Press briefings

August 13, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: Good afternoon. You heard from the President just about an hour ago. The President and his national security team are obviously very concerned about the state of Georgia and have been working intensively with our international allies to secure a cease-fire and to provide humanitarian aid to those in need.

The first of the C-17 planes that the President mentioned in his statement has now arrived in Tbilisi and will be providing humanitarian aid and medical supplies. And another C-17 will arrive in Tbilisi tomorrow with additional supplies.

The President has asked Secretary Rice to travel to Tbilisi, Georgia. She will leave this evening. She will first travel to France for meetings there, before traveling on to Georgia.    » read more »

August 4, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: I'll give you a little bit about the President's day today, and then I'm going to turn it over to Dennis Wilder to give you a preview of tomorrow's meetings with the South Koreans.

The President started his day with his regular briefings, and then he had a meeting with the ruler of Dubai. They had a good meeting. They have developed a good, personal relationship over the course of their meetings. They spent a majority of their time talking about education efforts, especially the ones that the ruler of Dubai is focused on, improving education around the Arab world. So they spent a lot of time talking about that; trade opportunities.    » read more »

June 25, 2008 -- MR. HEIN: Good afternoon. This is Jay Hein. Thank you for joining this call and for your interest in the conference. Tomorrow, Thursday, the 26th, and Friday, the 27th, the White House is convening over 1,000 policymakers and faith-based and community leaders, researchers and others who are interested in the initiative.

The purpose of this national conference is to survey the landscape of the changes that have been made and the progress that's been achieved since the President launched the Faith-Based and Community Initiative during the second week of his first administration.    » read more »

June 25, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: Hello. One announcement for you. Tomorrow President Bush will deliver remarks at the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives National Conference. During his speech he will highlight the Initiative's record of helping millions in need across the country and around the world. We are working on getting you excerpts that will be released later this afternoon. I have two, though, that I can give you now.

One, he will specifically say on the philosophy behind the Faith-Based and Community Initiative the following: We followed a principle rooted both in our Constitution and the best traditions of our nation. Government should never fund the teaching of faith, but it should support the good works of the faithful.    » read more »

June 24, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: One announcement. President Bush continues to call on the Senate to swiftly clear the pipeline of all pending nominations. Currently there are 394 nominations pending in the Senate. These nominations cumulatively represent more than 50,000 days of missed opportunity in roles that are critical to our nation's security and prosperity.    » read more »

June 23, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: Hello, everybody. I don't have anything to start off with, so --

Q The stock market is down, the oil prices are up. I take it that this wasn't the outcome you would have wanted from the energy summit.

Q Yes, things are going to hell in a hand basket.

MS. PERINO: Will attribute that to Bill Plante. (Laughter.) Look, look back to what we said going into the conference, which is that this is going to take a long time for us to deal with. There's no magic wand, it's not going to be a problem that we solve overnight. And I don't think anybody anticipated that this conference was going to have an immediate impact on price or on the stock market, which, of course, we don't run predictions on anyway.    » read more »

June 22, 2008 -- MR. CONNAUGHTON: Hello, this is Jim Connaughton, Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. And I just want to give you an update, after two intensive and constructive days of discussions among leaders' reps to the 16 major economies.

Just to refresh you all, this is the fourth meeting of leaders' representatives. These are people like me who directly report to their Presidents or Prime Ministers. And our goal is to pull together the agenda for a meeting of the leaders of the world's major economies on -- to discuss energy security and climate change. That leaders meeting will take place in conjunction with the G8 in Toyako, Japan. And the meeting will immediately follow the G8 meeting.    » read more »

June 20, 2008 -- MR. FRATTO: Good morning. As Dana would say, we're on our way to Naples, Florida. The President taped the radio address this morning. In the President's radio address, he'll reiterate his call for Congress to lift its ban on oil drilling in ANWR -- that's the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- and in the Outer Continental Shelf -- call on them to remove its block on oil shale leasing, and expand and enhance our refining capacity so we can meet the energy challenges we face.

