September 9, 2005
JS-2708

The Honorable John W. Snow
Prepared Remarks: Visit to Houston

Good morning. I'm glad to be in Houston with my colleagues from the President's economic team. We're all grateful to have this chance to get a first-hand sense of the needs and the efforts to meet the needs of the hurricane survivors who are here at the Astrodome.   It's good to see the good work that is going on here – neighbors helping neighbors – and it's important to see what needs to be done next.

We've seen people here receiving shelter, food and water, and medical attention. They are survivors, but they have lost so much; it is difficult for anyone who has not survived a catastrophic disaster to comprehend this level of loss and grief.

We share their grief as a nation. We also share their will to recover, and together we will help them to recover. 

Hurricane survivors need help putting their lives back together, and financial help is a big part of that process. At Treasury, we're working hard to ensure that these people who have lost so much will have easy and secure access to the money they will need to get on the road to recovery. We know that people will have a lot of questions about their money during this difficult time; they will need to ask a lot of questions, and Treasury is putting financial consultants on the ground to help with that.

I've dispatched six people from Treasury's Office of Financial Education who will be setting up in Hall B of the Reliant Center to assist people with using their new debit cards, or with other financial questions. These financial educators will be giving advice and tips on how to protect oneself from fraud and how to keep their FEMA-issued debit cards secure. Their top priority is providing personal counseling and answering individual questions, and I'm awfully glad they are here to help. 

It was good to see the work being done, and the help being given, at the Work Force Tent. Finding a job is another key step on this road to recovery, and it's great to see the Department of Labor helping people with that.

America's tradition of generosity, of helping our neighbors, is one the most important advantages we have in terms of recovering from this disaster, so I want to let workers and employers know that Treasury and the IRS have taken action to allow employers to adopt leave-based donation programs under which employees could convert vacation, sick or personal leave into cash contributions for charitable organizations. In turn their employers would make cash contributions to charitable organizations involved in relief efforts.

There is no doubt that we face a long and challenging road ahead as we help our fellow Americans recovery from this terrible disaster. But good work is being done, more help is still on the way, and I am optimistic that the generosity of the American people will continue to lift up their fellow citizens.

Over the long term, I'm confident that the region will recover and rebuild. We picked ourselves up after 9/11 and other catastrophic events, and we have the will and the resources and the resolve to do so again.  I am confident we will; it's the spirit of Americans to do so.

I look forward to going on next, today, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to check on how people are accessing federal financial benefits and re-building their lives. Then we're on to Mobile Alabama, where we'll be listening to state and local leaders and talking with them about rebuilding their communities.