THE
PRESIDENT: I want to thank the members of my Cabinet who have joined me
today. Today I'm going to take this opportunity to speak directly to our
citizens who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Many of you have been evacuated from the flooded and destroyed areas
and now find yourselves far from home -- without proper identification
or even a change of clothes. So today I'm announcing two important steps
that we are taking to provide you the help you need, steps that will cut
through the red tape so that we get that help into your hands as quickly
and easily as possible.
The first step is providing every household with $2,000 in
emergency disaster relief that can be used for immediate needs, such as
food or clothing or personal essentials. For those of you who are living
in the large centers, such as the Houston Astrodome, I know that you
don't have cars or transportation and cannot get yourselves to the
centers to collect these funds. I also know that some of you do not have
access to a savings or checking account, or ways to cash a check. FEMA
and Red Cross teams are either -- are working or soon will be working
with your shelters to meet your challenges and to get assistance into
your hands as soon as possible. By registering for the first $2,000, you
will begin the process of arranging for the delivery of other,
longer-term assistance that will be made available in the coming weeks
for eligible households.
For those of you who are staying with family members or in a rented
room or a hotel or apartment, FEMA is also working to get these funds in
your hands. Here are two ways that you can register for this assistance.
You can call 1-800-621-FEMA, that's 1-800-621-FEMA; or if you have the
capability to use the Internet you can log on to www.fema.gov. A FEMA
representative will arrange for your assistance to be delivered by mail
or deposited into your bank account. If you have special needs, the FEMA
representative can help arrange to get the money to you in another way.
Now, we have 3,000 people who are working around the clock to take
the calls. We're in the process of training more, and that number will
be increasing dramatically. More than 400,000 families have already been
registered. We still have tens of thousands more people who need to be
processed, so I ask for your patience if you experience problems in
trying to contact FEMA.
To those of you in our faith-based and community groups who have
opened up your hearts and homes, I want to thank you for your service to
our fellow Americans. If you've not been in contact with a FEMA
representative, please do so to help the people in your shelters. And,
again, you can call 1-800-621-FEMA. By calling a FEMA representative,
you can assure that the people you've taken in are registered and able
to receive the emergency assistance funds.
As we work to deliver this emergency relief, we're also working
to ensure that those of you who have received federal benefits
administered by the states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana will
continue to get those benefits in the states where you're now staying.
So the second step we're taking today is designed to make it easier
for you to register and collect these benefits in any state in the
country. We will start by granting evacuee status for all of you who
have lived in counties that have been declared disaster areas. We know
that many of you no longer have the legal documents or the records to
prove your eligibility for the benefits you've been getting. We
understand that. And so with this evacuee status, you will be able to
register for your benefits without many of the traditional
administrative requirements for verification and enrollment.
The special evacuee status applies to the full range of federal
benefits administered by the states. These programs include Medicaid;
temporary assistance for needy families; child care; mental health
services and substance abuse treatment; food stamps; housing; foster
care; women, infants and children nutrition; school lunch; unemployment
compensation; and job training.
The states that have opened up their doors should not be penalized
for coming to the aid of Americans in distress. And so I'm going to work
with the Congress to reimburse the states that are taking in evacuees
from the affected areas along the Gulf Coast.
I want to thank the governors and the leaders of the states that have
taken in so many of our fellow citizens. I want to thank you for your
compassion. And we understand that this is going to strain your budget,
so the federal government, as I just said, will operate under this
principle: You should not be penalized for showing compassion. State
enrollment teams are already set up in many shelters, and many have
1-800 numbers that people can call. Any evacuee can contact the nearest
state or local benefits office to get the information about enrolling.
And those of you who are staying in a home or church that has access
to the Internet can find out how to receive these benefits by going to
www.govbenefits.gov. These are just some of the many steps we'll be
taking in what will be a long relief effort. We have much more work to
do. But the people who have been hurt by this storm know that -- need to
know that the government is going to be with you for the long haul.
In all the steps we take our goal is not to simply provide benefits,
but to make them easy and simple as possible to collect. The
responsibility of caring for hundreds of thousands of citizens who no
longer have homes is going to place many demands on our nation. We have
many difficult days ahead, especially as we recover those who did not
survive the storm. I've instructed all agencies to honor their memory by
treating the dead with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Throughout our history in times of testing, Americans have come
together in prayer to heal and ask for strength for the tasks ahead. So
I've declared Friday, September the 16th, as a National Day of Prayer
and Remembrance. I ask that we pray -- as Americans have always prayed
in times of trial -- with confidence in His purpose, with hope for a
brighter future, and with the humility to ask God to keep us strong so
that we can better serve our brothers and sisters in need.
Thank you.