Stop doodling. Do your show. I will handle it for the next 30 seconds until we have to go to the white house. Clint, particular around, you know, there might be stuff to talk about. As katy was saying, weve been around here for a few minutes. We have been expecting to go to this White House Press conference, press briefing that is supposed to have started about a half an hour ago. I would suspect that it is about to start within the next ten seconds because there is Sarah Huckabee sanders. Good afternoon. I know most of you and more importantly the American People have many questions relate to Hurricane Harvey and as you all know, the president was in Corpus Christi and austin earlier this week and today at the president s direction the Vice President , mrs. Pence and five cabinet secretaries are back in texas meeting with local officials and storm survivors and thanking many of the First Responders and other volunteers. The president s team here has been working around the clock to support state and local authorities following the storm. And now i want to bring up tom bossert, the president s Homeland Security adviser to pri an update on the administration wide effort to support the recovery and relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Hell make a few opening remarks and then stay to take questions specific to the storm and what the administration is doing to help the state and local authorities and the people of texas and louisiana. And as always, after tom speaks and takes your questions, ill be back up here to take questions on other topics. Thanks, guys. Thanks, sarah. Let me see if i can start by addressing maybe some different audiences. Weve got international audience, national audience, state and local audience and i want to speak to each one of them on a brief update. From the International Perspective weve had heads of stated from a lot of different countries, in particular i would stress stress, yesterday the heads of state mexico and canada called to express their condolences, their prayers and thoughts but also assistance if they could lend anything to the effort. We very much appreciate that. And the president was deeply touched by those phone calls. I joined him for the call from Justin Trudeau just moments ago, and we appreciate the neighborly gesture. Quite seriously, and its an International Expression of what were seeing here at a very local level, weve got neighborhoods helping neighbors in texas and louisiana, but also neighbors that arent in close proximity, internationally expressing help, so our International Neighbors of canada and mexico are also offering their condolences and we very much appreciate it. Were seeing deployed assets now from a lot of states. I know weve got 28, for instance, search and rescue teams and task forces from i think 16 different states all sending down their support to texas. Thats a pretty large activation. In fact, i believe that thats the first time weve activated all the task forces sings nine 11. So this is a all hands on deck operation. The its not just a federal one. There are state and local officials from all walks, even from pennsylvania where im from. There are people now addressing this problem by getting their hands dirty and going right down to texas to help so we want to stop and say thank you to them for that. If i can move to the mags. Many of you are watching this and you want to hear from us what were doing. You should continue to have confidence in what were doing as a government. There are significant come oddty numbers and numbers of personnel and material moving into this affected region and its an increasing number every day as we move forward. But i would be remiss if i didnt stop and say that none of that matters if youre in an affected individual. So 10,000 liters of water doesnt matter if i dont have the one leerlt i need to drink right now. And so ific, id like to stop and give a message or two directly to the people who need the assistance. And if i can this might sound a little bit mundane, if youre in need of assistance and you have access to a functioning computer, if you can get to a shelt r or someplace that you can do this. Wwww dot zaser assistance dot gov. You can find what you need there to register for the assistance you immediate need. 18004627585. Again, 18004627585 h. Theres another number 6213362. Im going to clarify that i think 6213362. Thats the number. 3362 spells fema. That second number of 7585 is the tty number. I want to make sure that people use those numbers and use those resources to register. Id also like to give them the advice that its never too early to call your insurance adjustor. Make sure youve got that process under way. It can take some time. Theres going to be a high volume of calls. So thats where we stand right now. Id like to go through a few additional messages. Life saving and sustaining operations are still under way. Weve seen some hospitals suffer some damage in beaumont. The dod and the hhs officials responsible for coordinating the federal response here are actively figuring out and deploying resources to help move those patients to better definitive care locations. So we will see probably upwards of 7,000 estimated patients moved into better and safer definitive Care Hospitals elsewhere in texas. And well see that happen expeditiously. Secondly, a little word of caution. A lot of lost lives and in this time zone right after a response. We lose unfortunately some lives in an immediate disaster, but then in the Immediate Response and recovery phase people will use chain saws, people will remove debris, people will be stressed. The elderly when theyre stressed, you heard doctor for you chicago say tend to get sick. That sickness can lead to death, unfortunately. So unfortunately we will see additional losses of life