THE
PRESIDENT: I want to thank you all for coming. I want to thank Colonel
Setliff for the tour that he just gave the Governor and the Mayor and
myself, along with Laura and part of our party. I want to thank Colonel
Wagenaar for the aerial tour. We just flew over affected parts of
Orleans Parish and Jefferson Parish and St. Bernard Parish, and getting
a view of the progress that is being made.
I particularly want to thank my friend, Don Powell, for his hard work in
coordinating federal efforts with the Governor and the Mayor. Governor
Blanco and Mayor Nagin have been by my side when I've come down here,
and I really appreciate them being a part of the recovery efforts. I
want to thank Walter Isaacson and David Voelker, the members of the
Louisiana Recovery Authority. They were on Air Force One today to make
sure I fully understood -- understand the strategies that the local
folks are putting in place to help the good people of this part of the
world recover from the devastating storm.
You know, we just came from a neighborhood where people are fixing to
-- are in the process of cleaning up debris. We went there because the
Mayor and the Governor thought it was important for me to see firsthand
the devastation of the storm in certain neighborhoods and the progress
that is being made for cleaning up the debris. There's still a lot of
work to be done, no question about it. And obviously, as the plan gets
laid out and as the housing plan I'm fixing to discuss comes to
fruition, people will feel more comfortable in granting the local
authorities the right to remove debris from their homes to be cleaned
up.
But I want to share a story about a fellow, Romalice Harris
(phonetic), I met. He was there -- was part of the construction crew. I
asked him, I said, where were you during the storm? He said he felt like
he could ride it out. He heard the evacuation orders, but thought it
would be all right to ride out the storm. He lived on the third floor of
an apartment complex. And he described to me and the Governor and the
Mayor what it was like to see the water start to rise up to the second
floor of the building. He and his three children and his wife and
another relative were finally rescued by a boat.
I said, what happened to you? He said, "Well, I went to Salt Lake
City, Utah." In other words, his is an example of what happened to the
good folks in this part of the world. He watched the rising waters, and
then he just had to abandon the part of the world he loves.
From there the federal government helped fly him to Chicago, where he
had some relatives -- or a relative. He now has come back to work in the
city he loves, New Orleans, with the hopes of rebuilding his life. His
wife and children are still in Chicago; they're going to school there.
But as he told us, he says he looks forward to bringing them home,
bringing them back to Louisiana, to have his children educated right
here. And I'm convinced he'll succeed. And our job at all levels of
government is to provide the confidence and the help necessary so that
people like Romalice Harris come home.
I appreciate the determination by the folks down here to rebuild. I
fully understand, and I hope your country understands, the pain and
agony that the people of New Orleans and Louisiana and the parishes
surrounding New Orleans went through. But I think people would be
impressed by the desire of the people in this part of the country to
pick up and move on and rebuild. And that's why I'm so pleased that the
Governor and the Mayor have joined me, so we can discuss the importance
of implementing a strategy that will help this part of the world rise
again.
The first part of the strategy is to make sure these levees are
strong, and we fully understand that if the people don't have confidence
in the levee system, they're not going to want to come back. People
aren't going to want to spend money or invest. I just got a briefing
from the Army Corps of Engineers that said we're on schedule to repair
the damage by the June 1st deadline. They're identifying and correcting
design and construction deficiencies so, as we go into the start of the
hurricane season, the levees will be equal or better than what they were
before Katrina.
The Corps is identifying areas that weren't damaged, but that need
additional attention. Over here you can see one of the -- one of the
walls that are being built. I mean, there's a lot of concrete and a lot
of steel being put in the ground to protect the levee system. By
September of next year, additional improvements will be completed,
bringing the entire levee system up to the full authorized design
height, making it better and stronger than before.
Congress heard our message about improving the levees, but they
short-changed the process by about $1.5 billion. And so, in order to
help fulfill our promise on the levees, Congress needs to restore the
$1.5 billion, to make this a real commitment, to inspire the good folks
down here that they'll have a levee system that will encourage
development and reconstruction.
