Press Briefing Index by Ari Fleischer
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
- President's daily schedule
- 245(i)
Abu Anas LibySenate action before recessDebt limitBorder securityHomeland security- Reference B
- Reference C
- Reference D
- Reference E
- Reference F
- Reference G
Zacharias MoussaouiIndia-PakistanColombiaMiddle EastZimbabweMassachusetts governor electionLeadership meetingsSecretary O'NeillMr. Zigler 12:53 P.M. EST MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. Let me giveyou a report on the
President's day, and then I have a briefannouncement to make and I'll be happy to take your questions. The President this morning had his usual round of intelligencebriefings from the CIA and the FBI, to cover the latest developments inthe war against terrorism and on homelandsecurity. The President then convened a meetingof the Homeland Security Council. Earlier this morning, the President made an announcement on aseries of new policies to help small businesses grow and protect jobs,a reflection of the President's concern that as there are increasingsigns of strength in the economy, he remains very worried aboutcreating jobs for working Americans. The President's remarks came at the Women's EntrepreneurshipConference 21st Century Summit. It's a real sign that someof the most powerful creators of jobs in the American economy arewomen-owned businesses, and the President was pleased to announce thepolicies at this group. The President will hold a Cabinet meeting later this afternoon,where he will discuss with members of the Cabinet the latestdevelopments in the war against terrorism, homeland security and alsoon the topic of the budget. One announcement on an important item that is pending in the UnitedStates Senate.
The Senate will be leaving for recess at theend of this week, and prior to their departure the President hopes theSenate will be able to take action on legislation that strengthensAmerica's borders and enhances border security; that while at the sametime extending a welcome by recognizing that families should not haveto be split up when they are in this country already, nor to go back totheir country for immigration status. And
this is what'scalled 245(i). This measure includes some very stringent provisions dealing withborder security, and they include requiring personal identificationdocuments to be more tamper-resistant and secure, enhancing the alienapplication screening process to eliminate entry of unwantedindividuals. And this legislation also requires monitoring of foreignstudents and exchange visitors to ensure they maintain their status. So as the Senate leaves town, the President thinks it's veryimportant for them to take this action to, one, protect the border and,two, welcome immigrants into our country in the finest traditions thathave made us a great and free nation. And with that, I'm more than happy to take yourquestions. Ron. Q Do you know if
Abu Anas Liby, one of thepeople on the Most Wanted List, is in custody in Sudan? MR. FLEISCHER: Ron, I have nothing to discuss on thattopic. Q Why not? Q Why not? Why can't you at leastclarify, because there have been so many conflicting reports. MR. FLEISCHER: Because anything on this wouldnecessarily involve intelligence and that would involve either aconfirmation or a denial of something, which I'm just not going to beable to do. Q But at the same time, theadministration -- when you released this list of22 Most Wanted, you were asking the public and all of us to try to helpfind these people. And now that there have been reports,television, newspaper, saying that he is in custody, you can't confirmor deny? MR. FLEISCHER: There's just no information I have that Ican share with you on that topic, I'm afraid to say. Q Is he still somebody who we want to get incustody? Is he still on our Most Wanted list? MR. FLEISCHER: I would answer the question, if I were toanswer that question. That's very creative. Q Can you acknowledge if there is confusionif the person in custody, whether he happens to be the person on theMost Wanted list or is someone else who just happens to be the samename? MR. FLEISCHER: Kelly, I'm afraid this is just a roadthat I'm not going to travel down. This is a matter thatinvolves intelligence information, which I am just not going to discussin any way, shape or form. And don't take that to confirmthat it is or is not the person in question. Q Can you tell us whether you're pleasedwith the Sudanese cooperation of late? (Laughter.) MR. FLEISCHER: I'm just not -- Ithink you're defining "of late" as in the last day orso? (Laughter.) No, I appreciatethis. I understand the questions. There are sometimes and matters that I'm just not going to be able to provide you anyinformation on. This is one. Q There are reports out there, the newspaperand television reports out there to the Americanpeople. Your response to those reports are? MR. FLEISCHER: There is no information on that topicthat I can share. And that shouldn't be taken as anindication that is true or it is not true. Q Well, let's talk about Congressthen. (Laughter.) MR. FLEISCHER: Jim Angle. Q You mentioned
245(i) and also what was theother issue you mentioned, that you wanted -- thestrengthening borders -- MR. FLEISCHER: 245(i) includes two provisions inthere. There's one that makes the nation more welcoming toimmigrants while, at the same time, appropriately toughening up theborders. Q You did not mention Andean trade, whichwas another issue which was sort of on the burner thisweek. Obviously, the Senate only has a couple of days left,is still dealing with campaign finance reform. What is yourpriority? Have you chosen border security over Andeantrade? MR. FLEISCHER: The President believes that the Senatecan take action on a host of these issues. And
