White House Gaggle

By Gregory Gorman
September 21, 2005

President’s Schedule

The President had breakfast this morning with key Senators to discuss his next Supreme Court nominee. Press Secretary Scott McClellan said that this consultative process is very important and that the President listened to the Senators on their thoughts for filling the seat that is being vacated by Sandra Day O’Connor. Following the meeting with the Senators, the President met with Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. He also had his usual briefings and his daily hurricane briefing with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. At noon, President Bush will attend a lunch with the Republican Jewish Coalition followed by a meeting in the Roosevelt Room with his Commission to Strengthen Social Security. This afternoon, he will meet with the Speaker of Iraq’s Transitional National Assembly in the Oval Office and participate in a briefing on housing issues to address the needs of American citizens who were evacuated due to Hurricane Katrina.

Supreme Court Nominee

McClellan said that the President believes the Senate has an important role to play both in the nomination process and in the confirmation process for a Supreme Court nominee. According to McClellan, the White House has already been reaching out to Senators "to get their thoughts and views on the qualifications and attributes that they are looking for in a Supreme Court nominee as well as any names that they might have in mind or want to discuss". As has been previously been mentioned, McClellan said that the President continues to move forward in a thoughtful and deliberate way to fill the Supreme Court vacancy and will move forward in a timely manner. When asked if the President’s list of possible nominees has changed from the time that he nominated John Roberts, McClellan responded, "the list is something that can be added to". When asked if he had reason to believe that the next confirmation process will be more contentious than that of Judge John Roberts, McClellan responded, "Well, I think that is going to be up to members of the Senate . . . We hope that they are going to move forward in a civil and dignified way".

Hurricane Rita

The White House continues to urge everyone to take Hurricane Rita seriously. Rita is now classified as a Category Four hurricane and is expected to strengthen. McClellan announced that Admiral Harrah has been designated as the primary federal officer in charge of hurricane operations in Texas. The White House also expects to hear from Texas and Louisiana officials when they make emergency declarations. The government has been supporting the current area evacuation orders and has pre-positioned supplies including, food, water, ice, tarps and building supplies in the region as well as emergency response, disaster medical and urban search-and-rescue teams for possible deployment following the storm’s landfall.

Spending Cuts

McClellan was asked to clarify if the administration is considering cutting programs to pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery and to keep down the federal deficit. McClellan responded that the administration does have a specific list of spending cuts in the 2006 budget that it sent to Congress. He mentioned that OMB Director Josh Bolton has been tasked with working with Congress to identify unnecessary spending that can be cut to off-set some of costs related to Katrina. However, McClellan wanted to clarify that the President is still committed to the priorities that he outlined in his second term agenda including saving and strengthening Social Security and modernizing Medicare.