[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 44, Number 24 (Monday, June 23, 2008)]
[Pages 885-886]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Reporters in Iowa City, Iowa

June 19, 2008

    The President. Let me thank the mayor, thank the Governor. Mr. 
Congressman, thanks for flying down from Washington with

[[Page 886]]

us, and Senator Harkin, thanks for being here.
    Senator Tom Harkin. Thank you, Mr. President.
    The President. You know, these are tough times for the people of 
Iowa City and Cedar Rapids and a lot of other communities in Iowa. Some 
of them are, you know, real tiny communities. And this--obviously, as 
you can see here, they're still going through a recovery phase. The 
mayor was telling me that she had the--part of the city evacuated and 
now some folks are able to come back in.
    I brought a lot of Federal officials with me because it's really 
important that as the rebuilding phase begins, there's a coordinated 
effort between the Federal Government and the State and the local 
governments. And Michael Chertoff is going to be handling the 
coordinating effort with the Governor. And the Governor will make sure 
that the affected communities are represented as well.
    We passed a--or the Congress is contemplating passing a 
supplemental, and a big chunk of that supplemental will be disaster 
relief money. And I want to thank the Members of Congress--hope we can 
get that done quickly.
    Representative David Loebsack. It will get done.
    The President. The--one of the things that happens in a disaster 
such as this is that citizens from around the country want to know how 
they can help. They see the picture of this kind of flooding on TV and 
they know that people are hurting and they want to know how they can 
participate in helping the rebuilding. Well, one way that the people can 
do is they can go on their computers and dial up volunteer.org 
[volunteer.gov] *.
    * White House correction.
    And, you know, if you want to try to figure out how to send 
something, you can--there will be ways to--ways to direct your 
compassion. If you want to give money, there are organizations that 
could use your contributions; organizations such as the Red Cross. And 
I'm--again, I'll repeat to you: volunteer.gov--I think I might have said 
``org''; I meant ``gov.''
    And I really again want to congratulate the local folks here for 
really showing great compassion and working hard and hugging people and 
giving people hope. And, Governor, you've been out front. You and your 
first lady are working hard, and the mayor has been very much engaged in 
helping people deal with the initial response. And now we all got to 
come together and help people deal with the rebuilding of Iowa.
    Anyway, thank you for your hospitality. I'm sorry we're going 
through this. I tell people that oftentimes you get dealt a hand you 
didn't expect to have to play, and the question is not whether you're 
going to get dealt the hand; the question is, how do you play it? And 
I'm confident the people of Iowa will play it really well.
    Anyway, thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor 
Regenia Bailey of Iowa City, IA; and Gov. Chet Culver of Iowa and his 
wife, Mari.