James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

11:11 A.M. EDT

MS. PERINO: Good morning. I have a few announcements for you. You saw the employment report released this morning, the loss of 84,000 jobs and an increase in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent. There's no question that the labor market is not as strong as we'd like and these were disappointing numbers. We want to see the economy return to job growth and we understand that this is a difficult time for many Americans. We want everyone who wants to work to be able to find a job.

It's important for Americans also to know that in addition to these numbers, there are other numbers that show that the economy is starting to show some signs of growth. For example, the growth rate from last week, and also on productivity and exports, those numbers have been positive, which show that our economy is quite resilient even in spite of the high energy prices and the housing crunch and the credit market issues that are impacting our economy.

We also believe that the economic stimulus plan is continuing to have the effects that we wanted it to have, and that combined with monetary policy will continue to generate growth through this difficult period.

Also, President Bush will welcome President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia to the White House on September 20, 2008. Colombia is a strategic ally of the United States, and this visit underscores the deep friendship and extensive cooperation between the United States and Colombia.

Also, on hurricane issues, the federal government continues to assist state and local governments to help them respond to Hurricane Gustav. The job is not over and the federal government continues to help them, especially in regard to the power situation. We're doing what we can, but we want to help those families get back to their homes and those businesses get reopened.

The main priorities of state and local officials are power restoration and reentry of those who evacuated. There are roughly 900,000 Gulf Coast residents that still remain without power, and a majority of these are in Louisiana. Full restoration is expected to take weeks in some areas, especially in the coastal areas. We have moved federal resources into that area and FEMA could provide you more.

In addition, we are also carefully watching and preparing for Tropical Storm Hanna. This time of year is the peak of hurricane season, and so we're seeing lots of activity in that area. This morning President Bush called the governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia to discuss preparations for Hanna.

FEMA Administrator Paulison has also reached out to several east coast governors, since the storm is predicted to come up the coast and even our way here in Washington, D.C., just to make sure that they have what they need and if they need help with plans as they prepare. So Secretary -- let's see -- FEMA Administrator Paulison will have a conference call for the media at 3:00 p.m. today for anybody that wants updates from him there.

Finally, in the President's radio address he will discuss the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Gustav and preparations for the upcoming storms in the Southeast. He will also address the fact that after the past four weeks of a break, Congress returns to Washington for a short time before they leave again for the campaign trail. He would like to reach out and let them know that we want to work together on bipartisan measures to help strengthen America's economy.

For example, we have the Colombian and Korean free trade agreements, which are important. If you look at those productivity and export numbers, it underscores the importance of trying to get these free trade agreements done when Congress comes back. We also want to extend relief from the alternative minimum tax and obviously deal with energy, which is America's biggest concern right now, the high price of gasoline. So that will be in the radio address.

Q Since the President has the troop level recommendations before him for Iraq, can you explain to us a little bit about how he is approaching the process? Is this a -- is this a situation like we experienced a year ago, where he sort of brings in a whole lot of people in addition to his military advisors to talk about what he should do? Or is he going to take them and think about it, and have a relatively short consideration process? How might this work?

MS. PERINO: I think you might be comparing the surge process to the -- I'm not -- the surge process, in terms of the policy process --

Q I'm not saying it's apples to apples, I'm just trying to understand the --

MS. PERINO: I don't recall in the last few times when President Bush has worked with, or has gotten recommendations from General Petraeus, that we have gone too far outside. Of course we -- the President gets an update, as he did on Wednesday evening from Admiral Mullen and Secretary Gates.

They took Secretary -- I'm sorry -- General Petraeus' recommendation and ran that through the chain of command. And then they presented it to the President. He's obviously talking to his national security team, and we'll be consulting with members of Congress before we move forward.

Q And what sort of time line are we looking at here?

MS. PERINO: Well, I would think that it shouldn't take too much longer. Obviously, he gets updates regularly, so he's well-informed as to the state of affairs in Iraq.

And because he has that regular -- those regular updates, it shouldn't take too long to be able to make a decision, especially since we're on the trajectory of success that we've been on. The question on the President's mind has been how do we make sure that we cement those gains, and not jeopardize those gains and be able to continue the process of return on success.

Q Do you think it's fair to assume he's likely to accept the recommendation?

MS. PERINO: I don't want to put -- I'll let the President make his announcement next week. But he obviously listens to the commanders on the ground and to his military advisors.

And certainly there is something to be considered here when you look at the economic, political and diplomatic aspects of this, how many troops do you need to be able to help support some of those diplomatic efforts. So that's why Secretary Rice's involvement is very important too.

Matt.

Q Dana, you painted a fairly upbeat picture of the economy despite the job losses, and yet most economists say that the kinds of job losses that were reported today tend to be the kind we see in the early stages of a recession. What would it take for the President and the administration to begin considering a second stimulus package?

MS. PERINO: Look, we've gone through the recession thing before.