[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 4 (Monday, January 31, 1994)]
[Pages 141-143]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks in a Teleconference on the Los Angeles Earthquake

January 24, 1994

    The President. Hello.
    Q. Hello, Mr. President.
    Q. Good morning, Mr. President.
    The President. It's good to hear your voice. I've got Federico, 
Henry, and James Lee on the phone?
    Q. Yes, sir.
    The President. That's great. Well, I know you've all been working 
very hard. I know there was a problem with the overcrowding at the 
disaster assistance centers at first, but I'm really pleased by the work 
you've done. And I was glad to note in this morning's Los Angeles Times 
an acknowledgement that we'd gotten those centers up more quickly than 
in previous disasters and that things seem to be going better. But why 
don't you all give me a briefing. James Lee, why don't you start and 
just give me an overall briefing about where we are.

[Director James Lee Witt explained what the emergency response team is 
doing to help the victims of the earthquake and stated that FEMA is in 
the process of providing applicants with disaster assistance checks.]

    The President. How long will it take to get the checks out?
    Director Witt. We had checks coming out yesterday, and we will have 
thousands of checks coming out each day, and there will be more each day 
coming out. We're processing them very quick.
    The President. What about the language barriers?
    Director Witt. We have worked with Secretary Cisneros and Secretary 
Pena and other Cabinet secretaries and the State and local emergency 
management people in all of the language barriers, in printing every 
type of information in every language of that community.
    The President. That's good. You mentioned Secretary Riley. I know 
he's on the way back, but we got a report from him, and I've already 
directed the Department of Education to send $7 million to the school 
district there to provide emergency services for the students. That may 
not be enough, but it will get them started anyway. And I'm glad to hear 
that.
    Henry, where are we on the housing situation?

[Secretary Henry Cisneros explained that tents and shelters are being 
made available to the increasing number of victims who have lost their 
homes. He stated that a voucher system is being used to provide 
permanent housing, but it will take a long time to help.]

    The President. You know, there were a lot of other communities 
affected. What about their housing? I mean, what kind of system do we 
have to make sure we get out there to the other communities, too?

[Secretary Cisneros explained that HUD is working closely with housing 
authorities in surrounding communities.]

    The President. Now, I know that only a minority of the houses had 
earthquake insurance, but what about those that had insurance? Are the 
insurance companies there? Are they speeding up payment? What's going to 
happen there?
    Director Witt. Yes, sir, they are there. They're in there speeding 
up the payments as quick as possible.

[Secretary Cisneros explained that many people do not have earthquake 
insurance because of high premiums and high deductibles.]

    The President. Is the voucher system the preferred way of dealing 
with this? I mean, are you going to come back and--will that be part of 
the supplemental that Leon Panetta sends up to Congress?
    Secretary Cisneros. We've extended in this first effort 10,000 
vouchers. I believe we probably will need to be on the safe side and ask 
for more. So the answer is, yes, it will be in the supplemental.
    The President. Federico, what about the transportation situation? 
How are we doing

[[Page 142]]

with cleaning up the debris and at least preparing to go to work?

[Secretary Federico Pena discussed what the team of Federal, State, and 
local officials are doing to rebuild the highway system and deal with 
traffic congestion.]

    The President. What about getting--if we had more rail cars, would 
they be full?
    Secretary Pena. Yes. We have----
    The President. What do we have to do to get more cars? And what 
about the buses? How many buses are out there? How many more can we get?

[Secretary Pena explained that by working with Federal agencies and 
private businesses they will be able to provide more buses and rail cars 
to help deal with the transportation crisis.]

    The President. On the contracting work, we heard from the labor 
council out here, even here at the White House, they said they really 
wanted to help and do whatever they could to make sure that all the work 
was speeded up and as much was done as possible. So I know you're 
getting good cooperation from the labor people out there, too.

[Secretary Pena stated that contractors and city mayors have been very 
helpful in providing suggestions and assistance.]

    The President. The Labor Department, we were in contact with them, 
and I know they've already committed another $3 million just to pay 
people to do the emergency and clean-up work. But I think the fact that 
we're ahead of schedule on that is important. And I know you're going to 
follow up on the question of how quickly then highway construction can 
be done, because, obviously, if you could do longer work weeks or 24-
hour days in some of those places, it would make a big difference.

[Secretary Pena explained that construction workers are working long 
hours to repair the highway system.]

    The President. Well, that's great. I was informed right before I 
came out to talk to you that Leon Panetta will be in a position to give 
me a report today, as I had asked last week, on the supplemental. 
Obviously, the Mayor and all the folks, the local leadership in the Los 
Angeles area and the State folks have been very good about helping us to 
get the loss figures. So I think we'll be in pretty good shape today to 
know a little more than we have known for the last few days on what we 
can ask for from Congress when they come back. So I will follow up on 
that end.
    I'm very encouraged that the lines have gone down some at the 
disaster assistance centers. And I just hope that we can just keep on 
top of all this. I appreciate the fact that all of you have stayed out 
there. I think that has been very good. And again, I want to compliment 
all the local folks. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who 
have hardly slept since I was there a few days ago. So you all just keep 
your chins up and keep working at it. And we'll do what we can here to 
get the supplemental passed in a hurry.

[Secretary Cisneros stated that he will be working with church leaders 
and volunteer services to provide help to those who are having 
difficulty dealing with their experiences.]

    The President. That's terrific. I think they can do an enormous 
amount of good. Cardinal Mahoney obviously is very concerned about these 
things, and he's got an awful lot of able leaders there among the 
priests and the nuns who can, I think, make a real difference. I've been 
in a lot of their schools, their community organizations. And there's 
also a very large Evangelical community there and other religious 
groups. So I'm glad you're involving them; they can make a huge 
difference.
    If there's anything else we need to know back here, let us know. But 
we'll be able to give you a report back about what we think the 
supplemental will look like probably before the end of the day. And then 
we'll just have to keep working together closely over the next few days 
as the situation unfolds. And if you know more--because it will take a 
few days for Congress to act on this, obviously, so we'll have some 
time. But I hope we can nail down the broad outlines this afternoon.
    Thank you very much, and give my regards to the Mayor and everybody 
else out there.
    Secretary Cisneros. Thank you, Mr. President.

[[Page 143]]

    The President. Thanks.

Note: The President spoke at 11:59 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop 
of Los Angeles.