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MR. FRATTO: Good morning, everyone. First, a couple of announcements. On the Pakistan earthquake, the United States expresses its deep sympathies and condolences to the victims of the October 29th earthquake in Pakistan, and to their families. Through the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United States will provide an initial $1 million in assistance, and stands ready to provide further assistance as may be necessary. We'll continue to work with the government and people of Pakistan to help those affected by the earthquake cope with this tragic event.

The President recorded the radio address this morning. In it, he urges all Americans to cast their vote on Tuesday and to remember the sacrifices our men and women in uniform have made for generations to preserve democracy.

One thing I'd like to talk about this morning -- actually, I think we have this podium on Dana height this morning. (Laughter.) Either that, or my eyesight is exceptionally faltering this morning. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Or maybe I have gotten taller -- yes, it could be.

Some stories today -- I think one in The Washington Post this morning, and I've seen some others here and there, talking about the administration's efforts to put in place regulations, and some of the language being used -- "midnight regulations" or we're trying to rush regulations at the end of the term -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: To what? Or to remove regulations. We're hearing all kinds of things about it. And it's put in the context of "just like every other administration," this administration is trying to rush regulations at the end and get them in place before they leave. So I just want to take a minute to talk about exactly what we are doing with regulations and give you a little bit of background.

Back in May -- actually, let me back up even further and go back to January 21st of 2001, when then OMB Director Mitch Daniels issued an order after the President was sworn in to halt action on what was, in fact, a flood of regulations that had been put in place at the very end of the previous administration. This was done because a lot of these regulations have not received the full regulatory review in regular order as this administration coming in thought they should have. And in fact there was a rush of regulations.

I haven't had a chance to look back at administrations that preceded the end of the Clinton administration, but certainly at the end of that administration in the post-election period, November to January, there was in the end of 2000 and January 2001 a more than 50-percent increase in the number of regulations that were issued, compared to the November-to-January period in the previous years of the administration. So there was a really dramatic increase.

We're not doing that in this administration. The number of administration -- the number of regulations under review has remained fairly constant. There's no great increase in the number of regulations that we're reviewing right now over -- if you go back six months or 12 months or 18 months, the numbers stay pretty much steady.

And go back to early this year, the current Chief of Staff, Josh Bolten, issued a memorandum to the heads of departments and agencies on how to deal with regulations. In fact, what the Chief of Staff wanted to avoid was this very charge that we would be trying to, in the dark of night in the last days of the administration, be rushing regulations into place ahead of the incoming, next administration.

So what he did is he set out a timetable for the consideration of regulations, when they could be approved, when final regulations should be brought forward for regulatory review, and to do it in a way that preserves all of the integrity of the regulatory review process -- all the transparency, the public comment period, the internal agency review, the ability to listen to interested parties who have concerns over the regulation to come in and voice their concerns and express their points of view on proposed regulations, and then to issue them in a timely and orderly way. That's exactly what we're doing.

So just to hammer home the point on this, we're trying to avoid that situation where there is a rush of regulation, or the regulation is being put forward in a way that is counter to the very appropriate goals of a system that's characterized by integrity and transportation and public -- I'm sorry, transparency and public comment and agency review of the regulations.

So that's what we're trying to do. If you look at these stories or if you have interest in further looking at how we're dealing with regulations, feel free to come to us. I know there's some from -- you get a little bit from Wendell's quote about removing regulations -- some of the bias in reporting of what we plan to do with regulations -- the sense is that we would try to -- that we're trying to weaken regulations that have a business interest.

Some of the regulations that are coming through I think are not -- maybe not particularly welcomed by members of the business community. I'm not saying one way or the other whether that's a goal or not, but we're implementing regulations and we're trying to do them in the best way that protects the interest of the nation. And we're trying to do it in the appropriate way and in regular order.

So I hope you notice that, and if you have more questions feel free to come back to us on that.

Yes, Jennifer. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I want to talk about election night, if you guys have any more sense of the President's plans for

MR. FRATTO: We have always been in a situation where we've had more requests than we can fill for -- especially for fundraising. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: That's true, but the truth is we're also trying to stay out of the public limelight during this period of the election season. There are two individuals out there running to be President of the United States, and we don't want to complicate that for them. We actually would have preferred to stay even more quiet over the previous weeks than we've been able to. But the President is the President and has some pretty important issues that he's had to deal with, including the financial crisis, that he's had to be a lot more visible on than we would have liked during the most intense period of the campaign.

On election night, the President will be here. He'll be here with the First Lady watching it. I don't have a whole lot of details, but they'll watch the returns come in. And maybe Dana will have a little bit more on Monday on anything more that we can share on that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I don't have numbers in front of me. I just know that we -- when we are thinking about political travel, we have lots of choices. And that has never, ever been a problem. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Follow up on that, Tony? Yesterday, the First Lady did a Republican rally in Mississippi; tomorrow

MR. FRATTO: Well, because the President of the United States will get a lot more attention than obviously the Vice President or the First Lady will at these kinds of events. And he does have work back here dealing with the implementation of and monitoring of what's going on in the markets, and meetings with staff on some pretty significant policy questions that we have to deal with over the rest of this administration.

Yes, Jim. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: See? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I'm just quoting the headline from the Post. When you talk about the goals and philosophy, what

MR. FRATTO: I don't think you can do -- I don't think there's sort of a broad philosophy that I could say on lots of these. I think we do believe that -- if you want to know what our general philosophy is on regulation it's that you should have the lightest touch to be effective, and effective in meeting the statutory goals that require the regulation.

So the legislation gets passed by Congress, the statute -- after it's signed by the President it becomes statute, and regulation has to be written to meet the spirit of the legislation passed by Congress. You don't want to do more than what Congress required because Congress had a specific intent that would have been debated and certainly considered by the administration and both sides of the aisle, and then the administration's job is to execute that statute and put it into place. You don't want to do more; you want to do the lightest touch that meets the law and the spirit of the regulation.

So that's a broad philosophy for all of the regulations that we're looking at right now. I couldn't tell you -- pick out one or two that way. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I guess the conversation -- and I assume what you're always sort of sensitive to is the idea that

MR. FRATTO: Well, that's just one part of the stories. One part of it is content, the other part is process. Clearly on process, we've been very up front about this, about how we're going to deal with regulations and that we're going to do it in an open and transparent way and make sure that the public is involved and that everyone can review the regulations that we put forward.

On content, we take the job very seriously. And you're right, there is a sense out there that we are always looking to simply remove regulations and let the business community or others go unfettered. But it's like, for example, one thing we're working on right now that's gone through regulatory review are putting in place CAFE standards and the regulations for how automakers will have to build more fuel-efficient vehicles going forward. It's certainly not something that's welcomed by some automakers maybe. It's going to impose challenges for them in being able to put those vehicles out into the market, but we need to do it in a way that, again, respects the integrity of the legislation that was passed by Congress -- and, by the way, just as a reminder on that subject, we, the administration, posed more aggressive CAFE standards than was actually passed by -- than were actually passed by Congress. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q One more follow. I guess because right now with the financial crisis, the buzzword for -- in a

MR. FRATTO: A couple things on that. I hear that charge thrown around that we deregulated the markets, and the evidence of that out there is scant. And if you could name one or two regulations that the administration proposed to -- that led to the financial crisis, then maybe we'd have something to talk about.

But most of the evidence, actually, is that we were trying to strengthen regulation for the one part of the financial markets that did contribute to the crisis, and that was with respect to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And we've told the story a number of times before that we tried for six years to put in place a strong, independent regulator that would have the authority to control the portfolios of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and not let them do the risky kind of lending, or backing of lending, that helped to contribute to the housing crisis.

So the one big effort where we did have a great deal of involvement was actually to increase -- try to increase regulation and oversight and supervision of the two housing government-sponsored enterprises. And there isn't a whole lot of evidence out there of places where we tried to weaken regulation for the financial markets.

Now, the financial markets do have regulators and they have a job to do, and we always hope that they be as aggressive as possible in looking for things that pose systemic risk, and I think there will be a lot of history written on this, whether they did a sufficient job on that or not. But I think there's -- lacking evidence as to whether we try to strip away regulation that caused problems in the financial markets. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, let me follow that if I can. Whenever regulatory changes are made at the end of an administration

MR. FRATTO: I wouldn't say that. I think we've had a fairly steady pace. In fact, that's exactly the point I'm trying to make, Wendell. The first point is this, is that the administration does run until January 20th, 12:00 p.m., of 2009. We still are the administration. We have the constitutional authority to do everything that we're supposed to do in leading the nation. So we have the right to put regulations in place.

I never faulted the Clinton administration or any previous administration for actually putting their policies in place. They have the right, and not just a right, an obligation, to do that. What we faulted on was the process. And what we have done in a very deliberate way is to have a very open, transparent process, and a timely process, so that everyone can see exactly what we're doing and that we are doing it in a responsible way. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Okay. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I'm sorry, of this administration? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: It's been fairly steady. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: In that range. I think it's averaged at about 90 -- 93 or so. You could check in with OMB. They have the statistics for you; they'd be happy to share them.

April. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, when the President's popularity was dropping and a lot of controversies were coming out of

MR. FRATTO: We feel lots of love, actually. And so -- (laughter.) Yes, and I think the President does, too. But I'm not going to get involved with how the campaign -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Look, there are always going to be -- there will always be polls out there on that kind of thing. And what the President is focused on is not what the polls say. He's focused on doing as much as he can in this period to put the government in a good place going forward, especially with respect to the transition to the next administration. He wants that to go as smoothly as possible. And we have very critical issues that we're dealing with, not least are two wars that we're still executing, and protection of the homeland, and dealing with the financial crisis. That's what the President is focused on. He's not focused on -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Well, let me ask you this. He's a human being, and he let his human side come through that day

MR. FRATTO: I don't believe the President takes it personally. I haven't had this kind of conversation with him, but I don't believe he takes it personally. He's been in politics his entire life, he's been around it his entire life, and he knows that it's a rough-and-tumble business. And so he's not the least surprised by it, I can tell you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Any President will have a bulls-eye on his back. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Tony, I'd like to shift to the banks and the rescue program. Barney Frank put out a statement

MR. FRATTO: Well, if the capital injections were used to pay for dividends, I think that's probably something that we would object to, too. But that's not the intent of their use, and there's no evidence that that's taking place. Now, we did talk a lot about why you wouldn't want to go in and have a blanket halt to allowing institutions to pay dividends. But it was very clear in the law they can't increase dividends.

But I think I want to make a much more important and broader point on this, is that if you remember, what we are trying to do here is not to exact vengeance on the banking industry. What we are trying to do is to have a healthy banking industry that can get back to the business of lending so that we can get out of this credit crisis we're in right now that is affecting millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of businesses who are trying to do what they do best, which is work and produce good things and be productive, and to get this economy going back again.

But if you go in with the goal that you want to exact vengeance on this industry, then there are a whole other set of things that you want to do, and those things won't solve the problem. And what we're focused on is solving the problem. And that requires banks to step up and to be part of this program. They've got about three weeks, the regional banks around the country and other banks that can apply for the capital injection program. It's essential that we have the maximum number of banks enroll in this program, and that they get the capital base and get their balance sheets in a place where they can resume lending again, because that fixes the problem -- that contributes to fixing the problem.

But if banks decide that they can't participate in the problem* because it will -- it will wreck their businesses, then not only have we wrecked their businesses, but we haven't solved the essential problem for the U.S. economy. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Banks can make the decision -- right, they shouldn't use the capital injection money to increase dividends or pay dividends. And traditionally banks and other businesses set aside how much they're going to spend on dividend payments.

But I still just go back to the broader question -- we need to be focused on fixing the problem. And so that's what we're focused on. I know that's what the Treasury Department is focused on, and they're focused on trying to do it in a fair way that will have an impact, that will be efficient and that protects the taxpayer investment. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: On which -- well, there was a lot in there. I'm not sure that -- we only talked about one of the things he mentioned. (Laughter.) Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Okay. Well, can I ask a different question, different subject? It's on the transition. Is there

MR. FRATTO: No. I don't know if it's -- well, the incoming -- the President-elect will a have a transition -- I don't know if they already have -- if GAO has already set aside space -- actually I believe has space -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I'm sorry, GSA. I believe GSA has space for the incoming transition team, but I don't know where it is. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: No, those are members of the administration. They meet for meetings here.

John. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Well, we have the law that has certain appropriate restrictions in it, and we do think that's enough right now. We think that if you go back in and try to impose new restrictions, then you have a bait-and-switch with the people who are already -- the firms that are already part of the program and would probably make it unworkable. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Well, look, I can't speak for each individual business, but certainly the fact that firms pay dividends attracts investors to that firm. And remember, what we saw during the very intense period of financial crisis were investors fleeing banks and further subtracting from their capital base. And that's the problem that we're actually trying to fix.

So what we want are investors -- private investors to come into banks with capital so that they can get out of holding taxpayer dollars as capital. The best way for the taxpayer to be paid back is for private investors to come back to investing in banks, for banks to go out and raise capital, and they can pay off the taxpayers' investment, and pay it off with a 5 percent return for the three years that they'll be holding that capital. They can't do that if you make them less attractive to investors.

So what we'd like to do is get these banks healthy, get them in a position where they can do their traditional role -- the only thing that banks do to make money is to lend money. And so we need them to get back into the business of lending money because our economy depends on it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Well, it's not unexpected, just like the GDP report yesterday wasn't unexpected. When you have a financial crisis that has -- and a credit crisis, in particular, that has shut off so much availability of liquidity to consumers and businesses, and a slowing economy, that's what you would expect to see. So of course we're concerned to see the data. But remember, the data is looking backwards, and what we're trying to do is look forward and see what impact the policies that we have put in place and just started to implement, the impact that they're going to have for the economy going forward. And we think that it will be positive.

Paula. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q On this idea of a second economic package, some are arguing that really the main goal is to try

MR. FRATTO: I think that's a speculative question. What we have said is, come back after the election; we'll see where Congress is and see what their thinking is on further economic policies. We're always reviewing economic policies and things that will help the economy return to economic growth and job creation, and that's what we're focused on. We'll see where Congress is afterwards. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And Chairman Lazear yesterday talked about a consumption burst, which, as you know, really only

MR. FRATTO: You may have your own predictions on what the business cycle is going to look like going forward. But like I said, when we get back in November, Congress gets back in November, we'll see where they are. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Another question about the regulations. I know you said the number is similar to past periods.

MR. FRATTO: You know, we put out a -- there was a rule that came out recently that -- the toughest regulation on lead, for example. I mean, we're in a difficult position with regulations that are under review in that we can't -- we're constrained in what we can say about regulations that are under review. Critics outside the fence here can say whatever they want about what we're doing, but we have limits on how we can talk about regulation under review.

I would be highly doubtful that there's any specific increase in environmental-related regulations. I've noticed a pretty steady stream of regulations having to do with environmental issues, at least since I've been here at the White House. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: No more than usual, no. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I'll get to you, Les.

Goyal. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Two quick questions. One, there's still bombings across India, and now Senator Obama has been

MR. FRATTO: I'm not aware of any surprises coming up, but certainly we're looking for anyone involved in terrorism in that region.

Jon. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Oh, okay. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you. As far as U.S.-India civil nuclear deal still, of course, on the presidential -- the

MR. FRATTO: I'm not aware of that. I haven't heard anything on that, Goyal.

Jon. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Real quickly on using TARP money for helping homeowners avoid foreclosure. Treasury yesterday

MR. FRATTO: There are several proposals out there with respect to how do you address the problem of potential home foreclosure, home foreclosures in the coming years. So we're looking at a number of proposals. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: The FDIC has some ideas that they've brought to the table. Others have also. We're doing all the analysis that you would expect us to do, going through the deliberative process of policymaking, and that involves the analysis of what the impact would be, how fair it is, how effective it would be, is it workable, do we have the authorities to do it, where do you get the money to do it. And that's the analysis that's going on with an array of ideas that have been brought to the table. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: It's a roundtable. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Yes, it's a round table. People sit around and discuss these things. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I didn't ask the President, but I'm familiar with Glenn's proposal. It's interesting. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I'm going to go to Mark, then Mr. Lambros, and then Les. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: There are lots of reports and rumors out there. Some of them change by the hour, and I'm not going to get in the business of confirming or knocking down every rumor that pops up out there. What we do have is statutory language which DOE is trying to put the regulations out on, dealing with the automaker loan program to deal with energy-efficient vehicles. DOE is working as quickly as possible to try to get those regulations out.

And there is urgency in that. We do want to make sure that the automakers, as quickly as possible, get a chance to see what that regulation will look like and how that affects their future.

Mr. Lambros. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I'm not aware of our views on that at this time. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Okay. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: Any trips overseas? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: I don't know. I can't anticipate that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MR. FRATTO: We'll take the question and Gordon Johndroe will get back to you.

Lester. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you, Tony. Two questions. The Los Angeles Times reports that Defense Secretary Gates, in

MR. FRATTO: The President agrees with both his Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor Steve Hadley, who discussed the same issue. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: A couple of announcements, and then I have a special guest speaker. The President is currently at the FBI Academy, where he gave remarks at the graduation ceremony for FBI special agents. And then he's going to go over to the Marine Helicopter Squadron One Hangar, and he will thank the Marines and sailors for their service over the last eight years.

One note for you: Mrs. Bush is in New Orleans today. This will be her 20th visit to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. It's likely her last trip as First Lady. She will visit an elementary school and announce the seventh round of grants of the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries, Gulf Coast School Library Recovery Initiative. This is an initiative that was recovered -- I'm sorry, that was started to assist libraries to recover their books and their resources and reestablish their collections. And to date, they have received grants totaling $4.71 million for Gulf Coast school libraries.

And then Mrs. Bush will also tour a housing site and have a discussion with Catholic Charities and Operation Helping Hands leadership and volunteers.

