Referring with National Security adviser Jake Sullivan. Livecoverage here on cspan2. Ambassador to the us Supreme Court. More than 100 justices have served on the Supreme Court over the last 200 years but today for the first time americans and people across the world will see four women sitting on the bench and today for the first time america will see a black woman serving onour nations highest court. This is a proud day for america, for our democracy and in particular for women and black women. Weve fulfilled major promises President Biden made to make sure our Supreme Court bench reflects the diversity of our nation and more broadly to strengthen the judiciary by fighting to nominate and confirm federal judges at the fastest rate. He promises nominees would be committed to the rule of law and it would represent diverse personal and professional backgrounds. Since taking office President Biden has made 143 nominations, 84 have been confirmed. This is standout progress of his hundred 43 nominees 68 percent have been women and66 percent are women of color. Hes nominated groundbreaking firsts. Who would be the first black, latino and aapi dutch judge to serve in their district. As we celebrate the Ketanji Brown jackson and her investiture we want to celebrate the others around the countrymaking history and the president is going to keep building on what he sees as one of his proudest accomplishments and he thanks the senate for their leadership on this issue as well. Finally as you heard directly from the president a short time ago , our hearts are with everyone affected by Hurricane Ian. The president remains in touch with state and local officials and spoke with Florida Governor ron desantis and South Carolina governor henry mcmaster. Fema administrator criswell is on the ground in florida today. Since before the storm made landfall President Biden had made clear it is a priority for the entire administration to get those impacted by the storm the help they need. One week ago the president issued an Emergency Declaration for florida which meant we could preposition teams and resources like food, water and generators on the ground. Yesterday the president did the same thing for South Carolina in anticipation of the storm hitting their currently efforts are focused on saving lives with search and rescue as part of its unprecedented level of coordination with the Florida National guard and local responders, teams started search and rescue missions before daylight and are continuing that efforttoday. By the end yesterday they had already saved hundreds of lives and completed thousands of structural assessments allowing people to safely return to their homes. Those teams are continued continuing to assess damage and restore Critical Services to ensure emergency power is available like hospitals and evaluating bridges, airports and ports as well. Were also continuing to support the people of puerto rico as they recover from Hurricane Fiona. Where providing support for Emergency Response and power restoration efforts and covering 100 percent of the cost of public assistance, debris removal and more. We have over 1000 federal response workers on the ground and we are providing millions of dollars to repair highways and bridges as well. We are investing millions of dollars to make puerto ricos infrastructure including its power grid more resilient to climate change. The people of florida, South Carolina, puerto rico and everyone impacted by these storms have the full support, full support of the federal government and as you can see today finally, we are joined by National Security advisor Jake Sullivan at the podium as we talk about the United States response to russias attempt to annex parts of sovereign ukraine and with that i will welcome jake to the podium. Thank you corine. As craig said i will have an update for you all on russia but first i want to take a moment just as corine did to acknowledge the devastation of Hurricane Ian and the millions impacted by this terrible storm and as corine said and the president said earlier today are arts are with the people of florida, South Carolina and the southeast. As President Biden made clear were going to do everything we can across this government to support the people who have been impacted by the storm with the full resources of the federal government. As communities recover for them to rebuild. I also want to say a special word of thanks for our First Responders at every level of our government for everything theyre doing and for their lifesaving and Dangerous Missions theyveundertaken over the last few days. And if youll indulge me just a word on what was a very important Foreign Policy development yesterday, President Biden hosted a historic us Pacific Island country summit. He released the first ever us Pacific Island strategy. He announced 110 million in additional expanded programs to help these countries combat the climate crisis, provide development assistance, enhance Maritime Security and more and finally President Biden and 12 Pacific Islander president s joined him for the summit issued a joint declaration to strengthen our partnership and to charge an affirmative vision for the region. Today as you all saw just a little bit ago President Biden issued a strong condemnation of russias fraudulent scheme to annex ukrainian territory. This act is a flagrant violation of International Law and it has no legitimacy. Unfortunately its also not a surprise. Its straight out of putins playbook to defeat disinformation and aggression and weve been warning about it for months. I stood at this podium and warned about it several times as recently as last week. Based on our information every aspect of this process was prestaged and. Id under orders from the kremlin. The sham referenda was held at gunpoint. Ukrainian civilians were forced to cast ballotsthrough