actually deported back to Mexico between January and March. Can you confirm that this was done under the previous administration or any of those unaccompanied minors deported, under the Biden administration. PSAKI>> I know that CBP provides numbers and data on a regular basis and I think there's more data coming soon. From there, so I would certainly send to them for any statistics and data our policies that we don't turn children under 18 away at the border on of course as you know, though, even if, when they are in homes of family members or in sponsored homes that they still can go through processing [14:17:33] and may need to return home, Q>> the stimulus package you find me one last question I know I think this came up yesterday, but I wanted to ask the question, now that the stimulus package is passed on many undocumented immigrants are not benefited in any way by the money that's going out, the president blended the executive action or anything else to do to help that population. PSAKI>> Sorry I missed part of the last sentence. Q>> Now that the stimulus package has yes and the undocumented population. Many of the millions are not benefited in any way, does a president blind any executive actions or anything else to help a population. [14:18:06] PSAKI>> Well, certainly I think the President's priority given he proposed an immigration bill on the first day is to create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants, of course, in this country. He's also been clear that, ensuring that everybody in this country is vaccinated and receives that so COVID COVID-19 vaccine is a key priority. And of course this is just the beginning of his agenda but I don't have anything more to preview for you. Go ahead Q>> and Vicki judge, given the current premise of vaccination around the world, what would your President consider organizing these climates in person in DC here for you to avoid practice. PSAKI>> I don't think we have any I think at this point the intention is to do it remotely [14:18:45] I believe and I don't think there's an intention to change that, but I'm happy to check on that for you. Q>> Do you know roughly how many states expert for the Chinese president will be one of them. PSAKI>> I don't have any more details on the summit I know it's coming up in about six weeks, five weeks, and I expect as we get closer we'll have more to preview, go into that part Q>> yeah just a follow up on filibusters I've said many times that President Biden's preference is not to change the rules around filibuster but if the next big pieces of his agenda are stymied in the Senate. Are there changes to the filibuster that he can live with such as talking filibuster. [14:19:22] PSAKI>> Well, the President believes that there are a range of issues where there's historic. There's historic precedent of Democrats and Republicans working together, whether it's infrastructure as we've been talking about or modernizing the immigration system. He's obviously had a number of bipartisan meetings in the Oval Office. So that's where his energy and focus will be moving forward, go in the back. Q>> Thank you. So the could just have held trouble than containing a dissident, a woman released from prison weeks ago, is it a sign that the White House message regarding the human rights abuse in the kingdom is not strong enough, PSAKI>> what you were referring to a human rights, somebody, a human rights activist who was released from prison, but Q>> was not able to travel outside the kingdom. PSAKI>> I would have to look into more specific details of that [14:20:15] I know we were pleased with the release, but I'd have to look into more specific details of the travel restrictions, Q>> but do you have any sort of eta for when the next cabinet secretaries will be approved, and when you're going to start nominating ambassadors PSAKI>> go ask our friends in the Senate. We expect that some will move forward with and we are hopeful, I should say that we will get a couple of additional cabinet members, confirmed in the coming days or over the course of the next week, the Presidents looking forward to that. They're certainly looking forward to at some point having a full cabinet meeting, [14:20:46] the President hasn't made any decisions about Ambassador all nominees so I don't expect them to be confirmed anytime soon, given we have to nominate them first. Well, again, it's really up to the Senate on the timeline for that but we are hopeful that they move forward with the remaining members of the Cabinet, given we are almost two months into an administration. Q>> Just to follow up on something that Ambassador Jacobson said, and I think you may have gotten a note about this, that she first time she said that the border is not closed and she then insist when she was speaking in Spanish and then you know later on spoken Spanish again for the border is closed. [14:21:32] I mean, it seems like she, I guess misspoke, the first time consider your overall message but your concern, but now that she is misspoken that that's going to be, you know, picked up and disseminated across the Spanish speaking world is the message from the administration, PSAKI>> well given she also said that the border is closed, we're hopeful that that is what will be picked up and that is clearly and consistently been our message. So, that is certainly our hope Q>> you're having a messaging, difficulty around this issue. hat just means and [14:22:05] PSAKI>> we certainly hope not. We have the power of the media here to make sure you're communicating effectively with the messages and as we knew we all have moments where we where we say something slightly differently than we would like to and we quickly try to correct it to make it easier to communicate with the administration's, you know, goals and policies are. Thanks everyone. [END]