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Briefer: Dana Perino

President’s Schedule

President Bush had his normal briefings this morning. At 10.30 am he signs H.R. 3403, the New and Emerging Technologies 911 Improvement Act of 2008, in the Oval Office of the White House. At 10.55 am, the President will drop by the National Security Advisor's meeting with the Defense Minister of Columbia. At 12.55 pm the President travels to the Pentagon to participate in U.S Department of Defense briefings. At 3.25 pm, President Bush participated in a photo opportunity with the 2008 Boys and Girls Nation delegates. Later this afternoon, the President also signs the Presidential Proclamation in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Armed Forces Integration.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino will brief the press at 12.15 pm today.

Housing Bill

When asked how far the Administration thinks that the housing bill will go in terms of solving the problems, Perino said that the White House made an announcement earlier this morning that the President on Secretary Paulson’s recommendation will sign the housing bill.
Perino said that the Administration has been very concerned about certain provisions in the bill, one of them being a $ 4 billion, “bail out”, as the White House calls it, for lenders; whereas they are other parts of the bill that have worked very long to get for a long time, such as the GSE reform. “The President would not have signed this bill if we had a lot of time extra time on our hand, we don’t, “Perino said and continued to say that a prolonged veto fight, even though they think they could win it, would not be good for the housing industry right now. The markets need to be stabilized and regain confidence.
Perino was also asked how this will impact Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and she replied that they will need a strong and independent regulator, that makes sure that they are well capitalized, and that they are focus on their core mission which is to help homeowners and especially low income homeowners.

President’s comments during fundraisers

When asked about the President’s colorful remarks about Wall Street being drunk and suffering from a hangover, Perino said that he has expressed these sentiments before as they reflect his view of the market not fully understand the risks that powerful financial instruments pose to the system.
When asked if they are going to start to take away cameras and cell phones from donors at these events, Perino said no, she didn’t think so. She was also questioned about making an audio feed available for the press, and Perino said that is not recorded and she insists that the Administration will maintain the private residence fundraisers as closed press events. When pressed on this, Perino said that she inherited the policy and that she understands it and knows that the press doesn’t agree with it.
Any time the President, or anybody who is speaking in public, they feel like they are guarding their statement, and people do benefit from hearing the President in all of his candor, Perino said.

President’s visit to Pentagon

This is a chance for the President to hear from the Joints Chiefs of Staff, in a longer meeting that is expected to cover a wide range of topics such as Iraq, Afghanistan, care of veterans, and military families.
They will probably also be discussions about future plans for the Pentagon even though there will be a transition within the next budget year.

Iraqi Elections

When asked when elections will take place, and Perino said that they will try to do them by the end of the year, though there are a lot of things to work through first.