coercion, intimidation and in some cases under the watch of armed guards. Saying it somehow reflects the will of the people is absurd in the. The United States will never recognize theseactions. The world will never recognize these actions and we will stay the course as the president told you earlier today. We have built, led and maintained an important response with ourallies and partners and that response will continue. Resident biden said we will deter so what does that mean specifically in reaction to what has just happened . First, as we saw from the Treasury Department and the Treasury Department underscored we are sending a clear warning supported by all of our resources we will sanction and impose export controls on any individual entity or country that provides political or economic support to these attempted annexations. We are putting authority to enable us to do that rapidly and efficiently. We are also announcing new sanctions today to target additional russian government officials and leaders including members who are accomplices in these fraudulent actions and including the central bank governor. We are also sanctioning Russian Military officials and we have specifically targeted defense Procurement Networks including International Suppliers supporting russias militaryindustrial complex. Second, we will continue to provide military equipment to ukraine to defend its territory. Today President Biden will sign legislation from congress that contains more than 12 billion in additional funding for ukraine. We are grateful for the continued support. There is no stronger more bipartisan rebuke of what russia has just done at a more timely rebuke and no more assertive statement than we can make through resources and not just through words that we are going to continue to help ukraine defend its territory and duty occupy those parts that russia has occupied. Earlier this week we announced a significant new billiondollar arms package which included 18 new high bars for ukraine as part of our longterm commitment to strengthening ukraines forces and we expect to have another announcement of immediate Security Assistance to announce next week. Next the United States and International Community have been Crystal Clear that we will use diplomatic tools at our disposal to fundamentally reject russias attempts to take its neighbors territory by force. Today the United States will support the resolution of the Un Security Council to condemn these sham referenda and call on russia immediately to withdraw its forces from ukraine. If russia seeks to shield itself at the Security Council the United Nations will work with partners around the world to take action next week at the un general assembly. Leaders around the world have spoken out about whats at stake and the independence of the democratic nation of ukraine, principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity and the foundation of the United Nations charter and modern international order. As the secretarygeneral of the United Nations said yesterday quote, it must not be accepted and it will not be accepted. To put it simply the region of don yes, lujans and the Central Region remain ukrainian territory. Ukraine has every right to continue to defend its sovereignty which the people of ukraine are doing bravely and courageously every day with the support of the International Community and the United States under President Bidens leadership supports them at every step along the way for as long as it takes and with that id be happy to take your questions. If ukraine is seeking accelerated membership innato is that something thats possible or something you would consider . The United States support an open door policy for nato. Any decision on membership is between the 30 allies and the countries aspiring to join. Right now its the best way for us to support ukraine is through practical on the Ground Support in ukraine and that process should be taken up at a different time. This morning the president called the nordstrom pipeline attack quote, a deliberate act of sabotage and he said now the russians are pumping out supplies, should we take that to mean the us now believes there directly responsible . Russia has done what it frequently does when it is responsible for something which is make accusations that someone else did it did this. The president was also clear today theres more work to do on the investigation or the United States government. One of the practical reason for that is that because gas is emanating from these pipelines the danish authorities and other authorities in the baltic cant actually get down to the source of the leak to do forensics on what appears to be an explosion so we will have to wait until the commendation of physical intelligence gathering and confirmation with our allies to make a determination but what we can say unequivocally is the suggestions russia has made about the United States and other countries are flatout false. Russia knows they are false but of course its part of their playbook. How many other countries are capable of carrying out the kind of attack we saw with hundreds of kilograms of explosives 250 feet below the surface . Not many and this is obviously an act of sabotage that took place we believe in the neighborhood of 70 to 80 meters, 230 to 270 feet under the ocean. That takes some degree of sophistication but i dont want to get ahead of myself in terms of how this happened or who did it so were standing on solid ground and will work with our allies and partners to gather all the facts as we make a determination about where we go from there. Region clearly had Nuclear Weapons on his mind when in his speech he said their critical, the United States is the only country that used Nuclear Weapons and he said by the way, theyve created permanence, how worrying is that . The