MR. JOHNDROE: Good morning. We're on our way to Orlando, Florida, and then to New Orleans, Louisiana and Gulfport, Mississippi. You have the excerpts of the President's remarks for the VFW, and I know you have the remarks for his speech in New Orleans. I've got one statement to make, and then I'm going to introduce Paul Conway, who is the Chief of Staff to General O'Dell, the Gulf Coast Coordinator. He's going to run you through a little bit of the day in New Orleans and in Gulfport, and then talk about the Gulf Coast recovery effort.
The United States condemns the recent terrorist attacks in Algeria, the most recent ones today and yesterday. We will continue to stand with the people of Algeria. The President offers his sincere condolences to the families who lost loved ones, and to the people of Algeria. These criminals and thugs must be stopped, and the United States will continue working with Algeria in close cooperation on counterterrorism measures. Okay, I will be back for your questions once Mr. Conway is done. Okay? MR. CONWAY: Good morning, folks. How are you? Nice to meet you. A couple things right off the top by way of background. The Office of the Federal Coordinator that's headed up by General Douglas O'Dell was started by executive order by President Bush in November of 2005. Recently here, in April, President Bush extended that office so that the office will go beyond November of 2008 and will actually go into February of 2009. The reason why he did that is to provide continuity during a period of transition for the next President. We see the Gulf Coast redevelopment issue as one that will go on clearly into the next presidency; that will allow the next President time to decide how they want to operate the office. In our office we have two political appointees, General Douglas O'Dell, the Federal Coordinator, and myself, the Chief of Staff. The rest of our staff is comprised of career staff from the federal government that's detailed in, some contractors and detailees from FEMA that come into our office. I'll hit you with two major points here to start with on strategic issues: first, on overall spending in the Gulf Coast region. On overall spending for the Gulf Coast, since 2005, that spending has been $126 billion of U.S. taxpayer funds.
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