White House Gaggle

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.

More BlackBerries for U.S. veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is opening its eyes and ears to small businesses and new technology. Frederick Downs, Jr., chief prosthetics and clinical logistics officer in the VA Office of Prosthetics and Clinical Logistics, discussed the new VA developments at a House Small Business Committee hearing.

According to Downs, in 2007, VA provided prosthetic services to more than 1,606,000 veteran patients. 97 percent of prosthetic and orthotic devices for veterans are provided by independent contractors, Downs said. In 2007, together with the VA laboratories, the contract prosthetic labs provided limbs or repairs to 11,023 veterans with amputations at a cost of more than $61,470,000. The VA is not like Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where patients sometimes end up using their own money for co-payments; the VA pays covers all patient costs, Downs said.

To maintain standards, each contractor lab must be certified by the American Board for Certification of Orthotics, Prosthetics, and Pedorthics (ABC), or the Board for Orthotist/Prosthetist Certification (BOC). Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) said that there should be a single set of criteria for these companies to meet, not two different accrediting bodies like the ABC and BOC.

Accordings to Downs, the VA is building a closer relationship with the private sector. It holds an annual conference where small businesses can market their scientific presentations and products. Also, the VA, along with the Department of Defense (DoD), is giving new technology to veterans, such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), which allow VA prosthetics staff to assist veterans with repairs even if the veterans have been moved across the country. This is particularly helpful because the DoD and VA records do not transfer electronically, Downs said. Also, the VA’s website now has 300,000 hits.

Helping veterans remain independent

The House Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity met to discuss the Independent Living Program (ILP,) a rehabilitation program of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA.) Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.) explained that the ILP’s goal is to help veterans maintain independent lives through learned skills despite physical and mental barriers. Hall said federal money is often underutilized which causes delays in services. Hall closed his statement by saying veterans deserve the best programs possible.

Bruce McCartney, a Vietnam veteran from Georgia, recounted his four year struggle with the ILP, saying that various actors like doctors and case officers were unable to give him adequate answers and that assistance took too long to obtain. After recalling his experience, he said he sees no benefit from the ILP. McCartney said Americans want to help their troops but that unnecessary bureaucracy in the Department of Veterans Affairs prevents ILPs from helping veterans.

John Lancaster, the executive director of the National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) said his organization helps many veterans acquire housing and employment, adding that the NCIL often serves as a voice for veterans’ advocacy. Lancaster said the NCIL is working to provide additional funding and services that would improve government programs while creating new ones.

Neglected veterans get much needed attention

The Economic Opportunity Subcommittee of the House Veterans Affairs Committee met to review several bills meant to improve veterans’ benefits upon return from duty.

Bob Filner (D-Calif.) voiced his support of a bill to provide assistance to the Paralympic Program of the United States Olympic Committee. This would help promote regular participation in physical activity and sports by disabled veterans. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) presented a bill that will allow service members to terminate their cell phone contracts once they are deployed overseas. Dennis Cardoza (R-Texas) described a bill that would provide a comprehensive CD-ROM to servicemen describing benefits from Veterans’ Affairs. This bill would also put complete details of the benefits and how to receive them on the website. John R. Carter (R-Texas) presented a bill that would provide financial relief to families of servicemen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) presented a bill that would bring back an expired bill that helped veterans find work once out of duty.

Senator congratulates whistleblowers on their courage to speak out

Continuing Whistle blower Week in Washington, the No FEAR institute met this afternoon and heard remarks from Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) who congratulated whistle blowers and pushed for stronger legislation to protect them.

“The only crime that whistle blowers commit is in telling the truth,” said Grassley. Whistle blowers sacrifice their careers, livelihood and even their status in the community to bring those responsible to justice. Grassley calls for stronger legislation that will protect whistle blowers and their civil rights. It is in the constitution to have the freedom of speech and the right to petition your government, but the current policies are making that difficult and discouraged.

Also at the meeting were witnesses who testified of atrocities done to them. Some spoke out against ethnic cleansing and affirmative action backlash in the Patent and Trademark Office. Other spoke about sham peer reviews, while working in the medical field as well as many different government agencies or law enforcement, which gave reason to put these individual out of work for speaking out against wrongdoings.

Several members of the Iraq Veterans Against the War spoke up about the retaliation they have received by protesting the war in Iraq. Current legislation is weak on military oversight and many veterans who have returned honorably from the war and given honorable discharges have spoken out against the government’s involvement in Iraq and their discharges have been changed from honorable to general and benefits taken away.

All those witnesses who testified as well as Sen. Grassley called for stronger legislation to be passed in order to protect the rights of whistle blowers, like the No FEAR II resolution. That resolution offers stronger wording than the previous No FEAR legislation which was passed five years ago today.