2001 US press briefings
The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
2:27 P.M. EST
MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon. Let me begin with a couple of brief announcements.
The President intends to nominate Peter F. Allgeier to be Deputy to the United States Trade Representative. The President intends to nominate Linnet Deily to be Deputy United States Trade Representative. And we have paper on that, that will be available shortly.
With that, I'm pleased to take questions.
Q Do you know how many positions you've got left to fill?
MR. FLEISCHER: Several hundred. The President has nominated -- actually, there are three stages of the nominations, Jim. The President intends to name -- that is the first step where the President -- people have already gone through a sufficient level of the background clearances that the President puts their announcement out publicly.
The second step is the formal nomination to the United States Senate, and typically there is about four to five weeks that is done prior to the President's intention to name. Following that is the Senate nomination after all security investigations are complete, and then you await confirmation by the Senate.
The President is very pleased with the progress that he has made, given the fact we had a shortened transition, and we anticipate, as you have been able to see in the last week to two, an accelerating pace of nominations.
Q But you still have several hundred left to fill, you say?
MR. FLEISCHER: To name, correct. But, again, the President's pleased with the pace. It's an accelerating pace, and it's a reflection of the shortened transition.
Q Do you have a number for how many you have named?
MR. FLEISCHER: I don't have a hard number on that. We can get that for you; I'd be more than happy to. Anne Womack will have that available.
Q Is the President likely to revisit his stance on offshore drilling, in light of the California energy crisis?
MR. FLEISCHER: I have not heard any such discussion about that. The President said clearly during the campaign that Californians opposed having offshore oil off their coast, and he supported that, and that is his position then. I've heard nothing that would indicate a change would be coming.
Q Ari, let me try this on you since I tried it on the President and he didn't play -- he did say yesterday that he was very confident about the economy. He said today that our economy is slowing down. Was he, yesterday, trying to placate Democrats who accuse him of talking the economy down and reverting back to form today? What's going on?
MR. FLEISCHER: I urge you to roll the tapes, and you will find very frequent references by the President of the United States to the fact that he has faith in the long-term growth of the economy. When he talked about the projections in his budget, he indicated that he believes -- he's said this for weeks -- that he believes that the actual results of the economy will out-pace that which he has projected. And he has repeatedly stressed his confidence in the long-term growth of the economy, while also understanding and emphasizing with the concerns of people right now who are suffering in today's weak and weakening economy.
But the President has been very consistent about it. I just think there are people who, from time to time, are uneasy with some of the progress the President is making, and so they criticize the process because the substance is moving forward. And I think that's a case of what you have here. But the President has said the same thing repeatedly and will continue to say it.
Q But if the economy is slowing down, as he says, then that means that receipts in the future will be slowing down and, in fact, there was evidence of that yesterday, which you may have seen.
MR. FLEISCHER: Well, again, reality is different. The actual amount of money coming into the United States treasury for the first five months of this year, even with the slowdown, was $42 billion more than it was last year. And so receipts continue to come in at a faster rate than last year, despite the slowdown. And that's, frankly, a sign that people are just underestimating receipts.