Working closely with our state and local partners to ensure the safety of the coastal communities. In his weekly address to the nation this morning, the president noted this is a storm of historic destructive potential. Hes asking that everyone in the storms path remain vigilant and heed all recommendations for government from government officials and Law Enforcement. Our message to the American People is this, with gratitude for our First Responders and prayers for those in the storms path, we are behind you 100 . With that, id like to bring up the president s Homeland Security advisor, tom, to discuss specifics on the federal governments ongoing reparedness and response efforts. After ill be up to take questions. Thanks. Mr. Bossert thanks, sarah, thanks to each of you for being here. Cant add too much more to that. Let me jump into my thinking here. As youve heard me say, i like to organize my thoughts into informing, influencing, and nspiring if i can. Please recall the process here, the federal government is fully engaged, but theyre fully engaged in support of the governors. Those governors are engaged in various different forms and phases of what we consider incident management. As i walk through irma, let me stop, id be remiss if i didnt, to talk about texas and harvey. Governor abbott and i have been in close contact and havent stopped that because the people in texas and the people in louisiana under governor edwards are involved in the early stages of what will be a long recovery effort. The people in the u. S. Virgin islands and other caribbean islands affected by harvey already are in the middle of acute, lifesave, lifesustaining Response Operations. What were seeing in louisiana and georgia are the final stages of preparation for Response Operations. Were seeing all three play out at the same time. It requires us to juggle some of our thinking, but it doesnt require us to juggle our resources. To be clear, the Response Operations had ceased lifesaving and Life Sustaining in harvey, we had an opportunity to rest and recommit our resources and we are deploying them in the islands to save lives. Well maintain a good footprint and posture to do the same in florida, South Carolina and georgia as the storm progresses. Im come back to the path and tracking forecast in a moment. Id like to see if i can reinforce that by suggesting we take this seriously. Its not only a dangerous storm, weve seen loss of life, this storm has taken lives already, it will take more unfortunately if were not prepared. Please take it seriously. Id also suggest now in terms of influencing, that people stop watching so carefully this track and start thinking more seriously about getting themselves into a safe place and out of danger. I dont want them to take that as a call for evacuations, listen to local authorities on evac orders, theyre not only looking out for your best interest but theyre oordinating the peninsula, and its a staggered and carefully thought through process. At this point, it is a large storm. Whether it wobbles left or wobbles right, you need to start thinking through your own personal accountability. Please make sure its kind of an oxygen mask theory, take care of yourself first so you can take care of others. Take care of your loved ones. If youre able take care of strangers and others in need. Thats something weve seen in texas and i have every reason to believe the people of florida and South Carolina will show that same american spirit and value. Lastly, theres been a lot of coverage of florida but not necessarily Media Coverage of the u. S. Virgin islands and if i can, ill give you a brief update on where we stand there we are, as i just talked to the department of state and department of defense officials, engaging in this lifesave, lifesustaining operation in the following way. Governor mass is experiencing oss of power as a result, loss of communications and some other sheltering needs. What were doing is sending in air operations, surface operations to evacuate citizens. Were also doing that in st. Martin and the dutchfrench island thats being reported, there are american citizens there. We are currently in the final stages of Operations Planning to evacuate those citizens, numbers ranging from 350 to 6,000. That was our planning assumption parameter. Those american citizens will be removed by surface and air means. Well have to do planning adjustment for surf conditions. We look forward to that hopefully missing the United States. Its unfortunately still causing havoc in the islands and our Response Operations, evacuation operations. Thats where we stand on that. Theyll begin executing those plans, if not already, at some point soon today and well see american citizens and others evacuate if necessary to include anyone with critical or acute medical needs. Thats where i would stop on the update. Ill take your questions. Reporter tom, one of the big problems with the florida evacuation is that so many gas stations are running out of gasoline. What, if anything can the federal government do in the next 24 hours to assist in getting more fuel to people in florida . Mr. Bossert theres a number of things weve done, i should mention by name, governor scott, tremendous leadership, tremendous conferred, he and the president have spoken, he and i have spoken. Ive got every confidence in the governor and his emergency manager, theyre demonstrating the same leadership resolve and skill and quality of effort we saw in texas. A week ago. We are seeing fuel shortages. People gas up generators, cars, boats and so forth. What we see is the need to pull in additional fuel that will run up against the onset of Tropical