For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 5, 2002

Press Gaggle with Claire Buchan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• President's Schedule
• Pennsylvania Race
• NSC Meeting
• Iraq / Weapons Inspectors

9:45 A.M. EDT

MS. BUCHAN: Good morning. Let me start by going over the President's day. He began this morning with his regular intelligence and FBI briefings. He has now departed for Pittsburgh. When he gets to Pittsburgh, he'll be greeted by Freedom Corps volunteers. I can tell you a little bit about them.

There will be six of them. John Ashcroft, 20 years old; Caroline Chupka, who's 22; Michael Benton, who's 20; Julie Hartline, who's 21; Amanda Priebe, who's 20; and Jessica Friedrichs, who's 23. The six of them are part-time AmeriCorps members, who spent the last year working with a program called Jumpstart, which receives AmeriCorps grants that place college students in one-on-one tutoring relationships with children in preschool programs serving low-income populations.

Their mission, Jumpstart's mission is to help every child enter school prepared to succeed. And the organization describes itself as having a comprehensive program that works to engage family and community school -- family and communities in school readiness.

After that, he will meet with the Pennsylvania coal miners and their families in a private meeting. He'll then make remarks to the coal miners, their families, and the first responders. Following that, he will participate in a Mike Fisher for Governor luncheon. And then he will sign H.R. 2175, the Born Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002. He'll then return to the White House and he will hold a National Security Council meeting.

Q How much money from the fundraiser?

MS. BUCHAN: A million dollars.

Q I'm sorry, how much?

MS. BUCHAN: A million dollars for Fisher.

Q No state party funds --

Q Any coverage of the National Security Council meeting?

MS. BUCHAN: No.

Q Is he likely to take questions at any point during the day?

MS. BUCHAN: We'll advise you if we get a heads-up as to whether he will.

Q Was this a regularly scheduled NSC meeting, or a specially --

MS. BUCHAN: It's a regularly scheduled one. He would often hold that in the morning, but since he wasn't in the White House this morning --

Q Claire, the head of the Iraqi parliament made an offer this morning inviting U.S. lawmakers and U.S. weapons inspectors to come and inspect any sites they want in Iraq. Is that a non-starter? Do you have any interest in that proposal at all?

MS. BUCHAN: I haven't heard about it, Arshad. I'll see what I can get for you on that, and I'll --

Q What was the question?

Q Iraqi -- the speaker of the Iraqi parliament inviting American and -- American lawmakers and arms inspectors to come check for arms.

Q Do you have anything on the latest tensions between Taiwan and China? Apparently, China is mobilizing reservists. There's been comments out of Taiwan about separate state relations. Do you have anything on that?

MS. BUCHAN: No, I do think Sean addressed some of that this weekend, but I'll see if I can get anything more on that.

Anything else? All right.

Q Thank you.

MS. BUCHAN: Thank you.

END 9:47 A.M. EDT

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