For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
June 5, 2001
President Bush Meets with Senate Education Working Group
The Cabinet Room
2:08 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Listen, thank you
all for coming. It is good to see members of the Senate
coming back from the Memorial Day break. We're here to
discuss the education bill that has been passed by the House of
Representatives that will be debated soon, I believe; we hope
soon. This afternoon on the floor of the United States
Senate. And I, of course, am anxious to talk to the Chairman
of the Education Committee, Senator Kennedy, about getting the bill
done.
There's been a lot of discussion about the
bill, a lot of agreements that have been made. There's been
a lot of hard work from a lot of people around this table, and my hope
is, is that we don't try to add to or subtract from the bill after our
agreements have been made.
I look forward to hearing from the members
about how best to get this bill complete. I think we have an
opportunity -- I know we have an opportunity to show the American
people that although the structure of the Senate may have been altered
somewhat, we still can get things done in a way that's positive for
America.
So, welcome the members
here. Secondly, I am deeply concerned, as are members of the
Senate around this table, about the situation in the U.S. steel
industry. And we're concerned about unfair trade practices
that may be affecting the economics of the steel industry and,
therefore, call upon the International Trade Commission under Section
201 to have a full investigation of the industry, the imports coming
into the United States and make sure that our industry is not being
affected by unfair trade practices.
I'll be glad to answer a few questions, and
then we look forward to a discussion.
Q Mr. President,
Senator Kennedy is the chairman of this committee because Senator
Jeffords is leaving the party, saying that he could no longer, because
of the conservative bent of the party, he could no longer work as well
with you and other leaders of --
THE PRESIDENT: Why do you have to
make the guy feel bad in front of the TV cameras?
Q Because I get paid
good money for it, sir. (Laughter.) Let's not get
into your tax cut proposal now. What does that say about
your ability to oversee a party that's supposedly supposed to have a
broad tent, and specifically your ability to govern as you promised as
a bipartisan leader
THE PRESIDENT: Well, that's what
this meeting is all about. And there's going to be an
opportunity for us to work on a variety of issues. We did so on the
tax relief package. That package got a pretty good
Democratic vote out of the Senate and a good Democratic vote out of the
House. We'll do so on the education plan.
There's a patients' bill of rights that's
working its way through the Senate. I'm confident we'll have
a series of discussions on that. As a matter of fact,
there's an author of one of the bills here, and there's two authors of
a secondary bill, a second bill here. And as you know, we've
been working with Senator Frist and Senator Jeffords on that
alternative to try to make it conform to some principles that I
discussed.
There's going to be a lot of give and take on
key issues. And I think when people see the fine print of
the education bill, they'll find there's been a lot of give and take in
order to get a good bill out that improves public
education. So I'm confident we'll be able to work together.
Q And the steel ruling,
is this going to anger European allies going into the summit?
THE PRESIDENT: Ron, I certainly
hope it doesn't anger European allies. As you know, I've
told the world that we are going to have an active international --
internationalist foreign policy, with U.S. interests at its
heart. And it's in our nation's interests to make sure that
if there are unfair trade practices in the steel industry, that we
address them in an aggressive way, which this administration will do.
Yes, Jim. Nice seeing your brother
the other day.
Q Yes,
sir. He was happy to see you.
THE PRESIDENT: He speaks highly of
you. (Laughter.)
Q Sir, do you have any
fears that the changeover in the Senate will threaten the education
reform? Is that the reason for calling this meeting?
THE PRESIDENT: The reason for
calling this meeting is because I wanted to touch base with the people
that are making the bill move, to let them know how much I appreciate
the hard work that has gone into the bill, ask what we can do to help
make it move as quickly as possible so that we can sign a bill, in time
for public districts around the United States to plan for next fall.
And one reason why the Secretary of Education
is here is he is going to be in charge of implementing the new
bill. And that's why they're here.
Q You have more than
100 amendments still to be dealt with, sir. Is that something you
would like to ask the members here to streamline? Is there
some way to make the process move a little faster?
THE PRESIDENT: That's going to be
up to the Chairman, and I am sure he will have a few good
ideas. He has been around here a lot longer than I
have. And he'll have good ideas to move the bill as quickly
as possible.
My only request is that we adhere to the
spirit of our negotiations as best as possible. I know the
Senator is a man of his word. Our administration is as
well. I am confident we can get something done in a positive
way.
Q Mr. President, what
are you expecting to accomplish by sending CIA Director Tenet to the
Middle East, and what do you feel about the recent events out there?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we believe
strongly we need to stop the cycle of violence before anything can
happen. And I have been on the phone and the Secretary of
State has been on the phone urging all parties involved to adhere to
the cease-fire. We believe enough progress has been made on
the cease-fire that it is time to send George Tenet to the Middle East
to start serious discussions at the security level about how to make
sure the cease-fire continues.
And we are very hopeful that this will -- this
step will continue to -- will be a part of building confidence in the
region, confidence between skeptical leaders. And George is
going to be on a very important mission and we are all hopeful in the
United States that the mission begins to achieve the objective.
Once the violence has ceased, once there is a
cease-fire in place, once there are strong security arrangements back
in place, then we can start having political discussions.
Q Former --
THE PRESIDENT: The Mitchell Report
was a very good report and I called former Senator Mitchell to thank
him for his contributions. Our government and our nation
supports the Mitchell Report. The Mitchell Report clearly
says, step one is to stop the violence. And that is where
our efforts are from our government. We are doing everything
we can to make it clear to all parties that we will work as hard as we
can to stop the violence.
Thank you all very much.
END
2:15 P.M. EDT
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