As I mentioned, we went by the Ninth Ward to see the debris removal
that was taking place. The vast majority of debris on public property
has been removed. About 80 percent of the debris not related to
demolition has been cleared. Most of the remaining debris is on private
property, in yards or inside houses that need to be gutted or
demolished. To get the debris, the residents need to give permission, in
most cases, to the local authorities. And so they need to get back to
their houses, so they can decide what to keep and what to remove.
The problem is, obviously, many homeowners are still displaced. And
that's why we're working at all levels of government to encourage
evacuees to inspect their properties and to salvage what they can and to
make decisions about the future.
Of course, the decision-making for the individual homeowners is going
to be made easier when Congress funds the $4.2 billion that I asked them
to fund for the state of Louisiana for housing purposes. Now, this $4.2
billion is in conjunction with $6.2 billion of CDBG money for housing
grants. The $4.2 billion request was done in a coordinated effort with
state and local authorities.
The reason I thought this number made sense is because the number
fits into a well-thought-out plan that has been put together by the
local folks. The housing plan has been coordinated by state authorities
with local authorities, as well as with HUD authorities. In other words,
we've all been working together to figure out how to come up with a
housing plan that will restore the confidence of the people of this
important part of our country. And in order to make sure that housing
plan meets its goals, Congress should make sure that the $4.2 billion I
requested goes to the state of Louisiana.
I'm also confident that this plan is solid right now, it's
well-thought-out, and when it's submitted to HUD, because there's been
close coordination, it should be approved on a timely basis.
And so, again, I want to thank you all for inviting me to come back.
I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Louisiana. Some of you might
recall I grew up across the line, over there in Texas, and really
enjoyed my stay here when I came. I was pleased to see that the Mardi
Gras parades went well, Mr. Mayor. As the Mayor and the Governor
described to me, it was as much of a homecoming as anything else. A lot
of folks came back, came home. And that's what we want. We want people
coming home. And the federal government will do our part, in conjunction
with our state and local partners.
I ask for God's blessings on the people of this part of the world,
and thank the hardworking folks here for working around the clock to get
this part of the country up and running again. Thank you. (Applause.)
Now, Laura is traveling with me. She's got a very important
announcement she'd like to make, as well.
MRS. BUSH: Thanks a lot. I want to talk about schools just briefly,
and particularly about school libraries. In July 2001, I founded a
foundation, the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries. The
foundation is a private organization that provides grants to school
libraries to expand their book collections. Over the last four years,
the foundation has awarded 428 grants totaling more than $2 million in
49 states.
In September of last year, the leadership group -- the leadership
council of the Laura Bush Foundation met for what was going to be our
very last meeting. We had raised the money we wanted to raise for the
foundation and we were going to disperse our leadership council. And
instead, everyone unanimously wanted to continue to work to raise a
specific amount of money for Gulf Coast libraries.
We've established a special fund to help the schools in the Gulf
Coast region. The Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative is the
name of it. The initiative will help Gulf Coast schools that were
damaged by the hurricanes rebuild their book and material collections.
And the task is very large. According to the U.S. Department of
Education, 1,121 public and private schools in the Gulf Coast region
were damaged or destroyed.
The basic initial cost of building a book collection for an
elementary school library is $50,000. And the cost for a secondary
school library is at least $100,000. So the Laura Bush Foundation
website, which everyone can go to -- laurabushfoundation.org -- has a
simple application that schools can use to apply for funds. Again, the
website is laurabushfoundation.org.
The foundation already uses a competitive grant process to distribute
annual grants, and will use the same process for the Gulf Coast funds.
Some schools should receive awards by late April or early May.
Additional grants will be distributed throughout the year as more
schools are rebuilt and ready to stock their libraries.
The Laura Bush Foundation will continue to provide its annual grants
to schools throughout the United States. And you can find the details
about those grants on the website. But these special grants for the Gulf
Coast rebuilding are for schools that were damaged or destroyed by the
hurricanes and want to rebuild their library collections.
We all know that schools are at the center of every child's life, and
the routine of going to school gives children a sense of comfort that's
more important than ever for boys and girls who've endured trauma. The
sooner children are back in their own school, the happier and healthier
they'll be.
So I want to thank everyone who is working hard to help the Gulf
Coast recover. I urge all the Gulf Coast schools that are rebuilding to
go to the laurabushfoundation.org website and apply for a grant for your
school library.
Thanks everybody. (Applause.)