administration has been clear there is a risk given all the loose talk and Nuclear Saber rattling by putting that he would consider something and hes clear about what the consequences would be. We do not presently seek indications about the imminent noose use of Nuclear Weapons. We of course are monitoring that carefully and seeking consultation with allies but this is something were taking seriously and committed getting directly with russia about including the kind of decisive responses the United States would have if they went down that road. Are the risks higher now than six or seven months ago . At various points including right at the outset boot and brandished the nuclear card. Hes doing it again. So the risk has been there from the start, its there today. Im not going to characterize its exactlevel only to say weve been taking this seriously and continue to take it seriously. What lessons from gl 14 and crimea are using now . What did you learn fromthat figure . Theres a number of just in terms of the tactics of how things unfolded in crimea including the fact that you didnt have the kind of sustained military conflict associated with it you do in these cases, that means you cannot draw an analogy. On the other hand one of the things weve been clear about from the start is even in the months that preceded it when i started this podium and warned it was coming is we were going to be prepared with clear, swift and certain responses so when i stand here before you today to talk about sanctions, to talk about new funding, to talk about new transfers of military equipment and diplomatic initiatives unfolding the very day and gives his speech that is all the product of months of planning and coordination with our allies so that you do not allow time to relax, so that we seek these initiatives and we communicate clearly we will not accept it and we will help the ukrainians to push back aggressively against this even as we value the International Community. Thats been our strategy from the start. We have been as transparent about that warning what was going to come, indicating what wewould do and following through on doing it and thats what we were doing today. With the us entered the war actively ifcontinues uses weapons on ukraine . Weve had the opportunity to communicate directly to russia a range of consequences for the use of Nuclear Weapons and the kinds of actions the United States will take. Ive said were not going to telegraph these things publicly so all i can tell you is that the russians understand where things stand on this issue. We understand where things stand on this issue and i will leave it at that. Would you be unprepared for a assault if he were to take that kind of action tomorrow . Even before this conflict began we moved a substantial number of us forces on land sea and air to europe. After the conflict got underway within 72 hours he had ordered the movement of even more forces beyond that so we are standing at a level with enhanced force posture across the eastern flank and with all of the capabilities in the air as well. We feel that we have in place right now the capacity to effectively deter and respond to any contingency and to make good on what President Biden emphatically reinforced today that we would defend every inch of nato territory. The United States has put in place the pieces and if you look at what our allies have done in terms of searching their own capabilities to eastern flank allies, pumping up their own expenditures we are at a level state of readiness to take on any contingencies andwere doing it in active coordination with an area to be prepared for whatever comes our way. Will you be prepared to protect Energy Infrastructure now . The president mentioned today in response to a question that we have in fact done coordinating with allies to do surveillance and monitoring of Energy Infrastructure including pipelines and the baltic sea and we will continue to work closely with norway and other countries that have announced they are stepping up their efforts in that regard. The United States has capabilities to bring to bear and we are bringing it tobear. Can you describe the scenario, i would think when this war began their words a certain category of planning that had gone on and how has that changed and has it trained changed as the threats have changed because it suggests this was a very dynamic situation where the president engaged in approving these plans on a frequent basis for is it something that is part of a ready playbook that would already be at the disposal of the department or something thats being retooled and redesigned . There are elements that are consistent and elements that are dynamic and what i mean is from the beginning weve known the broad categories of storms that russia could conceivably undertake. Weveknown the broad categories of contingency that our allies might face. But of course as time goes on and circumstances change on the battlefield and broader diplomatic systems change and as we gather new intelligence , we can refine the Contingency Planning within those broad categories to be more specific about different scenarios. So over time the president gets updates on intelligence. Updates on the likelihood or lack of likelihood of different circumstances and refinements in the planning thats taking place across every element of our government including the Defense Department intelligence community, usaid , department of energy, he has experts from across our government working on a range of contingencies and the president is in regular touch with his National Security councilprinciples to get updates on this and direction about how to continue to sharpen his plans. The other thing thats happened is youve seen a steady stream of engagements President Biden has had with foreign counterparts particularly nato, g7 and european