For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 30, 2002
Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer and John Bridgeland, Executive Director of USA Freedom Corps
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Listen to the Briefing
4:12 P.M. EST
- Introduction of Mr. John Bridgeland
- Response from Iran
- Kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter
- Enron
- Questions about Freedom Corps by John Bridgeland
MR. FLEISCHER: I just want to introduce you to John
Bridgeland, who the President just named, of course, his Executive
Director in charge of USA Freedom Corps. John is going to be
available to answer any questions you may have about the President's
new initiative today. If anybody has one or two questions,
I'll take one or two questions, and then we'll go to Mr. Bridgeland.
Q Ari, there's been quite a strong response
from Iran, and actually, one from Iraq, as well, in regard to the
President's axis comments from his State of the Union address last
night. I wonder if you can deal with that. You've
said that military action is not imminent, but the President seemed to
suggest that military action is certainly under active
consideration. Is that not the case?
MR. FLEISCHER: The President is very pleased by the
bipartisan reception that his remarks received in his speech last
night. Many members
of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- agreed with the
President's message. The President could not have been more
plainspoken, himself, when he said that time is running
out. But he will be deliberative, and that's the President's
words and he's pleased with the reaction.
Q Internationally, there's been --
MR. FLEISCHER: Dana.
Q Do you have anything, Ari, on the
kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter?
MR. FLEISCHER: I do not.
Q On Enron, on the task force -- the GAO is
trying to get the records -- they have presented their case, saying
they have a legal right, a statutory right. What is the
administration's legal case? Do you have court precedent or
--
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, the President will stand strong on
principle, fighting for his right and the right of all future
Presidents to receive advice without it being turned into a virtual
news release. The President will fight for this right in a
court of law. And the White House expects to prevail because
our case is strong, our policy is sound, and principle is on our side.
Q Is there legal precedent, court cases or
--
MR. FLEISCHER: GAO has never done this before.
We're going to have to get to John Bridgeland in just a
second. So last question.
Q Are you asserting executive
privilege? Is that the legal basis here?
MR. FLEISCHER: No. The administration's
position, which we expect to
be upheld in a court of law, is that the General Accounting Office
is acting beyond their authority, outside a statute, so there's no need
to exert the privilege. The GAO is acting outside its
authority.
All right, let me introduce you to John
Bridgeland. Thank you.
MR. BRIDGELAND: Thank you, Ari. Good
afternoon. Last night, the President called, building on a
long tradition of volunteerism and working in our local communities
around America, for the public good, the President
called on every American to serve their country for two years over
their lifetimes -- 4,000 hours.
The power of the call to serve, itself, we know is extremely
important. When Americans are asked to serve, data shows
that 63 percent of them do. And where people are not called
upon to serve, only 25 percent
do. We have 76 million Americans over the next decade
who are baby boomers, who will be entering retirement, and 44 million
senior Americans in the Social Security system today. We
have a rising generation of young Americans who have an opportunity to
be the next great generation.
It was Robert Putnam who said, from Harvard, once or twice a
century there is an occasion to enlist Americans to serve their country
in greater service. The call to service is not a federal
mandate, but an individual -- a powerful individual commitment, and one
that calls upon Americans to do great service to their nation and to
their communities.
Service could be military or civilian; serve great national
purposes or local community needs; be domestic or
international. It's also clear that two years of service is
within reach. Currently, 44 percent of Americans serve, on
average, about 187 hours per year. So that service -- maybe
a young person coming out of high school or college could go into an
activity and serve their country for one or two years. Or a
senior entering retirement could go and serve their country for one or
two years.
Or perhaps an individual could accumulate service over a lifetime.
Last night the President announced the USA Freedom
Corps. The USA Freedom Corps is going to be a coordinating
council chaired by the President in the White House with the support
from an office. It will have
three principal components.
