2001 US press briefings
The James S. Brady Briefing Room
1:17 P.M. EDT
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. I would like to fill you in on the President's day and, also, I have a couple announcements to make.
President Bush this morning spoke with President Zayid of the United Arab Emirates. The two spoke about cooperation against terrorism. The President thanked President Zayid for his public statements of support and his willingness to help the United States.
The President, earlier today, convened a meeting of his National Security Council to continue making plans. Earlier, the President visited the Pentagon to be briefed on the status of the call-up of the Reserves and to thank the employers and families who we know will be making a sacrifice to allow the Reservists to come serve our nation.
The President is about to make a phone call to the Chancellor of the New York City public schools, Harold Levy, to discuss how the federal government is prepared to help the school children and the parents of New York City deal with this tragedy as children go back to school.
The Secretary of Education is with the Chancellor right now. He will be there for the phone call and he will be making an announcement about additional millions of dollars which will be provided to New York City public schools to help them in this effort and to help our children and to help their parents.
A little later this afternoon, the President is going to be departing the White House to go to an Islamic center in the Washington, D.C. area, where the President intends to speak out very strongly about the need to remind all Americans that Arab Americans and Muslim Americans love the American flag, just like everybody else who is a citizen of this country. And he's looking forward to that visit. He'll spend some time with the leaders of the community, as well as various members of the community. The President considers that a very important meeting.
Later this afternoon, the President will return for a meeting of the economic policy team, where they will discuss the consequences of the terrorist attack on the United States, from an economic point of view, as well as discuss the airline industry and the position the airline industry is in at this moment.
Mrs. Bush will be in Pennsylvania for the memorial service for those who lost their lives in the crash of the airline in southwest Pennsylvania.
Two announcements for you, and then I'll be more than pleased to take questions. President Bush will welcome French President Jacques Chirac for a meeting and a private working dinner on September 18th, tomorrow. The visit is part of President Bush's continuing consultation with key allies about our global agenda, including the war on terrorism. And I'd note that this was a previously planned meeting.
In addition, the President will welcome Amir Shaiki Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani to Washington. He is the Amir of Qatar, for a working visit on October 4th. And with that, I'm more than happy to take questions.
Q Ari, on the economic front, the President talked about working with Congress on an economic stimulus package. Is he specifically preparing to back another tax cut? Does he think the country needs that right now?
MR. FLEISCHER: Too soon to say, David, but the President will continue to keep his eye on the economy, and he will continue to listen to members of Congress in both parties about what steps, if any, they believe need to be taken to help the economy, if any need to be taken.
Q Can you be more specific? Is that one of the ideas that's currently being discussed, both in Congress and between Congress and the administration?
MR. FLEISCHER: That is one of the ideas being discussed, correct.
Q And what kind of tax cut? Are we talking about capital gains --
MR. FLEISCHER: No, it's too soon to say. The President will have the briefing later this afternoon, and so I would hesitate to speculate until the briefing.
Q Let me go further. Does the administration support the bill in Congress to provide assistance to the airline industry?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's the topic that will come up at the meeting this afternoon -- the best forum that assistance, if any is to be coming, could be available. So that's a topic the President will review, and he has -- he's very concerned about the health of the airline industry.
Q Will there be a decision on either one of these matters out of this meeting?