if history is any precedent here or if that history is any prologue. We will see additional loss of life. So please try to avoid, try to avoid strain and stress. Try to get to where theres food, water and shelter and take care of yurgs so that you can then take care of others. With that, id like to suggest that from the fema perspective theyre continuing that operation, but from the white house, its important that we look at the cost of these events and that we look on the horizon a little bit about whats next. As we look into it, these are estimates at this point, but it looks like roundabout a hundred thousand affected homes. Thats a big number. Were going to have a hundred thousand affected homes, all with different degrees of insurance. Some with insurance, uninsured, under insured. I want to put a scope and magnitude on this. Were also going to have damage to publicly owned infrastructure. Were going to put together a responsible supplemental request for congress, appropriations request. Well make that request shortly. Well make that request based on the information that we have now and what well do then is come back later for a second supplemental request when we have Additional Information that would make a more informed total for congress to consider. So id like to stop on that point and take a few questions. Question for you. Obviously some after Hurricane Sandy some money flowed fairly quickly, but the big bill didnt happen until two months after the hurricane hit. How important is it, do you believe, with texas for congress to get that money through faster . The president promised it would happen quickly. Yep. So three things here. First you have to look at the health of the Disaster Relief fund which is fupding most of this operation. That was a relatively healthy fund. It had about 3. 6 billion in it heading into this storm of the that allowed us to get through the initial Response Operations. That drawdown rate is something we keep a close eye on. Were going to need to go up and ask for a disaster supplemental shortly. We also secondly heading up into the end of a fist cal year so any available money is running out. The end of the fiscal year is upon us, and so congress had already planned to provide us some replenishment into that fund through the regular course of operations frmgt and then thirdly, if there are and there will be needs for additional funding in the future as those drawdown construction numbers become more clear on the recovery phase, well be able to look at them and ask for a third, you know, kind of bite at the apple on this. So thats where we stand. And im not worried at all that we dont have the money right now for the operations under way and the operations that we foresee in the next month. Thank you. You mentioned the office of the assistance from the leaders of canada and mexico. Will the president be accepting any of those offers of assistance . Sure. You know, the answer here is that the president didnt get into the specifics and neither did the heads of stated calling. I think their primary purpose was to express and extend their prayers and thoughts and their condolences to those that lost their lives. What well do is turn over to fema, the department of state to accept that request for additional concrete or tangible assistance. Theyll figure out how to integrate that with the operators. If we have unmet needs that they can offer some valuable supply for, well take that. But theres no reason not to take that assistance. Can you let us know exactly what i would say yes, but i would highly encourage you to ask fema how thats unfolding because you have to look at that there a very specific perspective. Ive done that before and they have to integrate something very carefully into a logistics chain that is complex. You talk about whats next for the recovery. Theres obviously going to be not just months but years. This is also an administration thats proposed some pretty significant kutsds to fema. Are you encouraging the president to rethink those budget cuts . Youve been in Emergency Management awhile. The core operating function at fema is going to be well funded under the president s proposal. The Disaster Relief fund, those things will be all well funded through the Disaster Relief fund. But what you will see are responseable proposals for reduction in some Homeland Security grants. Those grants, i was around for their creation. They were never meant to be permanent and what with he need to do is to reduce state level dependency on that money. We need to do it in af responsible way. Youll see not just a request for a cut in money in the president that the president put forward but youll see some Additional Details that allow the states to responsibleel develop a glide path to get off of their grants and their dependence over them. I would say understanding thats important for the American People to know that the president wasnt irponlel cutting any money he would doing something that would further empower state and hols. And i would come back to reiterate the fact that the fund is strong. Were going to ask for some very responsible sur blast supplement alice. Could you talk to me about the issue of those who are displaced. Temporary housing is a big issue. What can you tell us about whats happening over at had you had, whats happening with this administration as it relates to this. It was a big issue during katrina and it was a major problem. Are you looking at issues of finding and designating vacant locations for some of these people to some of these victims or survivors to go into . So i many et with the chiefs of taf of all of the cabinet today, and we talked about housing quite a bit. Whats happening now is had you had in cooperation with fema and state and local officials are starting to get together the