Replies

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 15, 2006
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan
James S. Brady Briefing Room
12:44 P.M. EST
Q In the meeting with Republican lawmakers, did any of them raise the type of concerns that Senator Coleman raised yesterday?
MR. McCLELLAN: No. It was focused on the priorities that I outlined at the beginning. And there is --
Q Did it come up?
MR. McCLELLAN: -- there is a very unified effort to continue moving forward on important priorities, like winning in Iraq and implementing the Medicare prescription drug benefit and making sure it's successful, and continuing to move forward on a budget that builds upon the progress we've made to fund priorities and rein in wasteful spending. ...
Q Then why do you think even friends of the White House suggest that maybe there's time for some changes --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, we keep talking about friends or lawmakers, but I don't hear a lot of names being mentioned.
Q Norm Coleman.
MR. McCLELLAN: There's one. ...
Q Scott, as evidenced by some of the fallout from the ports deal, there are some members of Congress, though, who are looking at the way the White House has treated them and wishing things had been different. And you, yourself, have said that, in fact, things could have been handled differently. What is --
MR. McCLELLAN: That's a different issue. So let's make that point. That's a separate issue from what we're talking about here.
Q But if some of these people that -- I know this is part of the parlor game, but some of those discussions are about bringing in people who can better deal with Congress, isn't that sort of connected then?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, let me point out a couple of things. The President has surrounded himself with a very capable and experienced team that is fully committed to helping him advance his agenda and get things done. This is a team that focuses on advancing his agenda and achieving results for the American people. We also learn from our experience. But it's a very experienced team and it's important to always learn from experience, and we do that, and we have done that over the course of our time in office. ...

Q Scott, on priorities -- he spoke about immigration with this group of lawmakers? And what did the President --
MR. McCLELLAN: Today?
Q Yes.
MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, it did come up. They did talk about -- I think Senator Frist was talking about some of the legislative time line in terms of pushing forward on important priorities. And the President remains firmly committed to comprehensive immigration reform. We've had a number of discussions with congressional leaders. We believe that in order to fix what is a broken system, you need to address all aspects. That means continuing to build upon the steps we've taken to strengthen our borders. It means improving our interior enforcement, and it means moving forward on meeting an important economic and humanitarian need through a temporary worker program.
Q And on the temporary worker program, what the President thinks of the new idea of Senator Specter that instead of --
MR. McCLELLAN: I think there are a lot of ideas being expressed, and we want to continue to work with all leaders at the Capitol who are committed to moving forward on immigration reform. This is an important priority. We have a broken system; it needs to be fixed and it needs to be addressed in a comprehensive way. We have taken a number of steps when it comes to beefing up the number of Border Patrol agents to using -- or deploying new technologies along the border to prevent people from coming into this country illegally, particularly those who are coming here for the wrong reason. And we need to continue to move forward on those efforts. We need to continue to move forward on a comprehensive approach that will address all these issues.
Q But the President will be flexible to adopt other ideas to his temporary work program, like ideas --
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, what we outlined were some very clear principles that we believe ought to be part of a temporary worker program. And so I think the President has spelled out what his views are and now we're in the process of working with Congress to try to advance this important priority for the American people.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/03/20060315.html