[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2002, Book II)]
[October 12, 2002]
[Pages 1784-1785]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



The President's Radio Address
October 12, 2002

    Good morning. This week both the House and Senate passed strong 
bipartisan measures authorizing the use of force in Iraq if it becomes 
necessary. Our country and our Congress are now united in purpose. 
America is speaking with one voice: Iraq must disarm and comply with all 
existing U.N. resolutions, or it will be forced to comply.
    Confronting Iraq is an urgent matter of national security. America's 
economic security, especially the creation of good jobs, is also an 
urgent matter requiring Presidential and congressional action. For that 
reason, I acted on Tuesday to reopen our Pacific coast ports which had 
been shut down for more than a week due to a labor dispute. The crisis 
in the western ports was costing our economy up to a billion dollars a 
day in lost business and lost jobs, hurting truckers and rail operators 
who transport goods across America, workers on assembly lines, cashiers 
in retail stores, and manufacturers and farmers who sell across the 
world.
    An auto plant in Fremont, California, was forced to shut down its 
assembly line for 2 days, keeping about 5,100 employees off the job 
after it ran out of parts. A company that manufactures televisions and 
VCRs had to stop production and lay off 150 workers in Vancouver, 
Washington. Produce from America's farms was stuck on docks, unable to 
be sold overseas. Retailers across the country were worried about having 
enough merchandise for the holiday season.

[[Page 1785]]

    The American people have been working hard to bring our economy back 
from recession. We simply cannot afford to have hundreds of billions of 
dollars a year in potential manufacturing and agricultural trade sitting 
idle. The action I took this week will help keep our economy moving and 
allow labor and management more time to resolve their differences. I 
expect the port operators and worker representatives to bargain in good 
faith and reach a final agreement as quickly as possible. Reopening the 
ports got people back to work.
    Another important step in putting America's hardhats back on the job 
is passing a terrorism insurance bill. Congress is close to a final 
agreement, and I look forward to signing this good piece of legislation 
if and when it gets to my desk.
    After September the 11th, many insurance companies stopped covering 
builders and real estate owners against the risk of terrorist attack. 
The lack of terrorism insurance has hurt the growth of this economy and 
cost American jobs. The lack of terrorism insurance has delayed or 
canceled more then $15 billion in real estate transactions. The $15 
billion worth of delay has cost 300,000 jobs, jobs to carpenters and 
joiners, bricklayers, plumbers, and other hard-working Americans.
    This terrorism insurance legislation will cost us nothing if we 
experience no further attacks. Yet it will mean thousands of new jobs 
for America's hardhats and billions in new investment. And if we do face 
another attack, we'll be able to compensate victims quickly and limit 
the economic damage to America.
    This week leaders of Congress put partisan differences aside to 
confront a grave danger to our country. Clearly, we're able to get 
things done in Washington when we focus on getting results, rather than 
scoring political points. For the good of the economy, for the good of 
workers who needs jobs, Senators should again put politics aside and 
take one last step to reach a final agreement on terrorism insurance.
    Congress is still in session next week. There's still time to reach 
an agreement. Our workers have waited a year. It's past time for 
Congress to finish the job.
    Thank you for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 2:10 p.m. on October 11 in the Cabinet 
Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 12. The 
transcript was made available by the Office of the Press Secretary on 
October 11 but was embargoed for release until the broadcast. The Office 
of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish language transcript of 
this address.