Here's a quote from the radio address: "If congressional leaders leave for the 4th of July recess without taking action they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act."    » read more »

White House Press Gaggle by Scott Stanzel, Jim Nussle, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and David Paulison, FEMA Administrator - June 19, 2008

MR. STANZEL: Good morning, everyone. As you know, we're on our way to Iowa where the President will view the flood damage that has been occurring over recent days. I'll quickly go through the President's schedule and then turn it over to the two guests that we have here today.

First, this morning the President had his normal briefings at 8:00 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. the President and Mrs. Bush participated in a ceremony for the 2008 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Obviously you were all there for that coverage.    » read more »

June 18, 2008 -- MR. FRATTO: Good afternoon. I just have just one quick announcement for you on a -- FEMA will be hosting a conference call this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. to talk about the federal response to flooding. This will be at 2:00 p.m, and if you just check in with FEMA and they'll get you the information for call-in and they'll tell you about the whole federal response to the region affected by the flooding.

Yes, Terry.

Q On the President's offshore oil statement today, it didn't seem like he really wanted to cooperate much with Congress. He's calling them obstructionists, and blaming them for the high price of oil. Where do you come up with the idea earlier that he wanted to work closely with Congress on this?    » read more »

June 17, 2008 -- MR. FRATTO: Good afternoon, everyone. A quick schedule update, announcement, and then we'll go to questions.

President Bush will welcome Prime Minister Dung of Vietnam to the White House on June 24th. The President welcomes the opportunity to talk to Prime Minister Dung about ways to advance our close bilateral cooperation on a broad range of issues, including ASEAN, the United Nations Security Council, food security and regional economic integration -- you might remember that the President visited Vietnam in November of 2006 -- and we'll have a statement going on shortly for you on that.

Questions.

Q Hamas leaders say they've reached a cease-fire agreement with Israel. What's the U.S. reaction to that?    » read more »

June 16, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: I'll just let Steve start.

MR. HADLEY: We are on our way to our last stop. This has been an extremely successful trip. It's been an interesting blend of looking back and being able to celebrate what the United States and Europe have done over the past now almost -- over 60 years, to develop a Europe whole, free and at peace. It's a great accomplishment.    » read more »

June 15, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: Hi, this is our flight to the U.K., where we're going from Paris to London. And Steve Hadley was willing to come back and give you a little bit of a preview of the -- today's events and tomorrow's, before we head home.

MR. HADLEY: We're heading into the last day. I think the subject of conversation that obviously is -- the President will see the Queen this afternoon, the President and Mrs. Bush will see the Queen this afternoon. This evening, as you know, there's a dinner that Gordon Brown is hosting with the President. He'll be meeting with a group of historians, which ought to be an interesting evening for the President. Tomorrow, of course, will be the more formal meetings between the President and the Prime Minister, and a press availability.    » read more »

June 13, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: All right, I don't know which stop this is on the trip, because we're in the middle of it, but we're going from Rome to Paris. One note about this morning: The President had a wonderful meeting with the Pope. This is their third meeting in about a year or a little over a year. They have formed a strong and personal bond.

The President said he was very honored to be taken on a walk through the gardens that the Pope walks through every evening; that it was very special, and that they had a good conversation as they have in the past, especially after the visit in April when they got to know each other even better.    » read more »

June 12, 2008 -- MS. PERINO: Good afternoon, everybody; good to see you. Obviously we are here in Rome. I am going to just take a moment to tell you about one thing going on that the President got briefed on, as far as domestic issues, and then I will turn it over to the President's National Security Advisor, Steve Hadley.

Today President Bush was briefed again on the severe storms which struck the Midwest yesterday and continues to cause problems in that area. He was saddened to learn about the four Boy Scouts who were killed and he has them in their thoughts and prayers -- the victims, the injured Scouts, the family -- and he's going to be keeping in touch with his team to make sure that we are doing all we can do as they continue to endure, especially the flooding in Iowa.    » read more »