[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 41, Number 36 (Monday, September 12, 2005)]
[Pages 1361-1363]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Hurricane Katrina Recovery Efforts

September 8, 2005

    I want to thank the members of my Cabinet who have joined me today. 
Today I'm going to take this opportunity to speak directly to our 
citizens who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
    Many of you have been evacuated from the flooded and destroyed areas 
and now find yourselves far from home, without proper identification or 
even a change of clothes. So today I'm announcing two important steps 
that we are taking to provide you the help you need, steps that will cut 
through the redtape so that we get that help into your hands as quickly 
and easily as possible.
    The first step is providing every household with $2,000 in emergency 
disaster relief that can be used for immediate needs such as food or 
clothing or personal essentials. For those of you who are living in the 
large shelters, such as the Houston Astrodome, I know that you don't 
have cars or transportation and cannot get yourself to the centers to 
collect these funds. I also know that some of you do not have access to 
a savings or checking account or ways to cash a check. FEMA and Red 
Cross teams are either--are working or soon will be working with your 
shelters to meet your challenges and to get assistance into your hands 
as soon as possible. By registering for the first $2,000, you will begin 
the process of arranging for the delivery of other, longer term 
assistance that will be made available in the coming weeks for eligible 
households. For those of you who are staying with family members or in a 
rented room or a hotel or apartment, FEMA is also working to get these 
funds in your hands.
    Now, here are two ways that you can register for this assistance. 
You can call 1-800-

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621-FEMA. That's 1-800-621-FEMA. Or, if you have the capability to use 
the Internet, you can log on to www.fema.gov. A FEMA representative will 
arrange for your assistance to be delivered by mail or deposited into 
your bank account. If you have special needs, the FEMA representative 
can help arrange to get the money to you in another way.
    Now, we have 3,000 people who are working around the clock to take 
the calls. We're in the process of training more, and that number will 
be increasing dramatically. More than 400,000 families have already been 
registered. We still have tens of thousands more people who need to be 
processed, so I ask for your patience if you experience problems in 
trying to contact FEMA.
    To those of you in our faith-based and community groups who have 
opened up your hearts and homes, I want to thank you for your service to 
our fellow Americans. If you've not been in contact with a FEMA 
representative, please do so to help the people in your shelters. And, 
again, you can call 1-800-621-FEMA. By calling a FEMA representative, 
you can assure that the people you've taken in are registered and able 
to receive the emergency assistance funds.
    As we work to deliver this emergency relief, we're also working to 
ensure that those of you who have received Federal benefits administered 
by the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana will continue to 
get those benefits in the States where you're now staying.
    So the second step we're taking today is designed to make it easier 
for you to register and collect these benefits in any State in the 
country. We will start by granting evacuee status for all of you who 
have lived in counties that have been declared disaster areas. We know 
that many of you no longer have the legal documents or the records to 
prove your eligibility for the benefits you've been getting. We 
understand that. And so, with this evacuee status, you will be able to 
register for your benefits without many of the traditional 
administrative requirements for verification and enrollment.
    The special evacuee status applies to the full range of Federal 
benefits administered by the States. These programs include: Medicaid; 
temporary assistance for needy families; child care; mental health 
services and substance abuse treatment; food stamps; housing; foster 
care; women, infants, and children nutrition; school lunch; unemployment 
compensation; and job training.
    The States that have opened up their doors should not be penalized 
for coming to the aid of Americans in distress. And so I'm going to work 
with the Congress to reimburse the States that are taking in evacuees 
from the affected areas along the Gulf Coast.
    I want to thank the Governors and the leaders of the States that 
have taken in so many of our fellow citizens. I want to thank you for 
your compassion. And we understand that this is going to strain your 
budgets, so the Federal Government, as I just said, will operate under 
this principle: You should not be penalized for showing compassion. 
State enrollment teams are already set up in many shelters, and many 
have 1-800 numbers that people can call. Any evacuee can contact the 
nearest State or local benefits office to get the information about 
enrolling.
    And those of you who are staying in a home or church that has access 
to the Internet can find out how to receive these benefits by going to 
www.govbenefits.gov. These are just some of the many steps we'll be 
taking in what will be a long relief effort. We have much more work to 
do. But the people who have been hurt by this storm know that--need to 
know that the Government is going to be with you for the long haul.
    In all the steps we take, our goal is not to simply provide benefits 
but to make them easy and simple as possible to collect. The 
responsibility of caring for hundreds of thousands of citizens who no 
longer have homes is going to place many demands on our Nation. We have 
many difficult days ahead, especially as we recover those who did not 
survive the storm. I've instructed all agencies to honor their memory by 
treating the dead with the dignity and respect they deserve.
    Throughout our history, in times of testing, Americans have come 
together in prayer to heal and ask for strength for the tasks ahead. So 
I've declared Friday, September the 16th, as a National Day of Prayer 
and Remembrance. I ask that we pray, as Americans have

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always prayed in times of trial, with confidence in His purpose, with 
hope for a brighter future, and with the humility to ask God to keep us 
strong so that we can better serve our brothers and sisters in need.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:25 p.m. in Room 350 of the Dwight D. 
Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Office of the Press Secretary 
also released a Spanish language transcript of these remarks.