MS. PERINO: Very short flight. We're on our way to Greensboro, North Carolina. The President will participate in a roundtable discussion with children of prisoners and their mentors to talk about how their lives have changed after being matched through the President's Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative.

Just a couple of points of background for you. Children of prisoners are seven times more likely than their peers to enter the criminal justice system in their lifetimes. In the interest of these children and their communities, it was in the State of the Union in 2003 that the President established this Mentoring Children of Prisoners Initiative. The purpose was to work with hundreds of faith-based and community organizations to recruit and train mentors to provide guidance and support to some of our nation's most vulnerable children. We've exceeded our goal for this program. The President wanted to match 100,000 children. We've exceeded that goal by matching more than 110,800 children with mentors so far. And since 2003 the Department of Health and Human Services has awarded more than $175,000 -- I'm sorry, $175 million in grants to 320 organizations in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

On board today, we have Cynthia McFadden of Nightline. She's doing a piece on the faith-based initiative. She will have a little bit of time with the President today, and then a piece that will run -- she will have a piece that runs next week, probably next Monday.

And then I'll just take your questions. We have such a short flight. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I saw reports about it, but I think what I'll do is just decline to comment and let Secretary Rice get to New Delhi. I think she'll be there tomorrow morning our time, maybe even late this evening our time. Let me let her try to work on that and see what she gets out of it so that I don't get in front of anything she's working on. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I'm not able to talk about any of our intelligence community -- any of their cooperation with any other country. It would not be appropriate for me to do so, so I have to decline to comment on that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I don't know if we have seen the summaries or not. I know Secretaries Gutierrez and Bodman sent letters to Congress last week to give the administration's view on the taxpayer issue. We have said that we want to provide help for the auto industry. We thought that we had provided a bipartisan way forward to be able to do that. It is refreshing for us to see Democrats finally coming forward and accepting that companies need to prove that they are viable in order to get taxpayer dollars. But we'll have to see what these plans are. And we'll have to see what the Congress decides to do, as well. I think there's -- it's a little bit premature here on a Tuesday. We need to wait and see what the plans are, and then they have to testify Thursday and Friday. And I don't know if we know what the Hill will do yet. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think we just need to see them come back and see if they have a viable plan and then we can move -- Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I think $25 billion is quite generous, and not necessarily something that I would consider to be "stuck on" anything. But we would like -- but we are sticking to our guns that the companies have to prove that they are viable before the taxpayer dollars should be given to them. So I think we just need to see what they -- how they proceed.

The companies have continued to be okay. I realize that they say that they're teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. We've said that we wanted to support them, and we've provided what we think is a bipartisan way to do that. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I have to refer you to the State Department for that, because the last time I saw her was Sunday night before -- she was leaving for London right then, and the plans had not been finalized yet.

I know that she'll be meeting with the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Singh. I'm sure the Foreign Minister will be there. But beyond that, I don't know who else she is going to see. I think that she's only scheduled to go to New Delhi when she is in India. She will not be going to Mumbai. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: I would not comment on that. I think that unless they want to change their travel plans or announce anything, I'll just leave it to them. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

Q Dana, can you talk about the event yesterday, the event today, and I think there's going to be

MS. PERINO: We have thought about it. Read more Comment (0), Email this.

MS. PERINO: Yesterday was World AIDS Day. Read more Comment (0), Email this.