Press Briefing by Dana Perino

Business Wire, June 30, 2008

MS. PERINO: I don't think -- look, that's not the way a negotiation or a compromise works. First and foremost, the President wanted, on the policy side of things, transferability, for any member of the military to be able to transfer his GI benefits to his children -- his or her children, or their spouses. That's one of the things the President brought up in the State of the Union. He's heard over and over again -- you ask the military, what's one of the things that you need, and they ask for that transferability.

The original proposal that came out of the Senate did not include transferability. So while the number might have been slightly higher than what the President originally thought of, the fact that it included transferability was something that the President thought was a key win, and he was very happy to sign the bill today.

And in addition to that, when it comes to the unemployment benefits, obviously we're going through a time of continued economic uncertainty. There's been a slowdown; there are many people looking for a job that haven't been able to find one. Thankfully, our unemployment rates have not been as high as in the past, and so we don't think that we need to do this as aggressively, in terms of extending unemployment insurance benefits, because the original proposal from the Democrats was for a 20-week -- 26-week extension. The bill the President signed today includes a 13-week extension. So I think that it's a very fair compromise.

Toby, did you have another one? Go ahead.

Q U.S. forces in Iraq reportedly killed a relative of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki during a raid last Friday on a villa belonging to the Prime Minister's sister, and the villa is in Karbala province, which is supposedly under full Iraqi control. And Iraqi officials said they were not informed about the raid in advance. Was that raid a mistake, and will you issue an apology?

MS. PERINO: I think you'll need to call MNFI. I don't have any information on that.

Q Dana.

MS. PERINO: Goyal.

Q Two quick questions. As far as the situation in Afghanistan is concerned, Afghanistan's Attorney General was in Washington and speaking at USIP. And what he was saying, really, there is no law in his nation, and as Attorney General, even he cannot arrest people who are breaking the law, and he called it a lawlessness nation today. And he was asking the help from the administration; that NATO should do more and the U.S. -- I don't know what he was asking here, meeting with people. And also at the same time --

MS. PERINO: What's your question, Goyal?

Q -- as far as cross-border terrorism is concerned, Pakistan has launched a new campaign against terror, the Taliban. So where do we stand? Do we see anything new from these --

MS. PERINO: Do you want me to answer the Afghanistan question first or the Pakistan question?

Q Well, the Taliban (inaudible).

MS. PERINO: Okay. Here's the thing. In Afghanistan, one of the things -- in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in other places, one of the things that we have to do as the United States and as part of NATO is help build the institutions that will help make law and order something that everybody can count on. And that's one of the things that we'll continue to work with, in terms of Afghanistan.