[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 43, Number 35 (Monday, September 3, 2007)]
[Pages 1137-1140]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Gulf Coast Reconstruction in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi

August 29, 2007

    Thank you all for coming. This is the second anniversary of an event 
that changed a lot of people's lives here in southern Mississippi and up 
and down the coast. And Laura and I are honored to be with some of those 
who endured the storm and have dedicated their lives to rebuilding this 
part of the world.

[[Page 1138]]

    We've been down here a lot, and as a result, I've gotten to know the 
local officials and have come to admire them as people dedicated to 
public service the way it ought to be. I, first of all, want to thank 
the Senator, Trent Lott, and his wife, Tricia, for joining us. Nobody 
cares more about the people of southern Mississippi than the Lotts. The 
people of southern Mississippi are fortunate to have not only a active 
Senator but a powerful Senator working on their behalf. And so, Senator, 
thank you for being here.
    Gene Taylor cares a lot. Laura and I are proud to be here with 
Congressman Taylor. Gene was raised here. The Taylors' daughter was 
married right there recently. This is where he told me he was baptized, 
married, and if you're compassionate enough, will be buried. [Laughter] 
In other words, this is home. And when you're talking about a man's 
home, you hear a sense of passion in his voice. The Congressman has 
worked hard to make sure the people down here are well represented, and 
he's doing a fine job for the people of southern Mississippi. 
Congressman, thank you for being here.
    The Governor of Mississippi has shown his true mettle and his value 
to the people of Mississippi. When crisis hit, he was calm. When the 
crisis began to abate a little bit, he planned. And he's been good for 
the people down here. He's taken a problem on, and he's coordinated it 
and managed in a way that you'd expect your chief executive to do. And 
so, Governor, I want to congratulate you on a job well done. I 
appreciate the First Lady being here as well. Thanks for working hard 
for the people down here.
    Joining us are members of--a member of my Cabinet, Alphonso Jackson, 
Housing and Urban Development man. Don Powell is here. He is the Federal 
Coordinator of the Office of Gulf Coast Rebuilding. That really means 
that he is the President's eyes and ears on the ground. And while we 
recognize that there are bureaucracies that we have to deal with in 
order to make sure the taxpayers' money is spent wisely, sometimes the 
bureaucracies get in the way of common sense. And one of Don's jobs is 
to help spot those obstacles to progress and work with the local folks 
to try to clear them out of the way.
    There's still obstacles, and there's still work to be done. But 
there's been a lot of progress made, and that's what people have got to 
understand. And I have come to this site, it's what we call ground 
zero--this is where the worst of the worst of the storm hit--to be able 
to show the American people that through their generosity, this 
infrastructure has been rebuilt.
    Before I get there, I do want to thank Phil Bryant, the State 
auditor, for joining us. Appreciate you coming, Phil. And then I want to 
pay tribute to the local folks that I mentioned.
    First of all, Eddie Favre--he's the mayor of the city of Bay St. 
Louis. Eddie's--for those of you who may be paying attention to this 
from around the country, he's the man who--would be known as the man who 
wears short pants. [Laughter] Eddie is--he's a colorful character, but 
he also is a smart man who has dedicated more in his life than he ever 
dreamed to helping rebuild a city he loves.
    Tommy Longo--he's from Waveland. I've always viewed Waveland as a 
benchmark to determine whether or not this recovery is more than just 
shallow. In other words, I'll never forget seeing Waveland as we 
choppered over Waveland. It was, like, nothing; it was gone, completely 
destroyed. And so when I talk to Tommy--I really view Tommy as a 
barometer, and if Tommy is optimistic, I'm going to be optimistic; if 
Tommy says there is progress, I'm going to say, thanks. And Tommy is 
okay. [Laughter] I wouldn't call him the most optimistic guy on the face 
of the Earth, but given what he's been through and given what he has 
seen, it is remarkable that he's still willing to serve with optimism.
    And so we've got a lot of work to do. These two mayors brought their 
problems to us--people are worried about insurance here. They're worried 
about bureaucracy. I'll tell you what they're really worried about; 
they're worried about the President and other folks in Washington, other 
than the Mississippi officials, are going to forget what took place down 
here. And so one of the reasons that Laura and I have come back is to 
remind people that we haven't forgotten and won't.

