Bush Holds End of Year Press Conference

President Bush appeared in the Briefing Room of the White House this morning for a brief end-of year summation and question and answer session. The president provided his view of the legislative accomplishments in the first year of the Democratic Congress. In doing so, he focused primarily on bills passed in the last three weeks. Mr. Bush spread faint praise to the Democratic leadership in Congress and expressed his disappointments with them for goals not met.

The president said he was very pleased that Congress approved what he called a "down payment" on funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without conditions. He reiterated that the troops in the field deserve the "full support of the government," signaling that more funding battles for the war lie ahead. The president also praised Congress's passage of the Alternative Minimum Tax patch without raising taxes. The legislation will prevent the tax, originally intended to ensnare a relative few wealthy taxpayers, from hitting some 20 million middle class families this year. However, he chided Congress for waiting until the end of the year to pass the bill, which he said will cause tax refunds for millions of Americans to be delayed. The president also addressed the recently passed omnibus budget bill, the energy bill, the mortgage relief bill, and the pending Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation.

On the budget bill, President Bush again cirticized Congressional leaders for not following the regular process of appropriating funding for the government in separate bills. He called the practice of funding the government through omnibus legislation "not a responsible way to run the government." The president placed the number of earmarks, funding requests for a Congressman's home district, in the bill at about 9,800. He said that Congress had approved over 11,000 earmarks in just the past year over both the omnibus and separately passed Defense Department appropriation.

The president saved his harshest criticism for the pending FISA bill. He said that Congress had acted responsibly by passing the Protect America Act this past summer. However, he said that Congress made the law effective only until February 1, 2008, adding sarcastically, "As if the terrorist threat will go away on February 1st." He called on Congress to make the FISA bill its first priority when it comes back from the Christmas break and to include immunity for telecommunications companies as part of the package.

The president said he was pleased with the energy bill, which raises fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks and provides funding for alternative energy supplies, calling it good legislation that will "recude our nation's dependence on foreign oil." He similarly praised the mortgage relief bill, which will provide help to homeowners struggling to make higher mortgage payments on their adjustable mortgages. The president stressed that the broad agreement on these two bills demonstrates that Congress and the Administration can work together to get things done if they put their partisan differences aside.

The president said he looked forward to 2008 and hoped that the two branches of government could "carry the momentum" from the end of this year forward to get more of the people's business done. He acknolwedged, however, that 2008 is an election year, when traditionally not much business is conducted. But he stated that both Congress and the President have a duty to get work done on behalf of the American people. "The people didn't elect us to govern in odd years, and campaign in even years," he said.