I have with me Chairman Eddie Lazear, who is our Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers for the President. We had the GDP number out today. So he was going to give you a few comments about that. He can talk about the overall economy. He has time to take just a few questions, and then I'll come back and answer any policy questions or foreign policy-related issues that you have.

So, Eddie. CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Thank you. Well, thank you. Let me just talk a little bit about the GDP numbers that came out today. As most of you know, the GDP number was a -0.3 -- slightly negative, basically a flat economy this quarter. That's significantly weaker than we saw in the previous quarter. We came off a quarter that had almost 3 percent growth. So there's no question that these numbers tell us that the economy has weakened, and weakened substantially.

We knew that. It wasn't unexpected. In fact, the numbers came out slightly above expectations. But again, I think the general picture is that the economy has slowed.

The two questions that I would ask, in that context, is, one, what are we doing about it; and then the second question, of course, is, is it going to work and where are we headed in the near future.

We believe that the actions that we've taken, particularly with the $700 billion rescue package, will be significant in moving credit markets, which we think of as the main cause of the problem right now, in the right direction. We also think that the other actions taken by the Fed, by FDIC to guarantee liabilities, and some of the actions by HUD in the FHA area have been effective, as well, and should move the economy back in the right direction.

When? We believe that we're going to see a few tough months ahead, but we are trying to take the steps that will help the next administration start off on the right foot. And we think that it is realistic to think that sometime early in the term of the next President, we can start to see solid growth again.

So let me pause there and just ask for your questions. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Treasury's quarterly refunding is coming out next week. I have a couple questions -- how these

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Okay, a lot of questions. Let me answer it in a slightly more general way. I think that the OMB numbers and CBO numbers, in terms of the deficit, are basically in the same ballpark, which is at about a half a trillion dollars. Depending on how the TARP gets spent over time, that can affect the deficit more or less. We do know that as we go forward, we're going to have a significant deficit this year. Whatever the number is, it's definitely going to be a significant deficit. We believe it's an investment that's worth making, because right now the single most important task on the economic front is getting things moving again. We've got to get lending going. We've got to get capital flowing to small businesses and to consumers so that they can start to do those things that they were doing before, and that's the essential point.

So we know there will be a short-term spike in the deficit. That should be alleviated quite rapidly as we stop spending on those programs, and eventually it could even turn into a surplus when the money comes back as a result of payout from those programs. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q When the stimulus package came out this spring, the White House said it really needs time to work

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, the stimulus that we did back in the spring actually had -- was effective but effective for actually a shorter period of time, I think, than we thought, in the sense that what ended up happening was people spent it and spent it pretty quickly. So we got a consumption burst out of that, and we got some good growth in the second quarter. The question, then, is whether we can do that again. We don't believe that's the right way to go. We believe the appropriate stimulus right now is the $700 billion stimulus that comes in the form of the TARP. That's a huge amount of money, and we believe that it's targeted at exactly the right thing.

Again, the approach that we're taking is, deal with the cause, don't deal with the symptoms. What we're seeing, in terms of consumption and some of the other things that you mentioned, are actually the symptoms. The cause is the credit market difficulty, and we think that it's important to get at that directly. So we believe that the $700 billion TARP will be the right way to do it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Some of the symptoms, the side effects, are mass layoffs, increased number of unemployed. You

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: We have seen the unemployment numbers go up, there's no denying that. And we are concerned about a weakness in the labor market. In fact, that's probably our primary concern in terms of what we're thinking of in the effects. We always worry about looking at the labor market probably first, because that's where people tend to feel it, and the labor market has been soft.

The unemployment rates that we're seeing right now are not welcome. They're well above the unemployment rates that we've had historically, and when I say historically, I mean over the past couple of years. Those rates were actually quite low. As you probably know, the 30-year average for unemployment is about where we are right now. That doesn't mean that we're complacent with this unemployment rate. We've gotten used to low unemployment rates, and we want to get back there. But the question is, how do we do that? And we think the approach that we're taking is the best way to get us back to low unemployment.

Sir. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, again, that's the kind of thing that is determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research. They have meetings well after the fact and decide whether the data justify that.

This is the first negative quarter -- and it's only slightly negative -- that we've seen in a while. We had a revision to Q4 last year that turned out to be slightly negative, as well. This is kind of in the same ballpark. But, again, I'm not hung up on the word so much. What I am most concerned about is how do we interpret the data and what do we think that means for the economy. And I think there's no denying that the economy is much weaker than it was a quarter ago. And my view is, look, when you see a weak economy, what do you do about it, and will it work? And I think we're doing the right thing, and I think it will work, but it's going to take some time. As the President said, we're going to have some -- a tough few months ahead. Took us a while to get here; it's going to take us a while to get out.

Ma'am. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, I'll say two things. One is, we haven't just started thinking about households facing foreclosure. We started thinking about this over a year ago, last summer, when we rolled out FHASecure, and then there was HOPE NOW and Hope for Homeowners and so forth.

So we continue to think about a variety of different ideas. I think as Dana mentioned to you last night, there is an ongoing policy process, and she'll be happy to speak to that when she comes back on. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Mr. Chairman, what about -- what do you say to critics of the TARP, the $700 billion rescue package

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, I'd say two things. First of all, the money that has gone out from the TARP just went out Tuesday, and only to a very small select number of banks. So there's not a lot of evidence of anybody doing anything with that money. So as far as I know, we don't know what banks are doing with that money.

But the second point I would make on that is that the legislation does constrain recipients of the TARP to not increase dividends, and I'm sure the Treasury will enforce the law effectively. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Does have a restriction on increasing dividends. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: For recipients of the TARP, yes.

Sir. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Oh, I'll get you in a sec. Either way. You first, then you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q My question is about sort of the bazooka metaphor that Secretary Paulson likes to use. You've

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, you know, that's a good question. I think that what we've tried to do is use the ammunition that is appropriate for the problem, and the problem, as you know, has evolved over time. And so what we're doing at this point is trying to target things in the most effective way. But there's a tension there, and the tension is you want to make sure that you don't waste taxpayers' money on this. And so I think that's the reason that we've rolled things out slowly.

Now, your point, I think, is that at this point we've used a good bit of the things that we have available to us, and the question is, do we go anywhere from here? Our feeling is that, with the $700 billion that we just got authorized by Congress, that is a significant sum of money. We believe it will do the job, but we also believe it's going to take some time. This is not going to be turned around immediately, and we don't think that we should be reacting to every new minor problem that comes along simply because you can't deal with that effectively. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, when you say the actions that we have taken, I would interpret that in a broader way and say the actions that the administration has taken, coupled with the actions that the Fed has taken, and include FDIC's actions on guaranteeing liabilities in that. And I would say that, what we believe is that the effects have started to play out, and in some markets quite significantly. So, for example, the interbank lending, the lending from one bank to another that occurs primary through this Libor market has moved very much in the right direction. That market was a big problem a few weeks ago, and that's loosened up considerably. So that's very good news.

The other thing we know is that one of the ways firms borrow to finance themselves is through the commercial paper market. And we've seen that commercial paper issuance has gone up dramatically since the Fed rolled out its facility a couple of days ago.

So we're confident that we're actually doing things that are moving us in the right direction. There's always a question of how fast this will work and how long will it take and so forth. And obviously the faster the better. But we do think that things are moving in the right direction.

I think if you listen to the discussion on the street, others believe that, as well, so I don't think this is just the administration's view.

Ma'am. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you. I want to get back to the issue of some of the criticism, because, as I understand

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, again, I would go back to the point that, first of all, the program has been limited, in terms of the number of banks it has even been able to address. So you have the first handful of banks, the big banks, that are getting the money.

But the more substantive answer, I think, to your question, is, what we need to do here is we need to ensure that the system as a whole gets capital out to small businesses and to individuals. That's the goal. The details may be important in terms of the way we think about, is this a fair process, and we're certainly aware of those. And we want to make sure that we adhere to those rules that will protect the taxpayers' money. But our main concern is making sure that the taxpayer gets their money worth, in terms of getting the credit markets going.

And Treasury is very much on that, and their view is, we have to make sure that banks have the appropriate flexibility to do those things that will get credit markets going. But remember, those banks have huge incentives to lend. That's the way they make money; that's the only way they make money. And at the same time, they're paying quite significant dividends to the government for that money. So if they take that money and simply pay interest on it or pay dividends on it and don't lend it out and make money themselves, that's not a very good position for them to be in. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: We believe that the investments that the taxpayer is making in these financial institutions will pay off in two ways. The most important way is it will get the economy going again, and that's by far the most significant payoff. But second, we believe that over time these investments will pay off in the traditional sense that taxpayers will not lose significantly on this and may make some money. But that's not the goal. And again, that's based on historical evidence. It's not based on our experience; it's based on looking at similar programs that were initiated by other countries, and those programs have worked and worked effectively.

Two more? Okay. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Sir, you mentioned that the credit markets seem to be easing up a little bit, and you mentioned

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Yes, I think your point is correct. Right now most of the commercial paper issuance is going directly to the Fed's facility. That's expected because you just got the facility going, so in the first day or two, people are issuing commercial paper and taking advantage of that facility. It will take a while for that to generalize into the market and get people to actually buy that commercial paper and then to resell it and so forth. So that may take some time. I couldn't give you exact detail on how long, whether it would be days or a few weeks or something. But it will get going; I think we're quite confident of that.