allies. That has been an opportunity to engage on different scenarios and make sure that the leaders of these countries are directing their teams to coordinate together so that we can have a common placement for how we respond. Thats been an important planning function thats almost unprecedented in the intensity and frequency of engagements at the leader level in thesecircumstances. Talking about the sanctions i know weve had a bunch of sanctions that have lasted seven months and i want you to understand what these tools, are you confident these latest sanctions would deter or change putins behavior when the others have not . First one of the key elements of our sanctions strategy has been to reduce the capacity of the Russian Military machine to regenerate its ability to threaten ukraine and we think we have had an impact on the. Input to the weapons of war that putin wants to manufacture and place on the battlefield. Secondly we have wanted to undermine russias major sectors in technology and industry and of course in defense so that its capacity to project power to its coercive neighbors and wage wars of aggression gets reduced over time. We think there is demonstrable progress on that front as well. Third we want to send a clear message to the rest of the world that those companies, those individuals and those countries that are going to stand aside russia on this issue of illegal annexation, they will subject themselves to sanctions and we believe that will have considerable deterrence effect and were seeing that in all circumstances. For all these reasons we feel the sanctions and pressure were placing on russia and their ability to gather what they need, to be able to regenerate their war machine, this has been a critical element to how we conducted our strategy and the impacts will continue to be felt as we go forward and put us in a stronger position and russia in a more advancedposition as this unfolds. On the broader view of Economic Policy is it us policy that any land deemed defensive or offensive cannot be used. [inaudible] it is us policy that the annex at the point of a gun to conquer territory and hold a sham referendum and declare that territory your territory is a violation of the un charter and this case is cut and dried and its for that reason the un secretarygeneral has been a careful voice, a neutral arbiter on diplomacy between russia and ukraine came out with an absolutely unequivocal statement in this regard yesterday and every word of it is something the International Community can collectively stand on. Did russian action give you any second thoughts about a policy which eventually would encourage customers to buy russian oil at a discount . Were continuing down the road negotiating with our g7 partners and working with countries who are purchasers of perspective purchases of russian oil with the parameters in terms of the price capital. We are not currently discussing a change in that policy but rather continuing to find ways to both protect Global Energy markets and to deny revenues to putin to feed his war machine. That is our fundamental objective and webelieve this is the best method to achieve that objective. Were notlooking at a fundamental course correction. The attack on us and western infrastructure after the incident . We have to be concerned about the possibility of russian aggression against western infrastructure, westernfacilities. We dont have any specific intelligence to share with you today on that but that is the reason we do Contingency Planning. It is the reason we send strong deterrence messages like the one today saying the United States will defend every inch of nato territory and that weve elevated our surveillance monitoring of Critical Infrastructure in nato territory but in the event it is put at risk for through cyber means we will continue to do that. Before this war began there was the possibility we could see attacks in the United States, Cyber Attacks or we could see attacks of europe whether physical or cyber israel. It was real then, it remains real today and what happened with nordstream one and two reminds us it is. Between russia and iran, how worried are you about this and what do you infuse more tension with iran and also the issues from nations. [inaudible] we continue to condemn brutality against the brave citizens of ukraine are simply arching for their rights, their dignity and justice. We continue to stand with them and we have issued several sanctions against the iranians for what they have done and yes, we will continue to look for targets to impose sanctions in response to these brutal human human rights violations. Weve issued sanctions with respect to the transfer of uavs from iran to russia and are looking for additional methods to reduce irans capacity to manufacture and then sell these kinds of systems to russia. We will work on that and the entire world should see that russia as it runs into problems able to regenerate its own capability has to turn to other countries to get hold of whatever precision editions it can including uavs. This is a russia is forced to make and we are going to cut off other countries to russia to get these kinds of weapons and to be able to feed their war machine. And the profile of weapons and stuff being sent. [inaudible] and separately. [inaudible] update on the status of that whether through summaries or accommodation of the two. Are leaders recently put out the statement following ran on the incident which took place last september, just over a year ago and weve made substantial process progress and feel good about the cooperation on the submarine program. Im not going to get into on what the nature of the platforms would be. Some of the default needs to be worked out with but more importantly i would say are three countries are very much on the same page about the path forward and theres