White House Gaggle

Briefer: Scott Stanzel

President’s Schedule

This morning the President and Mrs. Bush did an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America. Later today, the President will participate in a photo opportunity with Uno the Beagle, winner of the Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club.
Tonight, The President and Mrs. Bush will host a social dinner tonight in honor of Cinco the Mayo.

Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel will brief the press at 12.30 pm today.

Myanmar

Scott Stanzel was asked to comment on the situation in Myanmar, and said, “We are concerned about the reports coming out of Burma and more of the loss of lives. The US Embassy is in touch with Burmese authorities and the ambassador has released some assistance funds under her authority; and that money will go under the world food program and other aid entities and does not necessarily go directly to the government. But we are in the process of assessing what more we can do.

Iran

When asked about a report suggesting that the US has provided Iraq will intelligence that shows Hezbollah has been training militia members, Stanzel said that General Petreus talked about that in his testimony during his last visit to Washington. General Petreus discussed that fact that Iran has made efforts to support special groups inside Iraq. This is something the Iraqis want to stop and therefore Iraqi Prime Minister sent a delegation to Iran last week, Stanzel said. “Iraqis are clearly tired of their disruptive activity and they do want it to stop. “

Food Aid

Stanzel was asked if the White House has gotten any reaction from Congress regarding the announcement last week to increase the food aid money by $ 770 million. “The word that we heard from Congress is that they could potentially put the FY 09 supplemental request that was for $ 70 billion, that included the $ 770 million in food aid; that they could couple that with the FY 08 supplemental request, that has been pending since last fall, and that actually also include our $ 350 million request on food aid,” Stanzel said. He continued to talk about the broad recognition that there is a need around the world for increased support. “We expect Congress to move forward on it. “

Dalai Lama and China

The White House said that they believe that a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government was the best way to address some of the fundamental issues.
“Dalai Lama has said himself that he does not seek change in political status for Tibet, but the people in Tibet has said that they are unable to freely practice their religion and freely practice some of their cultures and values, so we believe that talks to discuss those issues is important, ” Stanzel said. The White House said that they will have to wait and see what sort of readout they can get from the parties after their discussions but it is a positive step that they have had talks.

Oil demand and its impact

The President talked about this in his interview this morning, but he is willing to look at anything that Congress might put forward in terms of the gas tax issue. Stanzel said that the White House has had the idea of drilling in ANWR, and if that idea was not rejected in the mid 90s, there could have been potential for millions of barrels of oil per day from the United States. “We have to increase domestic exploration in an environmentally friendly way, and we have to continue to look for those alternative fuels…” Stanzel said. He also mentioned the discussion of investments in cellulosic research that the Administration thinks is the next step beyond the use of corn-based ethanol. “This is a problem that is long time coming and there are no quick fixes to it, “Stanzel ended.