And the fact that firms do have the ability to float this commercial paper and to borrow is probably the most important point here, because they need those funds in order to grow their businesses. And that's been the focus, I think, not only of the administration, but also of the Federal Reserve. I think they've been -- I think the Fed has been doing a good job of making those things happen.

One more. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, I think there are a couple of goals. The first would be to identify what the causes of the problem have been so that we understand that and we are able to then structure some effective solutions. And then the solutions, to my mind, would take the form of a list of principles that we would want countries to adhere to. And those principles would have one thing in mind as the primary focus, and that would be that countries would not do things that would undermine the policies of the other countries. That's a very big factor.

It's a very big factor within Europe in particular because those countries are so closely linked to one another, and we want to make sure that we cooperate with each other so that we don't undermine the process of others. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: I'm sorry? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: We all have ideas on the causes. I think I know the causes, but I'm sure that the French think they know the causes, as well, and I'm not sure we necessarily agree. So this is a meeting to try to come to some conclusions on what we think are probably the best analyses.

Ma'am. And we'll take this last -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Please. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q As far as the critics to the issue of dividends, the argument goes that if the banks have the money

CHAIRMAN LAZEAR: Well, again, the law was quite specific on what rules banks had to follow when they get the TARP. And I don't think it's the proper role of the administration to change the will of Congress. So what we're trying to do is implement the law as Congress passed the law, and I think Treasury is doing a good job of that. They are well aware of the kinds of issues that you're concerned about, and I think they are not going to allow firms to take advantage of the program and use it for purposes that are not designed to get credit markets going.

That is, without doubt, the focus of Treasury, and I think they're going to be effective in doing that. So we're going to follow the law and make sure that there are not abuses. But we want to make sure that we get the economy going; that is, without doubt, the number-one aspect of what we're trying to do right now.

So, thank you. Thank you. MS. PERINO: All right. I don't know if you have anything more on the economy. No? Goyal. Okay. And then we'll move on to other subjects. Go ahead. Goyal, quickly. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Two quick ones. One is, what do you think what the President is doing, and also outcome from this

MS. PERINO: As Eddie -- as the Chairman just said, the whole purpose of our program is to try to help consumers, and that includes small businesses who help employ 85 percent of Americans. So that's one of our main focuses, that's what we're doing. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Second, if I may, quick. Now, on Tuesday Secretary Gates was speaking at Carnegie, and he laid

MS. PERINO: Of course, the President has been briefed on that from the beginning. It's one of our big concerns. Steve Hadley gave a similar speech not long ago -- you're talking about the nuclear deterrence policy speech that -- the terrorism speech that Gates gave on I think Tuesday. Hadley gave a similar one. This is the President's position, so of course he's been briefed on it. And he wanted those two members, leading members of his administration to go out and talk about that so that Americans would know about it.

Sheryl. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, if you could just answer the question I asked earlier about when might we see some kind of

MS. PERINO: Right. So I think where I would -- what I would tell you is, one, Chairman Lazear got it right, that one of the things that we've been doing is trying to deal with the housing problem since we identified it well over a year ago. So there's several different programs that are already in place and we're trying to implement those.

Two of those are HOPE NOW and FHASecure. There's also Hope for Homeowners, which is something that Congress gave us the tools to use later on in the year. So we have all of those things moving forward. But what we've said is that we're willing to listen and think about other ideas and other policy options to help more homeowners.

We're doing a lot of analysis right now on several different ideas, thinking about the efficiency issues, how effective it could be; the fairness issues, how would you protect taxpayers -- and by fairness, I also include in that who would qualify and how do you -- how would you design it.

All of that analysis needs to be done. And so we're not in a position right now of announcing anything imminent. I think that -- I've seen this happen in Washington before where people float out ideas in the media. What I can tell you is that we're in the middle of analyzing several different proposals. If we find one that we think strikes the right notes and could meet all of those standards that we want to protect taxpayers, make sure that it's also fair and that it would actually have an impact, then we would move forward and we would announce it. But we're not ready to do that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I wouldn't comment on it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, can we just follow up -- one more crack at this notion of dividends, because I'm not sure

MS. PERINO: Regarding dividend payments, I think some critics believe that only rich people get dividend payments. And that is not the case. Mutual funds, retirees, teachers, pension funds are all beneficiaries of dividend payments. They get dividend payments from banks. And in fact, in this legislation, one of the things that we made sure of is that the taxpayers are going to get paid dividends on a quarterly basis at 5 percent for the first three years, and then at 9 percent after that.

So the banks have every incentive to start making money so that they can get back in the process of lending, make more money that way, and then continue about their normal course of business. One is to lend money, but also there are dividend payments.

So I want to make sure people understand that a lot of people could suffer if they don't have dividend payments. And some of those people might actually even be small business owners who rely on dividend payments to then help grow their businesses. It's a part of the normal course of business. I think that the story today was just a little bit skewed in that regard, because a lot of people receive dividend payments.

Jennifer. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, I don't have anything to add that I -- that is new from what I said yesterday or the day before. So it might be a little bit unsatisfying for you today. But we continue to try to work on the tools that Congress gave us in regards to the 136 loans.

And the Treasury Secretary and Commerce Secretary and Energy Department -- Energy Secretary are in communication with the automakers. We don't have anything new to say. We understand that they've been facing tough times for a while. They've made business decisions that unfortunately have put them in this position. But we also recognize how big the companies are, how many families rely on these companies, and what it would mean for the overall economy.

So we're keeping that in mind. But there may or may not be anything that we can do to try to help them. What we're trying to do is work with the tools that we have, and that would be the 136 loans.

Jeremy. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Okay. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Yesterday the President expressed some optimism about getting the agreement with Iraq completed

MS. PERINO: Well, I do think it will be hard for Iraq to pass it. If it was easy it would already have been done. And if you stick around, I'm sure by tomorrow you'll have a different Iraqi politician or leader with a different sentiment. So a lot of this is being played out in the public on the Iraqi side.

What the President said yesterday remains true; we remain hopeful and confident that we'll be able to get an agreement done. But there are certain underlying principles, basic principles that we're not going to compromise on. And so we've received their list of requests for changes and our negotiators in Baghdad are taking a careful look at them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Just to follow up quickly on it. With the election a few days away from now, how does that dynamic

MS. PERINO: Well, we're going to continue to try to get an agreement because we've gotten this far, we might as well try to -- continue to work on it. And we remain hopeful that we can help solve these last remaining issues.

From our side, in regards to the election, I don't think it plays a lot into it. I mean, we've kept both of the candidates up to speed. I think both their public and private comments have been at least supportive of the effort of moving forward. So on our side, I don't think that politics is playing a lot -- a role in it.

On the Iraqi side, I can't say the same when it comes to internal politics there. And they might even be looking at our domestic politics and trying to game that out -- some people may be. But the President had a good conversation with Prime Minister Maliki earlier this week. He was glad that President Barzani came in yesterday so that they had a chance to discuss it. And our negotiators are working together on it. I'm not going to forecast any alternatives because our sole focus is working on this.

Sheryl. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, looking ahead to the election, you said a while back that the President was trying not to

MS. PERINO: You'll probably hear from me that night, and then we'll see after that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: How long have you covered the White House, this White House? Do we ever forecast when we're going to have press conferences? No. And I really don't think that's going to change after November 4th. So you'll just have to keep dressing up everyday, and then we'll see if it -- (laughter.) MS. PERINO: Olivier. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Yes. Let me -- I checked in on this today. The President was briefed on the latest developments in the region, both yesterday and then this morning by Steve Hadley. Jendayi Frazer and the NSC Senior Director Bobby Pittman are in the region right now. Secretary Rice spoke yesterday to President Kagame of Rwanda and the Foreign Minister of Belgium. And today, she also spoke to Ban Ki-moon.

This is something we're taking very seriously. We recognize that there are people that are suffering. And Jendayi and Bobby are in Kinshasa to see Kibala -- I'm sorry, Kabila; and tomorrow they plan to travel to Rwanda. They will also see President Kagame while they're there. So we're trying to help bring some sort of political solution so that we can stop the violence and let people return to their homes. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: That I don't know. That I don't know. I don't know about their individual -- her discussions with those individual leaders. I'm not exactly sure how the EU plays into it. So I'll need to refer you to State Department. But I'll also check with Sean, and I'll see if I can get something for you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And I have a question about Iraq, as well. For months, when the Democrats were saying that we

MS. PERINO: I've not heard anybody make threats to their personal safety. If that has happened, I'd love for you to show me the quote from the official that said that. One of the things that we have said is that what we are searching for is a legal basis for us to be able to continue operations in Iraq. They've known that, and that's why we've continued to work on a negotiated document; that's what partners do. We've been partners with the Iraqis, and we'll continue to work with them.