available Housing Stock, both available rental stock, manufactured housing which often fits a need in this type of disaster, but also available Housing Stock for those who have received assistance under had you had programs, section 8 in particular. So were trying to put all those Housing Stock solutions and all those Government Programs together, think through whats available and how people might utilize that. Right now fema is doing that in a Planning Section but their operators are focused on saving lives. If i could, one additional point there. This will be a housing challenge, but i dont want to concede any kind of housing lack of coordination. What well have to do is allow a lot of this stuff to unfold. When i say a hundred thousand, some portion of those homes were affect with two foot of water or less and then eight. Youll have to look at a case by indicate basis, whether theyre underwater financially, actually and well have to work with the mortgage lenders and others as we address those problems. During katrina there was a big issue of when the people received temporary housing, rent prices went up dramatically. Is there any kind of safety net or safeguard that that will not happen, that these survivors will be able to get out when they go into these temporary housing separations. You just used a great word. Gouging will not be tolerated. Anybody thats going to go out and try to take advantage of a disaster victim ought to expect the Law Enforcement to come down with them with a hammer. Thats not acceptable on a regular day. Its certainly not acceptable when people are suffering. Well use the latitude under the law and provide a fair market value, rental rate thats a little bit higher than a 100 to accommodate the natural p demand and supply, you know, attention. The followup on aprils question about housing, what about gas prices . Is the administration looking at that in terms of National Pricing against gouging for profit . Yeah. Gouging is a problem if it exists and it happens at all levels in every vertical market. Fuel is a good question. We had at one point in the peak here somewhere around 4 of our oil shut in in the gulf due to the rigs having to pull themselves in. That number is going to come back online. But again to take things back to housing, to bring back all the Business Operations in the houston pet chemical triangle we need to make sure the employees down there are responsible and safe housing. While there might be some affect to our fuel pricing as a nation were hoping its not large or sustainable. What well also do is look for the health of the pipelines. So remember theres still rain falling. Texas is not experiencing any rain today, maybe some small storms but not any major storm. Now louisiana and the rest of the Tennessee Valley and the middle of the country are starting to see rainstorm of the colonial and the plantation pipelines, well keep an eye on that. We talked about that today at our meeting and if we have any update that on this cross by Chemical Plant thats on fire. The local sheriff there says the plume is not dangerous to the community. The fema director says by all means its dapg us, which is it. If you were there its dangerous, but the good news the people around that facility had been evacuated already because of the storm and because of the notice that we had on the pending implosion. Some really responsible reporting, of a Public Partnership took place on that facility and what we saw was that the electric power that went into the pumps into the Maintenance Systems shut out. We couldnt responsibleel get that power back, so the temperature rose in a concealed tank and then confined tank and we ended up having an explosion. Theyre testing the air quality as local responders, but they dont know of anyone yet thats in that area of plume that would be affected. So if they were there, it would be dangerous and they have to keep an eye on it and make sure they take it seriously, but for right now the people dont seem to be there. There are 575,000 undocumented immigrants in houston. Does this white house believe they should be eligible for longterm federal rory assistance . No. I think Illegal Immigrants and that issue has come up a number of times. If if youve committed a crime, thats the priority for the department of Homeland Security. I think youve heard john kelly say that pretty clearly, the head of immigration and customs enforcement. What i would say, though, is in terms of immediate life saving, no individual human being should worry about their immigration status unless theyve committed a crime on top of coming here illegally when it comes to getting food, water and shelter. So the authorities wont be conducting any routine swipes or searches inside those shelters. Those are shelters for food, water and providing, you know, kind of insulation against exposure. That will happen and we wont go we dont want to scourge that. Subsequently, our priority will be Illegal Immigrants that have committed crimes, theyre going to be rounded up as they always are and taken out of this country. I think thats pretty clear. Oil refineries went off line as a result of the hurricane. Is it your understanding that theyve gone back online . Is this a concern for you . Are there any thoughts of tapping into the spr because this represents 25 of u. S. Oil Refining Capacity . So i dont have an answer for you right now. Certainly the president will make that decision. You dont want to tap into the reserve if you dont have the refinery kablt to handle that. So i havent checked today on the status of the refineries, but i know people have and i can get that answer back to you. We worry that, but for right now im not aware of any major damage to the refineries, and so thats why i suggest that to the earlier question we might have