Lawrence Ari Fleischer

“ In addition, at our Domestic Policy Council we will have a White House employee who is dedicated to fighting AIDS and developing policies that can help us to fight AIDS. There is also a task force in place, that will remain in place, that also is concerned with the battle against AIDS. That will be the entities within the White House that are dedicated to that cause. Q Will there be an AIDS coordinator and will the people -- the number of people dedicated to this issue be the same or lesser that were in the AIDS office under Clinton? ”

“ Well, I think that any time you have law enforcement officers with drawn weapons and you have a suspect with a drawn weapon, that's a standoff. Q Were the families who came to see the President this morning on the South Lawn ever in danger? MR. FLEISCHER: No, there was never any danger to the people here in the building. Q Are they still here? MR. FLEISCHER: If they were taking a tour, they could have been. There were tourists walking through the White House, as part of the normal White House tours. But, again, I have no information that anybody was in any danger at that point. ”

“ Well, I think it's fair to say that anytime anybody has a weapon that they're discharging, there's a safety problem for all concerned. Q Does the President or does the Secret Service have any intention to make the White House less accessible, the President less accessible to the public or the press after that? MR. FLEISCHER: There has been no discussions of that. Q Ari, are we under heightened national security here at the White House right now? MR. FLEISCHER: No. E Street remains closed pending the investigation. Traffic is coming in and out of the White House. ”

“ I think many nations on this Earth deal with issues and the matter of protection of their presidents, and the United States does not stand alone in having to have people protect the President, protect the building in which the President resides. ”

“ It will say the patient protections should apply to all Americans; patient protections should be comprehensive; that patients should have a rapid medical review process for denials of care; the review process should ensure that doctors make medical decisions and patients receive care in a timely manner; federal remedies should be expanded to hold health plans accountable; and patient protection legislation should encourage, not discourage, employers to offer health care. ”

“ There is more than a 30-year tradition of federal legislation protecting people against those type of suits in state court. And the President believes that this federal legislation should maintain that tradition. ”

“ Let me reiterate something I said yesterday that the President believes very deeply. The biggest threat to the surplus is government spending. This town was built to spend, and if you don't cut taxes, that money will get spent. And the President would rather cut taxes.
Q Back on the AIDS and race offices. Was the White House Chief of Staff misquoted or misunderstood, or just mistaken when he told USA Today that the administration -- and your office confirmed -- that the administration intends to close those offices? ”

“ That's part of the investigation. Q Any political impact on the happy face of the new administration? MR. FLEISCHER: Nobody ever wants to have to go through anything like this, for anybody -- not for the Secret Service, who guards this building; not for the people who work here; and of course, the suspect. Nobody ever in our society wants to have these types of incidents arise. Unfortunately, as we've seen through history, they sometimes do. And that's why we're all grateful to the people who protect this building and protect our President. Q Ari, you said the standoff was 10 minutes long. ”

“ Q Ari, on an economic policy matter, it looks like there's going to be bankruptcy legislation again. The previous administration opposed that. Is President Bush likely to support bankruptcy legislation when it comes up? MR. FLEISCHER: I think Larry Lindsey has spoken about that issue. It depends on the exact substance of what the legislation would say. As you know, every time a Congress is complete, new legislation gets introduced, and you have to see if the terms are exactly the same as previous terms. ”

“ And that was above and beyond what was appropriated by the Congress last year to help our men and women in uniform -- $1 billion on the pay raise per year.
Q Is the White House committing to keep that Jackson Place office open after the end of the current fiscal year? In other words, will it stay open? MR. FLEISCHER: That is the plan. Q A follow-up on that. I guess I'm as confused as Jim is, because we have this report that Rumsfeld said, we're not going above the Clinton budget -- we're talking about the review that we all know the President said in September of '99 we would undertake. ”

“ All the specific facts of that matter will be investigated by the relevant agencies, including the Secret Service and the U.S. Park Police, and that investigation is underway. Q What was the President's reaction to this incident? MR. FLEISCHER: The President has full faith in the Secret Service, so the President understood that he was not in any danger. And the President -- again, we all have full faith in the Secret Service here. They are professionals, they do their job, and they do it well. ”

“ That's the program the President will submit to the Congress. There's been this talk about a trigger, that we shouldn't cut taxes unless we put in a trigger. Well, that's the equivalent of saying that we're going to reimpose a marriage penalty on people, that we're going to raise taxes on people. And the President does not subscribe to that notion.
Q He's not open to any discussion on that issue? MR. FLEISCHER: The President is going to fight for what he believes in. ”

“ And so there -- in addition to what people do on their mission dedicated toward eradicating AIDS, there will be other people, of course, in the course of their routine work who are going to concern themselves with AIDS, as events warrant. And I think that's entirely reasonable that it will come up in that context, as well. Q I'm a little confused on the defense spending issue. I thought you had indicated a few days ago that the President intended to include an additional pay raise and additional monies for military housing in his first budget. ”