Go ahead, Les. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you, Dana. Two questions. WorldNetDaily reports that California Democrat Congresswoman

MS. PERINO: The President will not make that determination; the Justice Department will have to make it themselves. And they get involved when they need to. There is a department, or a whole division of the Department of Justice under the Voting Rights Act. They work to make sure that people have -- deserve -- that people that have the right to vote get the right to vote. And so I'll refer you over to the Justice Department for more. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Okay. Could you tell us the White House reaction to the report of the Catholic League for Religious

MS. PERINO: I wouldn't comment on it, no.

Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, a question about the TARP that has nothing to do with dividends, but actually executive bonuses

MS. PERINO: Every bank that accepted the taxpayer investment must first agree to the executive compensation limits that were in the law. And as far as I know, all of those banks have agreed to do that. If you're talking about other executives within the firm, it's always been our position that pay should be for performance, and that every company should base their pay based on how well somebody performs. And that is still our position.

We would also hope that people would understand that we want banks to participate in this program; we have nine so far that have. I think the Treasury Department continues to receive applications for others that want to participate. And similar to the issue in regards to dividends, our goal is to get them money so that they can start lending again, and so that they can perform well. Remember, they have to pay the taxpayers a quarterly dividend of 5 percent for the first three years, and it bumps up to 9 percent after that.

We're going to keep on them about that. But they know that, and that's almost like a gun to their head, so that they know that they have to start making money to be able to do that. I'm not here to defend Wall Street; I'm not here to defend their pay practices. But this is the law as it was set out that was passed by Congress. And as far as I know, all of the banks that have agreed to participate in the program have agreed to those compensation limits. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: No, I'm going to go up here. Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, if they can't pay back to us? Well, as Eddie said -- you know, I don't know all -- I don't know what -- I don't want to forecast or speculate that they wouldn't be able to, because we believe that they will be able to. And we're going to -- the whole reason we're doing this program is so that the banks can get recapitalized, that they can start lending again so that people will have the money to be able to both pay their salaries and pay their dividends. And the taxpayers are going to be paid back at the same time. So we'll continue to work on that. I think it would just be wrong of me to speculate on some of them failing.

Go ahead, Paula. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q On the rescue package, Chairman Lazear also today has said it will take several months to play

MS. PERINO: Tell you what. I'm going to refer you over to Brian Turmail at the Department of Transportation who has a lot of information about infrastructure projects. And take it from them -- don't just take it from me, because I've answered this question several times -- take it from them. They're the ones that have the experts, and they can tell you over the years how infrastructure projects do not stimulate the economy, because it doesn't get the money going into the economy fast enough. So let me refer you over there, and we'll see if they can get you more information. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm just going to refer you over there, because you ask me about transportation infrastructure projects all the time. I've given you the information that I have several times. I don't have any new information. But maybe they could put you in touch with somebody who has more experience and has actually worked on transportation infrastructure projects. I haven't.

Connie. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I've never commented on those strikes, and I'm not going to. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: For the earthquake? That's a great question. I meant to check on that earlier and I didn't get an answer. Usually our embassies have the discretion to be able to do an initial payment to try to help in emergencies like that, like we did in Haiti when the hurricane came through. I'll check that on Pakistan. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Hi, everybody. A couple of announcements for you. Right now the President is meeting with the President of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Masoud Barzani. And I'm sure they will discuss political, economic and security progress in Iraq, as well as improving governance and the importance of all the parties and the regions to continue working together.

To that end, I wanted to note for you today that in Iraq primary security responsibility in Wasit Province was returned to Iraqi civilian authorities. That is southeast of Baghdad. It becomes the 13th of 18 provinces to take the lead for its security in Iraq. It's the second Iraqi province to transfer security responsibility in the last two weeks, and we had Babil just a week before. So now, more than two-thirds of Iraq is now under provincial Iraqi control.

In addition to that -- sorry? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know of another one on tap, but they continue to work at it. So we'll let you know.

I also have a scheduling update for you. The President looks forward to participating in the United Nations meeting on interfaith dialogue in New York City on the 13th of November. The President appreciates King Abdallah of Saudi Arabia's initiative in calling for this dialogue and remains committed to fostering interfaith harmony among all religions, both at home and abroad.

The United States affirms its support for individual religious freedom, the right to practice one's religion, the equality of all people regardless of their religious faith, and the other principles of religious freedom enshrined in the U.N. Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The President also looks forward to holding a bilateral meeting with King Abdallah in New York on that same day.

And that's all I have. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I've not seen them. Our negotiating team in Baghdad has them. It's possible somebody else here in the building has, but I have not seen them. And we're going to decline to comment on the content of them and our reaction to them until we have a little bit more time to look at them more closely. I'm sure that the agreement will come up when the President is talking to Barzani this afternoon. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I just don't have any information for you. I've seen the reports, but we just don't know. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Another question, and I know this is a little bit in advance, but what exactly is the President

MS. PERINO: I'll try to get you some more information on that. He often will have somebody over for dinner or something before they start watching the returns. So as we get a little bit closer, let me try to nail that down for you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: That's right. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: The President is pretty focused on the activities that we have here, especially getting this economy back in order. As we've said for a while, the President was going to be focusing on this. We cancelled a lot of our fundraisers, and he's going to focus on being with Mrs. Bush and others this weekend at Camp David. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: The venue is set. It will be at the National Building Museum on the 15th. The night before, there will be a head of state dinner here at the White House; it will be a working dinner. And the President had identified Dan Price here at the White House and Dave McCormick at the Treasury Department to continue to work on setting up the agenda for the meeting and making sure that it's a robust one and that we make the most of everybody's time.

So I think that there will be probably two plenary sessions on the Saturday, but all of these details are still being worked out. And so we'll continue to work on the details and I'll provide them for you as soon as I have more. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Typically at these meetings there is a joint statement or a communique that's issued at the end of it. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't happen here, but I don't -- I can't tell you for sure because they're talking with all of their counterparts. So when we have more I'll provide it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, to follow on that for a second, do you think -- all this planning that's going on for an

MS. PERINO: I don't, given that it was the President and the other leaders that he identified in the G20 who recognized how important and serious the crisis is that we're facing in our financial markets. And international coordination is key to returning strength and confidence to the marketplace. We've taken some coordinated action so far. We don't -- we didn't want the financial crisis to happen at all and we certainly can't control the timing of it. The fact that it happened in the middle of the election is just the way that it is.

The President has said that he would look for the input of the President-elect. And I think that the President-elect would not want us to hold off on having a meeting of this importance to wait until January, or even later, because there are some serious issues that we need to start dealing with now so that we can avoid this happening again. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q We asked you about this a couple of days ago and you talked about the input of the President-elect

MS. PERINO: I know that Josh Bolten, the other day on -- I think it was yesterday morning on television -- said that he had heard from the campaigns that they don't plan to participate in person, but that they would be providing input to the extent -- but I think that the campaigns are both focused on the last six days of the election. And I think they appreciate the fact that we've reached out to them; they both supported the idea of a meeting. So I don't think anyone is going to wake up on Wednesday and think that a summit that's happening 15 days later, or 10 days later, is not worth it. We think that it's very important. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I disagree, because, one, they supported the idea of the summit, they wanted us to have it. And one of the things that we'll do in that summit is identify the -- some of these things are not going to change as we move forward -- one, the underlying causes of the problem, getting everyone together to focus on that, that's not going to change overnight on Tuesday. Those are what they are. Identifying progress to date, and where we can have other actions that will continue to build strength and confidence in the markets, those things aren't going to change on November 4th. And then outlining principles for reform and regulations that we might be willing to go forward with, both globally, but most importantly, individually in our countries, as we take into account our own individual situations, that's not going to change, either. Those principles are going to be what they are.

None of this ties the next President's hand. But I think that what we are trying to do is do what the President asked us to do, which is do everything we can right now, in this downturn, in this cycle of our economy, to get it back to a period of growth so that the next President has the best possible starting point on January 20th. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, I wanted to ask you about some recent developments in Syria. Wire reports this morning said

MS. PERINO: Well, I haven't commented on reports about that incident, and I'm not going to here. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: No, I'd refer you to the State Department for that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Have they said that? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't have anything to add from what I said yesterday, which is, Congress, before they left, gave us two basic tools -- one in the CR which would allow us to appropriate money towards the loan program that DOE passed. And then there is the other concept of the TARP, which -- still in its infancy, even though we're trying to get it up and running as quickly as possible. So I don't have anything to add from yesterday. And I'm not here to speak for the auto industry and what conversations they may or may not have had with the administration. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I have not heard that, but we'll check and get back to you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, going back to the issue of how active the President has been or not -- not as active on the

MS. PERINO: No, this was mostly just the fundraisers. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Olivier. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: It's head of state -- I'll check. I need to check on that. I know that -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: No, no, no, I think it's attendees of the meeting. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And there's a -- the Pakistani government has summoned the U.S. Ambassador to protest vigorously

MS. PERINO: Well, our Ambassador would certainly go in and see the Pakistanis anytime they want to see her about these issues. We are committed to working with Pakistan to beat back what is a common enemy in the terrorists. And Pakistan has a very serious problem that -- the President believes that the Pakistanis recognize how serious that problem is. We have a lot of work to do in Pakistan. They have very serious issues when it comes to their economy, as well, in which they're trying to work with the IMF. So we remain very concerned, but we remain willing to work with them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, can I just follow on the automakers? I just want to clarify one point. You talked yesterday

MS. PERINO: Well, I think that what we're really focused on right now are the regulations that we could work to finalize in regards to the DOE program. The DOE program allows for loans so that these companies can help modernize and make more energy-efficient cars in their facilities here in the United States. So that's where our focus is. Look, these are very big companies.

