Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire, Oct 24, 2007

MS. PERINO: Anybody else on this?

Q Just one quick -- following up on what Jim was getting at. Did you ask -- did the White House ask her to go before this Atlanta press audience?

MS. PERINO: No, she already had it scheduled, and she said she wanted to address it.

Q She had a previous speech scheduled --

MS. PERINO: Yes.

Q -- or a speech on this --

MS. PERINO: She had an appearance at the Atlanta Press Club scheduled, and she said she wanted to address this.

Q Did she have to get your permission to do that?

MS. PERINO: Absolutely not. Just as she didn't have to ask permission to publish a commentary in the Journal of American Medical Association, JAMA.

Q On?

MS. PERINO: On the public health concerns of climate change, which just recently got published. It was one of the things that she was going to bring up. Those types of things don't go through White House -- testimony does, which is different.

Q The administration put out a SAP today on the DREAM Act. And the point being made was that it felt that preferential legal status was being made to certain alien minors. My question is, some of those alien minors who have served either in the military for two years or attended college for two years, the administration objects to them getting permanent status. And I just wondered why there's an objection -- if alien minors can serve in the military for two years, why does the administration feel that they shouldn't be given permanent legal status?

MS. PERINO: Paula, we continue to believe that the best way to address this issue is through a comprehensive bill, one that would put border security and interior security first, and that creates a temporary worker program and helps immigrants assimilate into our society. You may recall in the immigration debate we supported an alternative to the DREAM Act, in the context of overall comprehensive immigration reform. That's obviously what is not being considered now, and we will review it. But I would note that the President has not supported it as a standalone measure in the past.

Q Dana, Prime Minister Maliki said he's going to close the PKK offices in Iraq. Prime Minister Maliki made the same promise in September of last year. Why should Turkey trust Prime Minister Maliki on this?

MS. PERINO: I did look into that, Olivier, and we can understand why the Turks would be skeptical, because that pledge was made. It does need to be fulfilled. We'll be talking to the Iraqis about that, as well.

Q And one more. You mentioned that there are health benefits to climate change. Could you describe some of those?

MS. PERINO: Sure. In some cases, there are -- look, this is an issue where I'm sure lots of people would love to ridicule me when I say this, but it is true that many people die from cold-related deaths every winter. And there are studies that say that climate change in certain areas of the world would help those individuals. There are also concerns that it would increase tropical diseases and that's -- again, I'm not an expert in that, I'm going to let Julie Gerberding testify in regards to that, but there are many studies about this that you can look into.