First, it will begin to attempt to answer the question of, what is
the
citizen's role in helping to protect the homeland, and to help
galvanize and organize communities all across America, like the
community with whom we just met: police chiefs,
firefighters, emergency response personnel, mayors, school officials,
faith leaders, people who are working actively in
the community to make a difference.
You know, a first responder told me that in New York City, after
that horrific act, what happened within the first few hours that made
the difference between life and death for Americans there was the
result of the
local infrastructure that was in place and the local response that
was undertaken.
And so the President is committed to working with FEMA, to working
with communities like we saw today, around America, to mobilize
Americans through the Citizen Corps, which will strengthen our homeland
security efforts.
Currently in this country, we have a vast crime prevention network,
and a natural disaster preparedness network, and a public health
network. Building on that infrastructure, we're hoping to design and
strengthen a new homeland security effort: $230 million in
fiscal year 2003 will be provided to help the formation of Citizen
Corps councils, and six new initiatives initially to support these
efforts.
We know in places like Henderson County, North Carolina, that
volunteers, especially senior citizens, are working with local police
departments on non-sworn functions so they can free up police to
perform their front-line duties. We know in places like Anne
Arundel, Maryland, similar efforts are working successfully, so that
cops can be out on the beat doing their front-line work.
We also know that, for the first time, we want to mobilize retired
nurses and doctors and health care professionals through a medical
reserve corps, with support from the Department of Health and Human
Services, to provide vitally needed support to our local hospitals and
community centers, and other institutions that would be called upon to
respond to natural disasters or potentially and act of terrorism.
Ten million dollars will be provided initially in fiscal year 2003
for
that effort. For the volunteer in police service
program, we will provide
$6 million initially for emergency training and capacity-building.
We also are working with local communities to triple the capacity
of community emergency response teams. Currently, there are
200,000 individuals in 28 states around America, who are working to
support first responders in the event of an emergency. We're
going to triple that capacity with $61 million over the next two years
to support these important efforts in local communities.
There are people all across this country, 15 million transportation
workers, truckers. The President visited up in Portland,
Maine last week lobster fishermen and others who were working together
in a collective effort, they have daily routines. And they
can be the eyes and ears of law
enforcement. They can detect suspicious activity.
We're going to create an Operation TIPS, a Terrorism Information
and Prevention System, to engage our truckers and our postal workers
and our train conductors and our ship captains, and our utility
employees and our airline stewardesses, who have already done so much
to make a difference to
see how they can be a gauge through Highway Watch and the Global
Maritime School and a comprehensive network to engage them in this
effort through a pilot program initially in 10 cities, and the support
of $2 million for a hotline so they can report suspicious activity to
their local law enforcement authorities, and $6 million additional
dollars to support these
pilot programs.
And, finally, Americans have been asking again and again and
again: What can we do in our homes, neighborhoods, schools, places of
worship, on airlines, public places, to be prepared? And we
have a citizens preparedness guide book that's been developed to give
them the latest guidance that we have.
All in all, this effort will help strengthen crime prevention in
this country, strengthen public health infrastructure, and strengthen
natural disaster preparedness.
Tomorrow -- and I just want to mention two other elements of the
USA Freedom Corps -- the President is spawning the creation of new
service opportunities. Twenty-five thousand additional
AmeriCorps participants, leveraging at least 75,000 additional
volunteers, 100,000 new Senior Corps participants, and finally, the
third component, to double the number of Peace Corps volunteers over
the next five years, from 7,000 today to near its historic high back in
June of 1966, of 15,000.
We're also going to undertake, through the Crisis Corps, working
with sophisticated volunteers who know the culture, tradition and
language to go
back into Afghanistan as part of the reconstruction effort, and to
work to
send volunteers consistent with safety and security throughout the
Islamic
world.
I'd be happy to take any questions that you have about the USA
Freedom
Corps.
MR. MCCLELLAN: This is off-camera, but it is ON THE
RECORD, so just so everybody's clear on that, like we said earlier.
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes, sir.