You know, the President has said all along, for all of these issues, that helping out private industry is not something that has ever been in his -- it's never been one of his instincts. It was when Ben Bernanke and Secretary Paulson came to him and said we could be facing something worse than the Great Depression if we don't act, that the President realized that he had to put aside his instincts and focus on what he could do as President of the United States to help save this economy -- not to help save Wall Street, not to help save any individual economy, but to help individual Americans all across the country of all economic stripes. And that's what we've been trying to do.

That doesn't mean that we're going to necessarily help any of the automakers. It doesn't mean that we are or that we aren't. I think that where I would leave it is that Congress gave us the tool to be able to use the DOE regulations. We're trying to get those done as quickly as possible. These things take a little bit of time. They're very -- they're highly technical and there's a lot of caveats. If you look at the legislation, it laid out very specifically what the money could or could not be used for. And the automakers are well aware of that.

But I also know that we've said for some time the automakers are dealing with changing consumer preferences that really started happening when oil prices going up. So we have parallel tracks on issues that we're trying to deal with. On the energy side of things, more energy production, more energy efficiency, alternative fuels, renewable fuels, and at the same time, trying to help modernize their industry through the funds that Congress has appropriated. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think I'll decline to comment on the specifics, although I will tell you that the Energy Department, the Treasury Department, and the Commerce Department are keeping the President fully informed of their discussions with the automakers. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Since -- while I'm not commenting on the last part of your question, but, yes, he and the Prime Minister have spoken. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: But their conversations were about the strategic framework agreement and the status of forces agreement. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not commenting on that part at all, but I want to make clear that the conversation that they had was about the SOFA. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: In general? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know. In general, that has been a concern they have expressed. And their spokesperson, my counterpart, said the very same on Monday. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Another question, different topic. Today up on Capitol Hill, a lot of talk about infrastructure

MS. PERINO: I think that we'll -- I don't think we'll see a lot of activity or conversation about that until after the election. Congress will be here I think November 17th and they'll be here for about a week, and that's not a lot of time to get a lot done. We have some things that we think would stimulate the economy that they could do right away, such as vote yes or no on the free trade agreements that we have in front of them, especially the Colombia free trade agreement.

When it comes to the stimulus package, we are open to ideas, as we've said. What we have not seen from the Democratic leadership are ideas that would actually stimulate the economy. There would be a lot more deficit spending, but that doesn't necessarily help anybody in the near term. So transportation funding is a concern of ours because while it's important that we fund roads and bridges, and there are meritorious ways to get those approved through Congress, these projects take a long time to get approved, they take a long time for the money to get out into the system, and a lot of the claims that are made about how much transportation could actually help build the economy are overblown. And so the President is concerned about it. And I think it's too early to say what our number would be because I don't think we've even seen a package that we could support. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: That's not necessarily true. I think if they put their minds to it they could do a lot in a week. All of us Americans can, and we here at the White House do a lot more in a week than Congress has done in two years. But if they wanted to try to do something, they could. I just don't see a lot of activity or conversation on their behalf except for a few letters here and there. And I think for the most so far, a lot of that talk has been campaign talking points, rather than any serious discussion about how to stimulate the economy. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Yes. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, you just said the Treasury is planning to do something? I'll refer you over to the Treasury Department. I don't have any details on it.

John. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: A, B, or C. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I had a question about the French. President Sarkozy has had some critical words about that, and

MS. PERINO: What are you talking about? You're talking about the economy, or -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I'm talking about President -- I'm talking about Franco-American relations. Are they strained

MS. PERINO: The President has a great relationship with President Sarkozy, and they have open, frank discussions about a range of issues. The President is glad that he's been -- he was able to come to Camp David just two weeks ago. So I wouldn't think that there's anything to see there. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: It doesn't mean that friends can't disagree. That happens a lot -- happens here in this room. But that doesn't mean we can't be friends. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm going to go to April. Go ahead. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, the King of Saudi Arabia had started this dialogue, and this is the date of the meeting. The President has agreed to accept the invitation that he join the King. The President has been very supportive and appreciative of all that the King of Saudi Arabia has done, King Abdallah has done, to foster discussion and a dialogue about respecting other religions, and the President is going to be very happy to be a part of it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, it certainly hasn't been put there by this President, who has, from the beginning of this administration -- for his whole life -- has respected other people's religions. He believes that it doesn't matter what religion you are, he believes that we all pray to the same God. And he is going to be very active in continuing to work on both these interfaith dialogue issues, and also when it comes to freedom. And part of the freedom agenda has been that people should be allowed to practice whatever religion they want to practice. So the President will continue to be active in this long after he is no longer President. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And lastly, November 4th is coming, and there are concerns from many people about the long lines

MS. PERINO: I think that voting is a privilege in this country, and it's a right. And everyone that has that ability should be able to take advantage of it. That said, the suit that you were just talking about was actually against the state of Virginia, and that's because the states and the localities are the ones responsible for elections. There are a lot of things that we're responsible for here at the White House, but long lines on voting day are not one of them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: April, that's not our responsibility. That is something that the states and the localities have to determine on their own. And, yes, there's going to be long lines. I think that means that there is a lot of interest in this election, and that's not a bad thing. It's good that people are excited about this election, and enthusiastic about their candidates and that they'll be out there. And I'm sure they'll have to get up early, but that's just part of the whole process. And I can't do anything about long lines at election day. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana. Thank you, Dana. Two questions. Was the President grateful or ungrateful that neither

MS. PERINO: That's just not a subject I'm commenting on, in regards to that case against Senator Stevens. The government is the prosecutor in that case. And since the defendant has said that he wants to exercise his right to appeal, we will decline to comment. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on it.

Andre. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: As of yesterday, I didn't have a final on that, so we're continuing to check, and we'll do so again today. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I haven't heard where it would be. We did say that we would commit to a series of summits, and we are going to host the first one. And one of the agenda items for the meeting on the 14th and 15th will be where should the next summit be and when.

Victoria. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: We've had that argument before in regards to lots of different things, where questions were put to the United States that we incited and that it was our fault that terrorists attacked us. Terrorism is something that needs to be confronted, and that's what the President has done. I'm not commenting on any reports of any strikes. But what I will tell you is that the President put this country on a war footing after we were attacked and 3,000 of our citizens were killed. And we have kept al Qaeda on the run. We are giving them a run for the money. And the Pakistanis themselves, the innocent Pakistanis, they also deserve to be protected from terrorists. And so we'll continue to work with them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Hello, everybody. Just one announcement for you. As you know, we've been talking to you about our process for the transition and the unprecedented measures that we're able to take because of the 2004 intel reauthorization bill. And so we're taking full advantage of that. Of course, it's in our economic interest and in our national interest to make sure that the transition is as smooth as possible.

Just wanted to update you, as I said I would. There will be a meeting of the council today. This will cover a range of transition issues, and they're going to bring in several outside experts to offer insights on subjects such as continuity planning and preparing career executives for increased responsibilities during the transition period. I'll give you their names, varying backgrounds and representing both parties: Andy Card, who is our former Chief of Staff and also was a member of the Cabinet for the President's father; Mac McLarty, Chief of Staff to former President Bill Clinton; Jenna Dorn, who's the National -- she's at the National Academy of Public Administration; Norm Ornstein at the American Enterprise Institute; and Max Stier, which is the Partnership for Public Service.

Representatives from the campaigns will not attend today's meetings, but we're keeping in close contact with them and keeping them updated on all the various issues as we move forward.

And with that, I'll take any questions.

Jen. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Yes, on the Iraq security agreement, when it was struck with the Iraqi government, there was a

MS. PERINO: We've known for a little while that this -- well, we've known for a while that the process of getting this through the Iraqi political system was going to be not an easy one. And that's proven to be true. We feel like we have provided them with our best thinking on it, our best offer, and we've said for a couple of weeks that anything that they would want to change would have to clear a very high bar for us. We think that the door is pretty much shut on these negotiations.

That said, we have not seen the amendments yet that they want to have addressed, and so we'll wait to see those, and our negotiators, led by Ambassador Crocker, will take a look. But we will tell you it will just be a very high bar for them to clear for us to change anything. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think until we see the amendments it would be irresponsible for us to do that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Again, I think that we have provided our best thinking on it, our best offer. We came their way on a few things and they came our way on a few things, so that's what you get in a negotiation. Without seeing the amendments I think it's a little premature for me to say what we would or would not accept. I would just say that it's going to be very hard for us to accept any changes. And I think that the Iraqis know that. But let us have a chance to look at their amendments and then we'll let you know. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I've seen a lot of reports about that and obviously the automakers are going through a particularly difficult time as they deal with consumer preferences that have changed over the years, especially when it comes to energy efficiency.

