[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 9 (Monday, March 4, 1996)]
[Pages 380-381]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Telephone Remarks to the National Emergency Management Association 
Meeting

February 26, 1996

    The President. Hello.
    FEMA Director James Lee Witt. Mr. President, good morning.
    The President. Good morning, James Lee, how are you?
    Mr. Witt. I'm fine, sir. We have a lot of State directors in the 
room, probably about 200 people here and we're very appreciative for you 
to call in.
    The President. Well, I'm delighted to do it, and I wish I were there 
with you.
    Mr. Witt. We do, too. [Laughter]
    The President. You haven't seen Washington today--it just depends--I 
wish I were there with you even more than you wish I were there. 
[Laughter]
    Let me begin by saying that I can imagine that for many of you, 
having the chance to come to the conference is a welcome relief from 
being out there on the front lines of disasters in your home States. 
This has been a tough, a cold, a wet, even a miserable winter for people 
in a lot of places and may of you are still in response or early 
recovery from the floods and the blizzards. We also, as I'm sure you 
know, have these terrible fires in some parts of our country. We've had 
more than 3 times as many disasters declared in the first 6 weeks of 
this year than in this same period in the past 20 years.
    I was recently in Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and Pennsylvania to see 
the devastation, the ruined homes, the businesses, as a result of the 
recent flooding. And I got a chance to talk with people who have lost 
their homes and their belongings and literally have to start all over 
again. I couldn't have known it when I became President, but I suppose 
that I've seen the widest array of natural disasters, along with James 
Lee Witt, in the last 3 years as in any period--comparable period--in 
modern history. We had the great Midwest flood of '93, the Northridge 
earthquake, the Oklahoma City bombing, Hurricanes Opal and Marilyn, 
dozens of floods and tornadoes, and of course, these fires.
    I did know, though, when I became President that this was an 
important part of my job. When I became President I promised myself, 
based on my own experience as a Governor and my own frustrations with 
FEMA, that I would improve the Nation's response to disasters. For many 
years FEMA had been regarded almost universally as an agency not up to 
the job, and I'm very proud that under James Lee Witt's management and 
with all of your help, FEMA is now a model disaster relief agency, and 
in some corners, thought to be by far the most successful part of the 
Federal Government today. That is a breathtaking turnaround in just 3 
years.
    If I could just give one example: It used to take a month or more 
for many people to begin receiving relief, and now people can call in to 
a 1-800 number and see those checks arrive within days.
    I am very pleased with the progress that's been made. I also am more 
impressed than ever before about the importance, the integral importance 
of FEMA to the Nation's business. It now relates to the Transportation 
Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Labor 
Department, the Energy Department, right across the line because of all 
of us having to work with James Lee in the dealing with disasters. So 
today it's a pleasure for me to announce to all of you that I am 
extending Cabinet membership for the first time in history to FEMA and 
to James Lee Witt.
    Mr. Witt. Thank you, sir.
    The President. Let me also say that I think all of us know that in 
dealing with these disasters, the most important thing is the spirit of 
the people. I'll never forget when James Lee and I were in Woodland, 
Washington, a few days ago. We came upon a 70-year-old man, and he and 
his wife had lost everything in the flood. He had even lost his hearing 
aid. And he looked at me and he said, ``Well, I'm 70 years old and I've 
never had a President shake hands with me before. It was nearly worth 
losing my home to do that at my age.'' [Laughter]

[[Page 381]]

    And I thought to myself I wished that spirit could kind of somehow 
capture America. And at the end of my visit with this man he said to me 
how grateful he was for the help he'd received, how grateful he was for 
everyone treating him as they had. And then he said, ``It's just too bad 
that we don't behave this way toward each other all the time.'' And I 
think that's an important lesson that we could take out of the work that 
FEMA and all of you have done. The teamwork, the spirit of can-do, the 
openness to doing what has to be done, the total lack of cynicism that 
you see in the midst of a disaster and taking care of its aftermath, 
that's really what this country needs all day, every day. When America 
works together we never lose; and if we don't, we beat ourselves.
    So I want to say again to all of you how grateful I am to you. I 
know the American people look to you, your Governors, to James Lee, and 
to me when they need us in these disasters. I know that they rise to the 
challenges they rarely do on a daily basis when a disaster occurs. And I 
just want to tell you how grateful I am to you for your public service 
and how I want to encourage you to continue to imbue the spirit of 
service that you demonstrate in times of disasters every day, every 
week, all year long.
    Congratulations for all the good work you do. Have a successful 
conference, and let's hope and pray that for the rest of this year you 
won't have quite so much to do as you have had in the beginning.
    Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 11:24 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.