Q I'm confused about the
split. Like if you take AmeriCorps as an example, you say
you're going to have 25,000, but they're going to leverage
and get 75,000 more. In the end, what's the
difference? Are the 25,000 -- they get a stipend from the
government?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes. The way it works
currently, actually the leverage ratios that people use today are
actually 12 to one, but conservative estimates show that AmeriCorps is
basically a program that supports Habitat for Humanity, or Teach for
America, or The Boys and Girls Club. And if you've ever
worked in a Habitat home, the AmeriCorps participant who gets a small
stipend, or perhaps just an education award that they can use to go on
to help pay for college.
That person ends up training additional volunteers that work in
that habitat construction. So you have -- people who get
stipends also are leveraging other volunteers, and one thing that we
want to require as part of assessing whether or not Habitat and these
other organizations are having an important effect and that the
taxpayer dollar is being used wisely is to see how they actually are
mobilizing additional volunteers to perform these important tasks.
Q Is everybody in AmeriCorps and the Senior
Corps and in the new Citizen Corps, will they all get stipends?
MR. BRIDGELAND: No. The Senior Corps actually
works differently. They typically get a very small allowance to cover
gas and mileage and some
of their incidental expenses. So it's a very
cost-efficient program.
The new Citizen Corps is an effort to work with local communities,
with states and governors, to mobilize Citizen Corps councils so you
have sectors from the community represented.
We're going to provide support through FEMA to support those
councils,
and underneath the councils specific programs that have been proven
to be effective in addressing crime prevention or responding to natural
disasters, or strengthening the public health infrastructure.
Q But they will be true volunteers, not
people --
MR. BRIDGELAND: They will be volunteers. Some
of them will go on to get trained as part of a community emergency
response team. Many of them will be volunteers for the local
police or firefighters. Some may be part of the Medical
Reserve Corps. But you're right, they will be volunteers.
Q No stipends at all? Not like --
so it is different?
MR. BRIDGELAND: No, it is different. It is
different. They will not
get stipends. That's correct.
Q I still just don't get it. If I
call this 800 number, say I'm interested in helping out, somebody will
call me back and ask me to do what
kinds of things? Will I be asked to walk the
neighborhood beat Crime Watch? Can you give us some tangible
idea, not bureaucratic-speak about what these people are going to do?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Sure. Yes. With
respect to the Citizen Corps, if an
individual calls up the 1-800 number today, and let's say you're a
retired
doctor and you live in a community and you want to volunteer to
help support your local hospital or community center and be part of a
medical reserve corps in your community, that information will go today
through the
website or by that 1-800 number into FEMA, they will take your name
and address, and as soon as a medical reserve corps is mobilized in
your local community, you will get information about how you can
participate.
Q Okay. And this is all meant to
be a response to terrorism, as well?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes, it is. But one of the
ancillary benefits, as the President mentioned, is that it will
strengthen public health in that area and natural disaster
preparedness.
Q How much of any of this happening depends
on Congress coming up with some money?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Actually, there are communities today,
just like the one we met with, that are starting to get
organized. But they're constantly asking the questions in
communities around America: What ought we be doing, and how
do we best interact with the local structure and with the states and
with the federal government. And what we're trying to do is
create an integrated system so that Americans, when they're
volunteering, are a part of this local effort, it has an impact on
addressing the risks and threats.
One thing that they'll do is come up with a plan. What
are the vulnerabilities in our community? What are the
potential threats? What are our resources? What
are our gaps in resources. This will better inform us as to
what's required in the way of funding support and other support at the
state and federal level.
Q To follow on that a little bit, can you
give us some sort of breakdown or estimate of how much of this you see
directly related to helping prevent against future terrorist attacks,
either by training people
to look for suspicious boats in harbors, or trucks moving on
highways, that kind of thing.
MR. BRIDGELAND: Right. What we know, from
crime prevention, Highway Watch on Highway 81, for example, and in rest
stops, has had, actually, a dramatic impact on reducing
crime. Again and again and again, the number of homicides in
Virginia along the rest stops, they put in place a system to actually
have those areas patrolled as part of the routine mission of police
officers and truckers.