One of the things that we've been trying to do is to work with the tools that Congress gave us. So Congress has given us a couple of different tools. One was the language in the energy bill from last December which would allow us to provide for up to $25 billion in loans -- maybe it's more than that, but around $25 billion in loans to help these automakers retool their plants so that they can help build more energy-efficient cars. We've been working on the rulemaking because that's what you have to do after you get the legislation. But we actually didn't have any authorizing language* until Congress passed the continuing resolution this past August, so just about seven weeks ago. So we're working on those rules that would help in that regard.

One of the things that I said yesterday and -- is that many of these automakers have finance arms such as GMAC or the like. And what Congress provided us in the rescue package was within that Troubled Asset Relief Program, companies can apply to see if they are eligible for those type of funds. And there's a whole range of tools within that TARP program, as Treasury calls it. And the regulators at Treasury would determine whether or not those companies were eligible to participate in the TARP program.

So the automakers have been in contact with us. We've been talking to them at various levels and at different departments, including Energy, Treasury and Commerce. And we're trying to work with the tools that Congress has provided us.

The discussions on whether or not any companies decide to merge are discussions that they are having between themselves. Those are choices that they are going to have to make themselves. And at the end of the day, we'll see what happens. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q There's a school of thought out there that's developing that takes a look at the automobile industry

MS. PERINO: Well, I think what I would point you back to is that decisions on whether or not -- that these companies have in front of them as to how they will move forward and how they will deal with these changing market conditions and changing consumer preferences will be ones that they make. What we're doing in the administration is working with the tools that Congress has provided us. So when it comes to loans for retooling the factories and their floors so that they can produces more energy-efficient cars, we're working within those means that Congress passed for us to be able to do that. And the same is true when it comes to the Troubled Asset Relief Program, where we're looking at that.

But the Treasury Department is going to have to take a good, hard look at whether these companies would be eligible for that type of help. And meanwhile, if they decide to consolidate, that will be a decision at the end of the day that those companies make themselves. What we're doing is working with the programs that Congress provided us to help provide for more capital for banks. I mean, that's one of the things that we're doing -- finance arms for companies that -- while that might be something that could be eligible. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q One follow-up on that. Does that then open the door -- for instance, Whirlpool could develop

MS. PERINO: I don't know -- I don't know if any company would decide to do that. I think that would be prospective and speculative as to whether any company would want to do it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, I think that's one of the things that the regulators have to look at. And so they have people within the Troubled Asset Relief Program within the past three and a half weeks who are trying to move as quickly as possible and efficiently as possible, but also methodically, so that we protect the taxpayers when we're moving forward to try to implement what is a really big program. But it's a big program to address a really big problem.

No doubt that the automakers are big, important companies -- important to a lot of families, and important to a lot of regions in this country. But they also are dealing with some decisions that they've made in the past. And we are in a global environment and they're competing globally.

But as the President has said, we have -- some of the best engineering minds in the world live right here in the United States. And we are capable of competing at a level where these companies can succeed; they might just need a little bit of help. And that's what Congress asked us to help provide them through the Energy Department program, and now possibly also through the TARP. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Follow-up on that. Can you confirm that the management of GM and Chrysler have directly asked

MS. PERINO: I could not confirm that. I don't know any of those specifics. I do know that they have been in contact with the administration on various levels. So I'll have to let that lie for a while. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, you laid out some of the things that the administration is considering as it relates to the

MS. PERINO: Well, when it comes to the regulations for implementing the continuing resolution language that authorized the loan program, which was the -- on 136 loans -- I don't know why they're called 136, I think it's section 136 of the bill -- we're trying to get those done as quickly as possible. And I think you hear a lot of chatter about it, is because people are starting to finalize and narrow down the final remaining issues before we can promote those regulations.

So that's one side of it. And the other side of it is Troubled Asset Relief Program, which is -- has a range of tools. And so I think it's just too early to say. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, I just want to follow on something that Jim was saying. If we -- if that's open to any company

MS. PERINO: It's a good question. It's not one that I can answer, because I'm not part of the -- I'm not an economist that is a regulator looking at the Troubled Asset Relief Program. I don't want to -- I don't think the White -- I don't think the White House would be open to that, but I just don't know. I think that -- I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself, and I need to let the regulators look at that and consider what eligibility would be. I have -- I will just tell you, I have heard no one talking about other companies moving forward to create financing arms, or retailers asking for such type of support, either. So I want to make it clear that I'm not suggesting that that is a possibility. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, one of the things that the Treasury Secretary has said and the President has said is that when we move forward with this program what we're trying to do is get banks to do what they are supposed to do, which is support the system that we have in America. And banks exist to lend money; that's how they make money. So we think that one of the things that we have to do is help recapitalize them so they have a capital base so that they are willing to lend money.

And we're starting to see some evidence that that's starting to happen. But it's probably not happening as fast as some small business owners would like, but we're starting to see some thawing of those frozen assets. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, the banks are regulated by the Treasury Department, and the Assistant Secretary, Tony Ryan, gave a speech in New York today that I recommend to you, where he talked a little bit about this. And they will be watching very closely and they're working with the banks. But again, the way that banks make money is by lending money, and so they have every incentive to move forward and start using this money. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And a quick follow. On nuclear power, we've talked a bit about the fact that it's been 30 years

MS. PERINO: Well, we have -- I don't remember the exact number, but from the work that we've done over the past few years, I think it's a loan guarantee program they call it at the Department of Energy -- this is a separate loan guarantee program and it's for nuclear energy. And there's been several requests for the Energy Department to look over applications for those types of funds. It's actually probably a dozen plants that I think some companies have come forward and said that they wanted to build. We'll get the exact number for you. But there's not going to be a nuclear power plant built -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: -- like groundbreaking? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think it might be hard because they have to go through all the NEPA processes, the environmental processes and all those regulatory requirements. But one of the things we try to do is to streamline those, so that instead of doing reviews consecutively, right, so you get one permit done and then you go back to the drawing board with another local board and you do that one, but to do them all at the same time, so that these companies can be guaranteed that if they're going to put that type of work into -- and investment -- into a nuclear power plant, that it will actually be built and that they'll be able to provide power and recoup that investment. That's something that the President has been interested in. And I'll get you more information about the Energy Department program.

Roger. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I would say both of those things, but possibly other things, too. I'm not saying we have new policies that we're going to announce, but I'm not involved in the discussions at that level. But I think there have been very -- obviously the automakers have been very interested in the Energy Department program, which was passed last December and then finally got authorization* in August. The automakers were very instrumental in trying to get that passed, so that when Congress provided that authorization, then the administration could do what Congress wanted, which was to start moving forward on that.

So that's one of the issues, and I'm sure they're talking about the Troubled Asset Relief Program, as well. I just don't have the details. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q And on the DOE thing, there's been an attempt to speed up the rules and stuff like that. Do we

MS. PERINO: I would say they're moving as quickly as possible, and we'll update you as soon as we can. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, he has a lot of private meetings on his schedule. I wouldn't tell you what they were because they are private. He's out on an excursion right now. He'll be back soon. I don't know if he's arrived yet -- do you know? No, we don't know. If he had arrived, I couldn't tell you. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'll check. I don't -- I know Paulson decided to stay here in D.C. I don't know if they're going to see each other or not, though. But he sees his senior team all of the time. I mean, there's a lot of -- as I said yesterday, the Energy Department, the Treasury Department and the Commerce Department have all been in discussions with the automakers. MR. FRATTO: He's arrived. MS. PERINO: I just -- the President has arrived at his destination, so I will just give you an update that he decided to go over to RNC headquarters this morning. He wanted to thank all of the staff there for their hard work over this past cycle. He wanted to thank them for their support over the past eight years. He was planning to talk to them about how he sees the GOP -- which is a party that is forward-thinking, that is positive in its thinking, has a positive agenda for America -- and he's going to remind them that usually the last weeks in the campaign is the most important week in a campaign. So he'll be there for just a little bit over an hour. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: No, I don't think so.

Bret. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q New topic. We have one senior military official confirming that the U.S. is essentially moving

MS. PERINO: We have an ongoing strategic review that is being led by General Lute here in the administration, being coordinated by the National Security Council, so I won't announce anything out of that review since it's ongoing and they're trying to wrap that up.

We all agree on the need for the people of Afghanistan to reconcile. We saw that in -- that need in Iraq, as well. There are different ways to try to do that. If there was outreach to the Taliban -- we remain skeptical that there are some Taliban that would actually renounce violence and renounce extremism, and work for the greater good of Afghanistan. So we'll let the Afghanis come forward with their ideas. We have our strategic review underway, as well.