been significant progress and now the progress of putting it to the test. We are pursuing a significant advanced capability on that partnership in spite of Artificial Intelligence and other areas weve seen significant progress on this as well and theres certain areas where we are looking to bring in other partners as well. With respect to tents we have facilitated tanks to ukraine from European Partners who are providing the same type of tax that the ukrainians are in possession of the will continue to enter Weapons Systems what the president announced this week was a further provision of high bars which we provided and the next package will be a real of many of the capabilities that ukrainians have used so effectively and i dont haveany announcement of additional uavs. And the abrams tanks, thats what being sought by either the ukrainians. Im not ruling anything out. I dont have any announcement on a us plan in terms of german tanks and i would refer you to the germans who are in consultations with ukraine. We had legislation yesterday that would cut off us military and economic aid to nations that recognize the peoples annexation ofukraine. Does the white house support this proposal or would it consider a diplomacy move . I havent had a chance to read the legislation and in these circumstances the details and up mattering but at a broad level the basic proposition that we should be imposing economic costs on countries individuals and entities that are providing lyrical and economic support to these annexations not only do we agree with that, i Just Announced that from the podium today. Were going to do that ourselves. And i want to issue a clear warning to those who would think about providing support to these annexed territories or to russias efforts to justify and defend annexation. You can be subject to us sanctions as a result of those activities. We look forward to working with senators blumenthal on an approach in congress that could be consistent with and help that. I like the administrations reaction on president zielinskis been saying we are ready for a dialogue with russia, thats my first one and the second one is diplomats have been pressing russias allies to convince putin to deescalate. Would you be more specific about those kinds of overtures and in what Ways Administration believes that china and india can apply more pressure to deescalate . On your second question we welcome any country that believes in the principles of the un charter. Frankly every country that signed to the un charter should be taken its measure of responsibility to connect it directly and the kremlin whatever its doing to justify. And we are asking countries around the world wed like them to speak out publicly like them to convey things privately. With respect to the first question, which was im sorry . Hes saying hes ready for a dialogue with russia but with another president. The president has consistently said that the war ultimately will end free diplomacy and we consistently backed him up onthat. Id have to refer you to him on that precise statement and what he means by that i would tell you weve had daily engagement with the president , his chief of staff, foreign minister, his defense minister and much communication of course to our military and their military to make sure that we are understanding one another well. That we are transparent about the support we are providing and the strategy there pursuing. That continues today and that will continue every dayfrom here on out. Have you said dialogue is always possible with another president . I dont know the context of the statements i cant answer it in the characterization you provided but President Biden believes that a diplomatic solution with ukraine is possible but it is only possible according to the basic terms of the un charter that everybody signed up to her and thats what he said in his speech last week. He continues to believe that. Strongly and theyve been on of the same mind on that as well. On the pipeline, did i hear you correctly when you said the government had ruled out involvement of any un allies including Eastern European countries are angry about the pipeline . We do not believe this was the work of any nato ally. More broadly what about those who cast this as a traditional struggle, the us and the west on family and traditional values, how do you answerthat . The fact that hes using words like satanism is to me precisely the kind of overthetop rhetoric and ranting that you hear from someone who has no basis to justify what is a colonial and imperial granddad so rather than fill in any logical or miracle moral justification he has to use these apartments and that can be playing for the world to see. This will be the lastone. Another topic what is your expectation for the election in brazil this monday, what are you going to be watching for an how are they going to recognize the reforms they announced . I will make every diction that american elections and i will not make predictions about brazilian elections. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thanks for coming. Thank you so much jake. We dont have much time because i know folks have together so colleen, pick us up. An update on the departments plan to go to florida and then also do you have any idea how much money was dropped for congress to replenish the fund. Ill say this, the continuing resolution in congress as you all know is holding today so we will ensure that fema has the resources it needs to address response and recovery including those in puerto rico and also in florida so we will remain in close touch with congress on continuing to evaluate that. As far as whats currently happening with the president s been very clear. He wants to focus on what florida needs. What Puerto Rico Needs and that they both have the full support of the federal government and we will continue to have conversations with the officials on the ground to make sure that they have what the people in puerto rico and florida have what they need. As you heard he spoke to South Carolinas governor today offering those same supports. One of the things i want to reiterate which is important about what we have seen this last couple of days or actually more than a week. If you think about what the president was able to do in florida and what the president will be able to do in South Carolina which is repositioned federal employees, responders on the ground in a way that we have not seen before. Its unprecedented that type of coordination were seeing on the ground and so that is because the president has made this a priority and he wants to make sure we are offering all this support. To name a few i believe its important to fema, search and rescue, the us coast guard, department of defense, dhs, apartment of the interior working and enhanced with the Florida National guard and state and local responders and these teams are doing the work day in and night to make sure theyre helping folks on the ground and offering water and food and generators as well. When the president does to go to florida does he want to meet with opener desantis personally . I want to be clear, this isnt about politics. This is about the people of florida and what they need. When we saw surfside, horrible catastrophic buildings falling in surfside killing so many floridians over a year ago you saw Governor Desantis and you saw this president sit sidebyside talking about how they were going to Work Together to make sure that community got everything they need. This is not about politics. I dont have anything to share about a trip the president is going to be making. He spoke for himself yesterday. Its something that he wants to do, he does want to also go to puerto rico and we will meet that amount. Could you tell us about that . From what i understand as you stated there is meeting that happened with the department of energy, with the Oil Companies. Dont have anything to share at this time as to how that meeting went or what was on the agenda but certainly it is an important meeting as we look at continuing to keep those gas and oil prices down for the American People. Im sure there will be a readout and some more information to share. Did they praise the response from the federal government and in that assessment does he think Governor Desantis has handled the response well so far . I cant the specifics of private conversations. I can say that we gave a readout rns about how the conversation went. Again, we dont want to make this about politics. We dont want to make this about red states versus blue states. This is about the American People that are families and everyday people on the ground who need the assistance. Theyre going to continue to coordinate. We had at least i believe three conversations about what they can do to help the communities in florida. I dont want to get into the politics here. Look, i havent had a conversation with the president but i can tell you they are working closely together. The fema administrator is down there currently. Theyre traveling the state together and looking at what is currently happening on the ground. Not going to get into the particulars of whos doing a good job or who could do a better job i should say. Right now we are working closely hand in hand with positions on the ground. We had multiple conversations with the fema administrator and you can see the fact that theyve had conversations, the fact the fema administrator on the ground that this is a working relationship that is aboutthe people of florida. Im not going to get into speculation. Real quick, weve heard from the cr today. I dont have any specifics on that. I dont know if theres anything that needs to be handled before a bill gets here. Clearly their funding contingencies to be able to do that. If theyre committed to an early october timeline should this go public, the borrowers said october generally. I dont have a specific date in october but let me just you mentioned the eve out yesterday. We began the first of what will be regular updates in debt relief. We shared information of what people can expect around the program and process for applying. We share the applications for debt relief will be available next month in october. There is no date set. Tomorrow or in october, the application will be a short online form allowing them to upload any documents or use their id to support the application. The application will be available from october 2022 through december 2023. Once an individual submits the form the department of education will review the application to determine if the individual is eligible for relief and will work with their loan server. Our goal and we have said this is to provide a simple experience working closely with the servicers will actually process the relief and will have Additional Information for borrowers in the upcoming days. That was what we provided and we should have more to share. I know that you dont want to say anything about the trip to puerto rico in florida. Our weekend for those who follow the week ahead know that theyre there on sundays. There is a trip next week and we certainly will sharethat with you. I dont have anything to announce yet. [inaudible] weve been here 19 months. I hear you, i get it. Thats right. I agree with what youre saying. We just dont have anything to date for friday. I got it but normally, yes. A week ahead we send out on sundays and yes we do that on fridays. And we will try and be more proactive. The present came after oil and Gas Companies and threatened them to investigate instances of price gouging but you said yesterday you havent seen any evidence of that happening and i wonder if the president put out this call that he could investigate