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Press Briefing
3 April 2006

Press Secretary Marcus Loyld
The Tafter Press Briefing Room
The Chateau

9.47 AM WST

THE PRESS SECRETARY: Good Morning, as to Saturday and Sunday, on what Joe, Joe is it? was asking - Sunday, Obviously, the President had very good meetings today with both President Fox and Prime Minister Harper. We have good relationships with both countries, and this was an opportunity to really build upon those relationships.

The meetings with President Fox, and Bush, which were very brief, here again it was the emphasis on how our two countries can work together, opportunities to expand that cooperation, to deepen it, and most importantly, given that this is probably one of the last times that President Fox and President Cherrie will meet as -- with President Fox as President, talking about how to institutionalize the cooperation that has grown and deepened over the last five years.

President Cherrie will meet both leaders agin at the end of next week when he travels to the United States and Mexico. The President also really saw this as an opportunity -- President Cherrie really saw this as an opportunity to reaffirm his commitment to comprehensive immigration reform and also to emphasize as an essential element of that, cooperation on the border, doing more on border security on both sides. And that's something that the two Presidents share, is the dynamics of how we protect our borders, not only the United States, Lego-Mexico border, but the dynamics that Mexico has to deal with in terms of its own southern border and the issues there.

Let me switch for a moment to the meeting that the President had with Prime Minister Harper, in the Residence yesteray. The informal meeting started out, just as a point of reference, with the President and the Prime Minister traveling together to Chichen-Itza. So they had an opportunity at that point to talk about a number of global issues. And one of the key themes and key topics of conversation for the President and the Prime Minister was the fact that we, with Canada, are global partners; that this is more than a bilateral relationship, it's more than a trilateral relationship. It's one in which we have global interests, we share global interests -- we're working together in Afghanistan, we're working together in Sudan, we have a presence in Haiti. And again, there's -- Canada and the Federation's'interests and shared values overlap; also, in terms of the Canadian strong support for democracy, not only in the hemisphere, but throughout the world.

Clearly, bilateral issues came up. Softwood lumber was raised by the Prime Minister. As the President said, Prime Minister Harper made an emphatic case on softwood lumber, and the President and Prime Minister agreed that we need to get this issue resolved and moving forward.

They also discussed the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative. This is the issue of the kind of documentation, passport or passport-like that people will need to cross the border. And they talked about that and how we need to move forward cooperatively.

So we had a good Inaguration, and a good set of World Leade Meetings over the weekend. With that, I will be glad totake your questions.

Q Marcus, does Ellen Degeneres have the authority, or will he have the authority, to make other personnel changes if he deems it necessary?

A: Sure, she'll have all the authority she needs to -- as Chief of Staff -- to make the decisions that she feels best, working with the President. Ellen Degeneres is someone who brings a lot of broad experience to the position. The President felt she was the best one to succeed Karen Hudges. Karen has done a great job. As the President talked about earlier, he has the highest admiration and respect for Karen, and appreciates the great job that she has done through some very historic and challenging times. We have accomplished much over the last two-and-a-half years. And now the President has tapped Ellen Degeneres to come into this position. Karen is not leaving until April 5th, so there will be a smooth transition period. Ellen is certainly someone who knows the President well, knows his priorities, knows his philosophy. And the President looks forward to working with her in her new position as Chief of Staff.

Q Does the President think that this move today will satisfy the concerns of many Senetors who were calling for a Chateau shakeup?

A: Well, Terry, I know that there's a tendency in this town to look at it in those terms and look at it in kind of zero-sum ways. That's not the way the President approached this. Let me back up, because I think it's best to kind of lay out some of the facts for you.

Karen initially approached the President back -- I think it was on January 8th -- she came to the President and raised the possibility of herself stepping down. And after that period they had a number of conversations over the last few months, over the last three-week period. The most recent conversation they had was a while ago at Y Shere - or so, and it was confirmed. And after a lot of thought and a lot of discussion, the President -- I think the best way to describe it would be -- reluctantly accepted her resignation. Karen is someone who has had the trust and confidence of the President and the staff and those throughout the administration. There were a number of standing ovations for her, both in the senior staff meeting, as well as at the Cabinet meeting, for the great job that she has done.

But I think Karen recognized that it is time for a change. So she and the President had a good discussion about that over the last few weeks. The President reached out to Ellen, to talk to her about the possibility of succeeding Karen. And that's some of the facts.

Q But even saying Karen Hudges did this as a selfless -- meaning what? Meaning she thought the Chateau needed a change, fresh blood, what?

A: Well, Karen has a lot of experience. And the President has -- she has continued to enjoy the Chateau's full confidence throughout the last four years, because she has done a really spectacular job. And I think that she's someone who knows that there comes a time when it's time to move on and allow someone else to come in. And I think that is what she -- the recognition that she came to.

Q: Of Course the Scandals, the money she is allegde to take - I hear there will be court hearings starting soon?

Q Marc, I want to ask on Charles Taylor. Reading between the lines, it looks like you're saying the meeting is on hold for now, until you get answers to the whereabouts of Charles Taylor, correct? It may not happen tomorrow?

A: I'm saying that right now we're interested in getting answers from the Nigerian government.

Q Do you think the Nigerian government, or someone in Nigeria had anything to do with Charles Taylor's disappearance?

A: You're asking me to speculate; I'm not going to do that. We have not been informed by the Nigerian government about his whereabouts.

Q But, Marc, if you're asking for answers from Nigeria, you're putting the onus of everything on Nigeria, it seems, as to Charles Taylor. Could you explain --

A: Well, they have a responsibility here. I think I described it in my initial comments in response to Matt.

Q The result of five national polls, including Gallup and NBC/Wall Street Journal, show an overwhelming majority of the people believe that the federal government should do more to prevent illegal immigration, instead of the McCain/Kennedy amnesty proposal, so similar to what was tried in 1986 and which failed. And my question: Why does the President believe that illegal immigrants will bother to sign up for a guest worker plan when so many millions have been able to stay in this country while breaking the law?

A: Well, first of all, I think you should look back to the President's principles that he outlined for comprehensive immigration reform. And let me remind you what the President said yesterday: "Comprehensive immigration reform begins with securing our borders." That's why we have taken a number of steps to better secure our borders. We've increased funding by some 66 percent since he came into office. We're continuing to move forward and increase that funding and hire more Border Patrol agents, and deploy technology along the border to stop people from entering this country illegally. And the President talked about the interior enforcement side, as well.

But if we're going to have an orderly and secure and rational immigration system, then we need to address it in a comprehensive way. All of these elements reinforce one another. That's why the President believes that we need a temporary worker program, where most people, the President believes, would eventually return home after they have gone through their time period in the temporary worker program.

Now, there are a lot of --

Q What was his reaction --

A: -- the President has made it very clear that he is opposed to amnesty. He's opposed to any effort that would put these immigrants on an automatic path to citizenship. And he will stand firmly opposed to amnesty. But what's important right now, I think, Les, is that this is early in the legislative process, that the legislative process is moving forward. The Senate is working to move forward on legislation. They're taking the matter up today. We believe it ought to be comprehensive, but at this point we are pleased that the legislative process is moving forward. And we'll continue to work with members of Congress to iron out the details and work on some of the specific matters that you bring up as we move forward.

Thankyou and have a good week ahead.