debt limit isanother one. The nation is approaching the date at which itwill hit its debt limit and the Senate has serious work todo. You know, on these issues, for example, on the questionon making the borders tougher and welcoming in immigrants, that passedin the House of Representatives by a vote of 275-137; widespreadbipartisan support. Another example of the House takingaction while the Senate has not. The President hopes that the Senate will be able to take action,not only on this legislation, on border security and immigration,245(i), as well as debt limit, as well as Andean tradepreferences. The Senate is of course taking up an importantpiece of legislation, campaign finance reform. The Presidentwelcomes this, although the timing is interesting, because of coursedebt limit is immediate. We're about to hit it; 245(i),toughening up the borders, we need to do that quickly. Campaign finance reform, despite the President's request, won'teven be effective until after the election. The Presidentthinks it should be effective now; Congressdisagreed. Nevertheless, they want to pass it now. There'sa lot on the Senate's plate that's important. The Presidenthopes the Senate will be able to turn to it. Q On the debt limit question, the WhiteHouse believes that this must be acted upon right now, in spite of thefact that you're about to get a lot of the revenues from the annualcollection of income taxes? MR. FLEISCHER: The Treasury Department informed CapitolHill again yesterday that the date upon which the nation will hit itsdebt limit -- a statutorily, congressionally imposedlimit -- will be either at the end of next weekor the week after. Congress is running out of time. And if they recess atthe end of this week, which they say they will, Congress will have runout of time, forcing the administration to take extraordinary measures,which the administration should not be in a position to take, becauseCongress has a responsibility to fulfil. And the Presidenthas called on Congress to pass this, and has made that case for morethan a month. Congress has had fair warning this is comingup. Q Have you passed the message on to HouseRepublican leaders that you want a clean debt limit bill, becausethere's some resistance there? MR. FLEISCHER: The President has stated his casepublicly and privately. He wants to be able to signsomething. He has called for something clean, that includessomething that he'll be able to sign, of course. Q So are you saying anybody who blocked sucha thing would be irresponsible, is what he's saying? MR. FLEISCHER: The President understands that this isnot a time, in a time of war -- it's never a timeto mess with the nation's credit limit, especially in a time of war. Q Would he support tapping federal employeepension funds in order to keep the government running, if the Congressdoes not address the debt limit? MR. FLEISCHER: Keith, it's not a topic that thePresident wants to get into, because Congress still should do itsjob. Congress is in a position to prevent pensions frombeing tapped into. Congress will create conditions where thegovernment has to go to extraordinary steps if Congress doesn't fulfillits mission to pass a debt limit prior to the debt limitexpiration. And this is an issue that's important for bothparties, in the President's opinion. Q
On border security, has the Presidentsigned off on a plan to merge three agencies that deal with bordersecurity? And if he hasn't signed off, has he been presentedwith that option? MR. FLEISCHER: This morning at a meeting of the HomelandSecurity Council the President was presented with a recommendation onhow to enhance security at the nation's borders. ThePresident has not made any decision yet. The matter is underreview. The President is very satisfied that his administration is movingforward to present good ideas about how to protect theborder. Some of those ideas, of course, involveconsolidation. Q Do you expect a quick decision? MR. FLEISCHER: The President did not indicate what thetiming would be. Q Ari, can I just confirm a couplethings? Is the recommendation
merging INS and U.S. Customs? MR. FLEISCHER: I'm just not going to get into specificsof a recommendation that was shared with the President at a privatemeeting. Q And one other thing. Wasn'tGovernor Ridge push with something broader, merging, not just INS,Customs, other parts of the inspection service at Agriculture, so whynot go even more expanded? MR. FLEISCHER: Well, as part of the Governor's missionto protect homeland security and to work in a coordinating fashion withall the agencies that have operational responsibility, the Governor hasbeen looking at a series of ideas for how to enhance security along theborder. And that's the charge the President gave him. And, as I indicated, there was a meeting thismorning. The President has received arecommendation. Because of the nature of a meeting where thePresident receives these recommendations, until the President hassomething to say, I'm not going to discuss the specifics of it. Q Ari, on that topic, why does the WhiteHouse continue to resist the idea of making the Office of HomelandSecurity a Cabinet-level department with its own budgetary authorityand its own responsibility to Congress? MR. FLEISCHER: The President believes that the Office ofHomeland Security, under Governor Ridge, is working extraordinarilywell. It is fulfilling the exact mission that the Presidentset out for homeland security when the President announced it in thewake of the attack on our nation. If you remember, the President's speech to Congress on September20th announced that for the first time the White House will have anOffice of Homeland Security, that really is parallel to thelong-standing bipartisan tradition of the Office of NationalSecurity. It is a coordinating entity that works with theoperational agencies. The President believes that Governor Ridge is doing a superb job atit. He believes that Governor Ridge is an excellent advisorto him, and that the Governor does a very important function for thePresident and the White House by coordinating the various agencies,just as the National Security Advisor does in her capacity. Q But if we're talking about consolidatingall of these agencies, why not create a Department of HomelandSecurity, as many lawmakers have suggested? And rather thantake Customs, Border, whatever, and put it all under DOJ, why not bringit all under the auspices, under one umbrella of Homeland Security? MR. FLEISCHER: The reason for that, John, is if you takea look at how the federal government is set up across the myriad ofagencies, there are more than a dozen agencies, many of which havecomponents that deal with homeland security in one form oranother. I'm not aware of a single proposal on Capitol Hillthat would take every single one of those agencies out from theircurrent missions and put them under Homeland Security. So even if you took half of them out and put them under a Cabinetlevel Office of Homeland Security, the White House would still need, inthe President's estimation, an advisor on how to coordinate all thatmyriad of activities the federal government is involvedin. So creating a Cabinet office doesn't solve theproblem. You still will have agencies within the federalgovernment that have to be coordinated. So the answer is,creating a Cabinet post doesn't solve anything. The WhiteHouse needs a coordinator to work with the agencies, wherever theyare. Q So why then is the Lieberman bill a badidea, in your estimation? MR. FLEISCHER: The Lieberman bill? Idon't -- your specifics. Do you wantto define the Lieberman bill? Q Well, it would take a lot of thoseagencies that you just talked about and put them under the auspices ofa Cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. MR. FLEISCHER: Yes, for the exact reasons I mentioned,that ev
