Remarks with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard B. Myers and Senator Bill Frist of Tennessee

SENATOR FRIST: We'll be very brief. The House briefing will start shortly.

First of all, I expect, as Majority Leader of the United States Senate, early consideration of the President's request for emergency funding for stabilization in Iraq, for Afghanistan, as well as the war against terrorism. I am confident that once we receive the specific request and the details of that request, that, after adequate debate, that the Senate will overwhelmingly -- overwhelmingly -- support this request.

I do want to thank the Administration. Since the President's announcement, our staff has been great. There was an excellent hearing in Armed Services yesterday. We had most of the Senate briefed over the last hour. We are likely to have hearings in Armed Services, as well as Foreign Relations.

With that, we'll be happy to answer any questions -- again, very briefly, because the House briefing begins shortly.

QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, can you tell us anything about his alleged new bin Laden tape?

SENATOR FRIST: The tape itself -- people were just made aware of it right before this briefing so they have not been briefed on this recent tape. Other questions?

QUESTION: Secretary Powell, Secretary Rumsfeld, could you say how much you expect the allies to contribute and how much that might defray the overall cost of the supplemental?

SECRETARY POWELL: We have been in touch with all of our allies. I can't put forward a number now. But we are preparing ourselves for a donors’ conference in Madrid on the 24th of October, and we are encouraging all of our friends to come to this conference in a spirit of trying to do as much as they can. But I cannot put specific numbers on what their contribution might be yet.

Earlier today, for example, with my Canadian colleague, Canadians reaffirmed their commitment of $300 million, and I know that the European Union is having meetings now to determine what their contribution might be. But we won't have an overall number and I wouldn't want to speculate on (inaudible).

QUESTION: The military budget (inaudible) multinational divisions and putting 800 million in for the present division. Does that mean that's all you (inaudible) just as one or two?

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: We already have two multinational divisions --

QUESTION: No, (inaudible) 800 million for bringing in two multinational divisions.

GENERAL MYERS: The fiscal year 03 supplemental contains one multinational division. The fiscal year 04 supplemental has two, for a total of --

QUESTION: I know, I know. That's what I'm asking.

GENERAL MYERS: -- three --

QUESTION: You're going to have a total of three.

GENERAL MYERS: A total of three --

QUESTION: So that's 45,000 altogether?

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: No, that would be a misunderstanding. What one has to do in developing a budget like that is to recognize that that's not knowable how many additional troops you can get. So what you do is you speculate; if you had those, that would be the number. If you don't, you would have additional reserve forces, which would cost something in that neighborhood.

QUESTION: Do you expect us to have two multinational divisions in addition to the one you have now?

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: We have two now. We have --

QUESTION: I thought you said before --

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: No, no.

SECRETARY POWELL: Can I interrupt?

SECRETARY RUMSFELD: Sure.

(Laughter.)

SECRETARY POWELL: There are two there now. What General Myers said was they funded for one last year. This year, in the supplemental, we are asking to fund two more: the second one that is already there; and to put in a wedge for money for a third one, if we're able to obtain a third one.

QUESTION: So you're really only expecting one --

SECRETARY POWELL: Let's take -- no. Let's take one more question. We've got to go. One more question.

QUESTION: An exit strategy --

QUESTION: -- in the past, have raised questions about the aid, the reconstruction money. You still expect it to pass very quickly as part of the overall package?

SENATOR FRIST: The reconstruction -- the package hasn't been formally delivered yet -- our absolute amount has -- what we're doing now is engaged into discussion, the consultations, and we go back and forth. So a lot of these specific questions will be coming out over the next week. We do expect to receive something more formally at the end of next week.

Thank you, all.