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    Somebody who sometimes is worried about getting forgotten is the 
county supervisor, Rocky Pullman. Now, Rocky--I guess we've probably met 
a dozen times, haven't we, Rock? And Rocks reminds me of the county 
commissioners from the State I've come from. County commissioners are 
always worried that the city folks are going to get the attention, but 
the rural folks will be ignored. Not in this case. Rocky has represented 
the people of Hancock County well, and we spent a lot of time talking to 
Rocky about debris and trees and other issues still facing the people 
down here.
    Ground zero got hit really hard. I mean, it's the place where the 
storm did its most damage. And while there is better recovery down the 
coast, people here are still trying to crawl out from underneath the 
extensive damage. It's really one of the messages I heard. And we're 
proud that Pascagoula is doing better and Biloxi is doing better. That's 
good. It's good for the State, and we're thrilled that that's happening. 
But the folks here had a special, extra problems to deal with, and I 
heard you loud and clear. And I want to thank you for sharing that with 
me.
    The American people have written a check--written checks for $114 
billion to help the people on the coast. And so one thing I do want the 
American people to know is how grateful the people of this part of the 
country are for their generosity. We felt we had an obligation to help, 
and we've helped. Now, of that 114 billion, about 80 percent has been 
obligated. Mississippi has taken the obligated money and is spending it 
wisely. There's still 20 percent of the authorized that hasn't been 
shipped out yet, so there's more money coming. And there's--obviously, 
we've got some more issues that we're trying to work through in time.
    One area where there's been great State-Federal cooperation and 
local cooperation is the rebuilding of this Bay St. Louis Bridge. Now, 
remember when we first choppered over here, Governor; the bridge was--
there might have been a few pylons showing. You could see the planks 
underwater of that bridge. And this is a major connector for the people 
in this part of the world. This is a economic lifeline. So the Federal 
Government said, we have an obligation to repair infrastructure. I think 
the Congressman told me we've written a little more than $260 million 
worth of checks to help get this bridge built, but more importantly, 
this bridge was built in record time because of the close cooperation 
between the State and the Federal Government and the local folks. And 
it's a beautiful looking bridge, and it's working.
    There's another bridge in the foreground here, and that's a private 
sector bridge. That's the railroad bridge that's up and running. The 
private sector is responding here in southern Mississippi. The State of 
Mississippi--it's interesting--I want to tell our fellow citizens about 
what they have done here in 2 years' period. One, they've helped move 
31,000 families out of temporary housing into permanent homes. I don't 
think we would have been that optimistic 2 years ago when we were 
recovering from the storms, that it would be possible to make those kind 
of moves that quickly.
    This is a State that opened virtually every public school that was 
damaged in the storm, a State that understands that education is part of 
the--an important part of the recovery effort. There's a billion dollars 
have gone out to help homeowners with repairs and rebuilding. The State 
is active in trying to help the citizens regain their footing. Tax 
revenues are up.
    Now, that's positive, but that doesn't mean there's not more work to 
be done and more efforts made to help ground zero recover. The 
interesting thing about the folks who live in this part of the world, 
they may have lost their building, but they never lost their soul or 
their spirit. I think the Senator called them--resilience is what he'd 
like to define people. I call them optimistic about life.
    And one such person is Kay Gough, who is with us today. Kay is 
somewhere--there she is, right there. Here's an interesting story. First 
of all, she's a--she loves Bay St. Louis. She recognizes the uniqueness 
of the community. She's a lifelong reader. She was concerned about what 
happened to her community. So what did she do? She opened a bookstore on 
Main Street, Bay St. Louis. First business up, right? One of the first, 
yes. And it's an interesting example of the entrepreneurial spirit and 
a--combined with a civic duty. She said there's still a lot of work that

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needs to be done to get people back in these communities so that they 
can be buying her books. She said, ``We want people to know that we want 
to be a part of the recovery, and we want to be a part of the 
community.''
    It's that community spirit that has been very impressive to me and 
Laura. It's that can-do attitude. It's the attitude that said, ``Okay, a 
storm came. We understand it; we don't like it; but we're going to deal 
with it.'' That's the Mississippi spirit.
    And so we're glad to be back. We're glad to be back in a part of our 
country that is going to be better than it was before. It's--there's 
still work. We understand that. There's work in Louisiana to be done; 
there's work in Mississippi to be done. But the progress that has been 
made really speaks to the coordination of Government effort, but it 
really speaks to the great spirit of the people who live down here.
    May God bless them, and may God continue to bless our country. Thank 
you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:23 p.m. at Our Lady of the Gulf Parish 
Community Center. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Haley Barbour of 
Mississippi and his wife, Marsha.