But we do recognize the need to try to reconcile with some of these elements. And we've been able to do that in other parts of the world. If you look at what President Uribe has been able to do in Colombia -- I know it's a different part of the world, but he's done a similar thing with the FARC terrorists in trying to bring them out of the jungle and bring them back into society. President Maliki -- Prime Minister Maliki was able to do that in Iraq, with our help, trying to reconcile some of those elements. Pakistan is trying a similar angle. And we realize that we have to reach out on some level, but I'm not able to announce anything today. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I find that hard to imagine. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: We have made progress in Afghanistan, in a lot of different places. But the violence that has increased in the east and the south of the country is a great concern to us, and that's one of the reasons that we're doing a review here and that we're working with our NATO partners to figure out the best way to position the best troops and the -- and make sure that we can beat back the Taliban. We saw some savage attacks last week, where the Taliban beheaded I think 26 young people who were on their way to work. They were riding a bus and they were forced off of it and beheaded. And then you saw on Sunday, 1,000 Afghanis got together and protested the Taliban, which had not really happened before. And so sometimes terrorists go a little bit too far, even in their own countries, and people start realizing that they are not all that they say they are. And this is the ideological struggle that we're talking about.

In Afghanistan, we have some work to do. And we've seen violence go up. We've seen our soldiers increasingly at risk, and we want to do everything we can to protect them, and to protect the people of Afghanistan, too. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know if -- I don't know if we can draw direct parallels between the two. But I also don't think that it's apples and oranges. I think that there are programs that have worked in other countries; I mentioned a few of them. It's possible that it could work here. It's just a little bit too early to say. But we realize that we have to try to reconcile some of these groups. But whether or not some elements of the Taliban would renounce violence and extremism and work for the greater good of Afghanistan remains to be seen.

Ken. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Well, given that Senator Stevens has said that he is going to fight his conviction and that he is going to appeal -- and that is his right to do -- since it's going to be a matter of ongoing litigation, we'll decline to comment for now.

Laurent. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: It's certainly not our preference. It wouldn't be what we want to do. We want to be able to move forward with both a strategic framework agreement that we've organized with the Iraqis that talks about the broad contours of our relationship, both economic and diplomatic and also political. So we want to be able to move forward with that with them.

But when it comes to the strategic -- I'm sorry, the status of forces agreement, we remain confident that we'll be able to get one. However, if we don't, there will be consequences for that. And Secretary Rice and Secretary Gates have both talked about that. And I don't think there are Iraqis -- I don't think there are any Iraqis who think that they are ready to do this all on their own -- deep down. They might say that and it might help politically for them in their own country domestically to be able to say that they could do it on their own, but even just yesterday we saw two of our soldiers who were killed in a suicide bombing, so Iraq still has a lot of violence that they have to deal with. Our soldiers are the ones who are there to help them deal with it, and they're going to need our help for some time. And that's how we got to the agreement that we have, with the broad outlines that you've seen reported in the press.

So we'll continue to work with them. We'll see what the amendments say. There might be something that we can work with, it might not. So I need to see those amendments and I need to hear from Ambassador Crocker before I say any more.

Les. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you, Dana. Two questions. New Mexico's Senator Jeff Bingaman has just joined other leading

MS. PERINO: The President has made his position very clear on the Fairness Doctrine. He absolutely does not support it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Thank you. Former Speaker Newt Gingrich has compared the Soviet-dominated Polish press attacks

MS. PERINO: I haven't spoken to the President about Newt Gingrich's comparison.

Jennifer. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q I just want to ask one more automaker question. The government allowed Lehman Brothers to fail

MS. PERINO: I think what we're trying to do right now is use the tools that Congress gave us to try to help companies where we can. So when it comes to the automakers -- which are big, important companies to regions in this country that are suffering right now, and we also have a lot of families that are dependent on those automakers, and we want to have a big, thriving auto industry here in our country -- we are trying to use the tools that Congress provided us.

So we have the possibility of loans, regarding the retooling of their plants that will help them be more competitive in the future. And we also have the possibility that under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, that they would be able to take a part in that. So I think we'll have to see if we can help them in those regards. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q It sounds like -- I mean, is it fair to interpret what you're saying as you don't want -- you're

MS. PERINO: I don't know if there's anything else that we would do. I know that what we're doing -- I can tell you what we're doing right now, which is trying to get those regulations finalized, so that we can publish them, so that we can move forward in helping automakers in our country, across the board -- it's not just two companies that would be able to participate in that -- and then also the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Those are tools that Congress gave us; we have the authorization to be able to do it. And so we're trying to implement those as quickly as possible.

A lot of these programs, like the TARP program, in any other normal times would take months or years to implement, and we're trying to do it in a matter of weeks, but we're making progress. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Hi, everybody. The President is meeting with the President of Paraguay right now and they'll have pool at the bottom. And then the President will make remarks tonight in honor of Theodore Roosevelt's 150th birthday. That celebration will be in the East Room tonight. And other than that, I don't have anything to start with. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: The United States government has not commented on reports about that and I'm not able to here, either. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q So we've talked about Pakistan, the raids into Pakistan, whether by ground or by air. And there

MS. PERINO: I can't comment on it at all, no. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment in any way on this; I'm not able to comment on that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on the reports about this, no, I'm not. Anybody else? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not going to comment on it at all. This could be a really short briefing. (Laughter.) Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know. I don't know. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Jim, all I can tell you is that I am not able to comment on reports about this reported incident, and I'm not going to do so. You can come up here and try to beat it out of me, but I will not be commenting on this in any way, shape or form today. Or tomorrow -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't believe anybody is commenting on this at all.

April. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: To give you an answer to that would be commenting in some way on it, and I'm not going to do it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Nothing. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I understand the reports are serious, but it's not something I'm going to comment on in any way.

Go ahead, Lambros. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Yes, they did have conversations on Friday. What was the question? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Any results? Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Oh, readout -- the President, himself, read it out when he had his remarks after the event. So then we don't have anything to add. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I was not in attendance, but I'll check for you and I'll have Gordon get back to you; he was there.

Roger. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think it's clear that the automakers are dealing with a very serious situation, they have been for some time. And I know that the Energy Department, the Treasury Department, and Commerce Department have been in contact with the automakers. We have for years and increasingly so, but I -- there's nothing I can tell you that would be specific as to what we would provide. You're right that in the CR that was passed in August, there were what we call 136 loans authorized by the Energy Department. We're working as quickly as we possibly can to get those regulations finalized, to be able to provide that, but other than that, I don't have anything to add for you.

One thing is that automakers do have financing arms -- many of them do -- and it's possible that some of those financing arms could be a part of the rescue package -- the TARP, as they call it at the Treasury Department. So that's why -- that's one of the reasons Treasury has been in contact with them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Yes, and other companies who have similar -- I think Chrysler has one, as well. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm just saying it's a possibility that they could qualify under it. There's the application form that Treasury announced last week, and if those companies apply for that, it's possible that they could be included in it. But I have to refer you to Treasury for details because they would analyze whether or not they qualify. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Let me say I assume so -- I do assume so. In terms of financing beyond the $25 billion? Not that I know of. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Oh, with Secretary Paulson? Not that I'm aware of, no. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Not ruling it in or out. I can tell you we've been in contact with automakers, GM and others. And beyond that, I'm just not able to comment on any of those discussions, except for to say that when it comes to those 136 loans, we're working as hard as possible to get those regulations in place so that could move forward. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I would disagree with the -- with saying that they're stuck. This is complicated. If you go back and you look at the regulations and all that it spells out as to how it has to be written up, it takes a little bit of time for the experts at the Energy Department, along with their interagency brethren, to try to work it out and figure out what all the ramifications are going to be of it, how it was going to be set up, which ones would qualify.

If you look at it, it talks a lot about helping these companies move forward, so that they could adapt, so that they could deal with the new energy realities and consumer preferences that have been changing over the years. Those things take a little bit of time. And they were supposed to be -- those loans are specifically geared towards revamping those factories. That's not necessarily going to help immediately with a capital problem. So that was -- and that was never going to be the case. So I would not say that they are stuck over there. I can tell you from watching them that they are working very closely and are keeping us updated over here. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Right. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know what all the automakers are thinking about. I'm sure they're trying to devise ways that they can adapt and be the kind -- sell the kind of cars that consumers are wanting to buy right now. Part of the problem is that they have to change over their factories so that they could make more fuel efficient vehicles. We have regulations and laws that we have put in place during the Bush administration years that would increase both passenger car and SUV/light truck, mileage standards. So that was already underway, but those are long-term projects.

And so that's one of the things that -- when I mention the TARP, the Treasury program, it's possible that some of the finance arms could actually fill out one of the those applications and be a part of that program. So we're trying to work with them as much as we can. There are some things we may or may not be able to do. It's still going to take a little while for us to work on it, but we're moving as quickly as we possibly can. That package only was passed three-and-a-half weeks ago, so we're moving as quickly as we can.

John. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I wouldn't want to put a time frame on it right now because they are trying to do all the due diligence and dot the "I's" and cross the "T's," and I wouldn't want to put a time frame on it that they either meet or don't meet and it wouldn't be fair to anybody if I did that. But I can tell you that they're working to get it done as quickly as possible. Read more Comment (0), Email this.