For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 5, 2002
Press Gaggle with Claire Buchan
Aboard Air Force One
En Route Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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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