Tremendous success in shutting down crime. We think that
same principle can be applied all across America, and our borders,
internally on
our highways.
Q You're using that as a model and applying
it to training -- here are the 10 ways a terrorist might be in your
part of your world, here's what you should look for?
MR.
BRIDGELAND: Yes. Right. Yes. And
we're taking both -- we're
taking Neighborhood Watch, which some of you may participate in
your community, and bringing it up to capacity, so again, if a neighbor
or someone sees something suspicious in a community, that can be
reported instantly. And people who have routines -- your
truckers, your ship captains, your train conductors -- again, those
working day-in and day-out,
are uniquely positioned to report suspicious activity.
Q Can I ask you about the
funding? You say here that there's $560 million you need
from Congress for Freedom Corps, and then a couple pages later, you
need $230 million for AmeriCorps. I mean, what is the total
here?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes, the breakdown, the total is $560
million in Fiscal Year '03, $230 million of which is for the Homeland
Security Citizen
Corps effort, $230 million of which is for support for
AmeriCorps. There is an additional $10 million for challenge
grants that support programs like Teach for America; $100 million for
Senior Corps, and then the $200 million for Peace Corps is actually a
five-year number, and in Fiscal Year '03, it's $42 million would be the
number for '03 --
Q So it's $560 million or billion?
MR. BRIDGELAND: It's $560 million in Fiscal Year '03,
total.
Q Total?
MR. BRIDGELAND: That's correct.
Q To implement this.
MR. BRIDGELAND: That's correct.
Q So the President can't do anything of this
unilaterally, he needs
Congress to come up with the money? Which is, I guess,
the question I was
asking before.
MR. BRIDGELAND: Well, we can start, and we are beginning
to organize,
through FEMA -- we have the authority to do it -- to organize these
citizen councils locally, and to help put in place -- there are
existing programs, like Neighborhood Watch, which is
supported. We're going to develop Operation
TIPS. Again, with existing resources, we're going to attempt
to do everything we can with respect to Citizen Corps.
With respect to the expansion, the enhancements to AmeriCorps,
we're going to work with Senator McCain and Senator Bayh in conjunction
with their Citizen Service Act, to get this legislation to the Congress
so we both authorize and then fund these programs.
Q Do you have a five-year number in terms of
the cost?
MR. BRIDGELAND: No, the budget's -- it's a one-year
number.
Q So establishing the USA Freedom Corps was
just an executive order, it happened?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes. The President signed
yesterday an executive order creating the USA Freedom Corps Council.
Q But there's no money yet, as we were
saying, until Congress passes --
MR. BRIDGELAND: Yes. The '03 request --
that's correct -- is $560 million. But we're going to go
forward with existing resources and implement those programs that are
currently in operation.
Q So these programs exist then, without a
lot of the money?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Some of the programs exist --
Q I meant like Citizen Corps now exists?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Citizen Corps does not
exist. But, for example, Neighborhood Watch is supported by
the Department of Justice.
Q When will Citizen Corps exist?
MR. BRIDGELAND: Citizen Corps, today, has via website,
people are able to volunteer and work in tandem with their local
communities to start to organize these local efforts.
A lot of this is an organizational challenge; it's not all about
funding. And we want to help communities like Winston-Salem
get organized at the local community and help funnel volunteers into
these local efforts to support these homeland security efforts.
Q How many new positions at the White House
will there be to oversee this?
MR. BRIDGELAND: I'm directing the
office. We'll have a number of staff within the
office. And then, the coordinating council consists of those
individuals who are outlined in your book.
Q New positions?
MR. BRIDGELAND: New positions should be around eight.
MR. MCCLELLAN: And I want to encourage you all to go
ahead and -- I mean, log onto the website, call into the 800 number, or
the 877 number, see how it works. That's already up and
running.
END 4:20 P.M. EST
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