price gouging last year but my question is what would you do that would announce a cut next week that tried to get swept away. As you know where not going to speak about opec. Were clearly not about a partner or their an independent entity thats allowed to make their views their own. What were seeing as were just making sure that while people are dealing with this hurricane that theyre not taken advantage of. Its just a little bit of a hey, when people are leaving their homes, when people are displaced we shouldnt take advantage of it. We feel that coming from the president is a very powerful voice so look, we know that disruptions from hurricanes affect markets but the latest predictions for that major refinery should not be affected. So were just making it clear to the Oil Companies. So theres nothing more to it than just being transparent about that. Theres been obviously space between the white house in terms of fossil fuels and going from side to side. Thats when we can ramp up production, this type of rhetoric. We are competing with Health Officials and energy. So look, i think the president thinks he is standing up for the American People and making sure that Oil Companies are passing on their savings time and again. This is something that is important to his platform. I know youre not going into the weekend ahead but are there other things youre seeing this weekend related to the hurricane. Is giving daily updates on Hurricane Ian. As youve heard him say many times if we have anything else to share we certainly will. As i mentioned administrator criswell is in florida so either before she gets back or when she gets back she certainly will give the president an update on what she saw on theground. She has spoken to him many times, multiple times this week so again hell get a daily updates as he has on both Hurricane Fiona when that was happening with this hurricane and we will have more to share if theres any other calls that he makes on the ground as well. You had said the other day that jack zielinskis family will will be here for assigning. As you know we dont put every bill signing on the schedule. As you can imagine this is a personal moment that the president was doing. Like i mentioned in the briefing a couple of days ago and as you stated the president has been looking forward to those things. The late representatives family and other lawmakers to honor her legacy and he is signing the bill naming it in her memory and that was happening when we started the briefing i havent gotten an update on how that went but clearly this is an important moment for her and her family. It included the late representatives husband, mother, brother and several bipartisan members of Congress Like speaker pelosi, minority leader evan mccarthy, representative jim banks so this again happened while we were coming to the podium and as you know the majority of bill signings are not necessarily alwaysdone in public so this is an example of one. Kevin mccarthy was here, is that the first time you met . I dont have data on when he met. I cant that at this time but he was there for this particular signing. We have to remember the issue that she fought so hard for ending hunger, ending child hunger specifically, thats been bipartisan. The Education Department tweaked eligibility issues with the student loan forgiveness plan and owned by private banks are now found eligible. In fact perhaps 770,000 borrowers with a couple million. Was a disappointment for the white house that you have to make this change around legal issues and could there be future changes for applications are made that could narrow eligibility for is the plan final now . I want to make sure because i know this is out there that the number of borrowers impacted are much smaller. I know theres a number of millions but its actually much smaller. Our goal from day one has been to deliver relief to many borrowers as possible as quickly as possible and to change and achieve that so we willcontinue to make sure we zero in on that. The department of education continues to explore alternative ways to provide relief with commercially led loans. I want to say that when you think about what were trying to do, were trying to give relief to everyday americans. Trying to give relief to working families. Trying to give relief to working americans and the fact that you see folks out there and the Republican Space that are making it hard for us to do that, for us to give a little bit of breathing room to our working americans i think its really unfortunate. What were doing is actually popular. What were doing is actually giving americans an opportunity to put money down on the house and an opportunity to start a family. That is what youre seeing with these republican officials are doing and remember, this will help you million americans who truly, really need just a little bit more space. Could there be other modifications . I cant that. What i can say is were going to do everything we can to explore alternative ways to give relief to those borrowers, to these borrowers you were asking me about that are with commercially held loans so were going to do everything we can. The department of education will do everything they can. This is about giving relief, a little bit of breathingroom. Some extra kind of opportunity to be able to get house again. To serve that family and thats what were goingto continue on. I think i have to go. Next weekend we will have a week ahead as soon as we can. President biden talked about both russias annexation of parts of Eastern Ukraine and the federal response to Hurricane Ian in remarks he made at the white house. The president warned russia, the u. S. And its allies will not be intimidated, stressing the u. S. Is prepared to defend nato territory. And the president previously approved disaster declarations for both the states