Storm force winds. What are we doing . Were bringing in as much supply of refine fuel as possible and weve waived particular statute that allows for foreign flagged vessels to help in that effort. Its called the jones act. What happens is the secretary of Homeland Security can waive that act. Until its waived only u. S. Flag vessels can move fuel from point to point domestically. Weve freed up that prohibition so now foreign flagged vessels. As many ships, tanker ships as possible with being brought to bear on the effort to bring as much fuel as possible to help floridians regardless of their flagged vessel status. Thats the best we can do. In addition theyre planning on the intermodal points to get trucks from tanker ship port locations into the gas stations. Thats what were doing. Reporter can you still get in there . Mr. Bossert at some point theyll have to stop operations. Thats one of my messages here. Its not a tough love message, its a message of clarity and honesty. At some point people are going to be on their own, so to speak, far period of time during which the flooding, the raining and the winds bear down on them. And they need to be prepared if they are in that path and havent taken some action to get themselves in a less dangerous position to be ready for at least a 7 hour period. That would be my advice for them to have enough food, water and shelter. Before the government can get back in we have predeployed and prestaged, we can get to that final point of care until conditions permit. One housekeeping question, for fema to have resources and no broken chain there, the president needs to sign legislation that passed this the house just passed this morning. Any indication when thats going to happen . Mr. Bossert id like to start by thanking congress who worked in a fast way to give us the supplemental funding. Fema has the money they need, theres no break in operations. But there will be a break in their operations if they run out of money. Thats why that supplemental legislation was necessary. Thank you to the house and Senate Leadership for bringing everyone back in and passing that so quickly and responsibly. We anticipate honestly this is a realtime event. The bill might be on its way up here right now, requires signature by the speaker, signature by the Senate Leadership or the Vice President , and signature by the president of the United States. I think that will happen today but as soon as we get it, the president will take that seriously. Reporter the complication of the storm track, dont know the only nature but it looks like its going to cover the entire peninsula south to north. How does that complicate Emergency Management response as it moves up the state and to floridians who are veterans of hurricanes there is sometimes a tendency to say, i can ride this one out. Ive seen bad storms before. Could you address those . Mr. Bossert some people call it hurricane amnesia. Lets hope theres no hurricane amnesia. There are some people, probably some 20 of the population that may not remember or might not have gone through the last big hurricane in florida, it was probably 2004 or 2005. There were four major hurricanes in 2004. Wilma in 2005 which was forgotten because of katrina, if you havent experienced it, take it seriously and ask those who have. If you have experienced it, recall what i just described took place. You were without power, you were out water in some cases or sewer treatment and so forth for an extended peer of time. In terms of track, theres three onsiderations. The upper right Northeast Quadrant of the storm packs the most punch. The second consideration is if the eye wall gets over land it oses steam faster. If it stays over water it keeps its strength longer. As this thing moves left and right it can affect our operations because it can affect a different part of the state in a different way, wind or flood. What well see over the next 24 hours will tell us which one well face. Were planning for those eventualities. Worst case scenario, it dips down, moves west and curls around to the other side of the state. Right now its my belief that people havent been planning for that im not suggesting thats going to happen but it seems to be within the cone of uncertainty. This storm at this point, could hit everything from tearp to jacksonville and directly over miami. So please plan for those things accordingly. Dont necessarily evacuate, listen to your local officials as theyre tracking it most closely but do prepare to be in the storms path just in ase. So thats how were doing it. Lastly to answer your question, major, what were doing is instead of prepositioning commodities in places that might be affected by the storm, we continue support operations to the island, fema Logistics Team have thought through pricing supplies elsewhere, up the delaware, in new york and elsewhere so they continue barge operations to support the island and the next storm doesnt affect the storm before. If that answers your question. Reporter the big question is, after the chemical fires that occurred in texas and the fact that you all are being taxed with a second storm, any extra precautions being taken this time to ensure that type of thing doesnt happen here and how taxed is the system for this and jose coming in . Mr. Bossert the system can be taxed in different ways. I addressed the life save, lifesustaining operations we have, the teams marshaled by the ederal government but provided y the state. Theyre all rested and ready to come back into the fight, same with the coast guard, the military National Guard and title 10 forces. Were preparing for environmental losses as we should. I cant speak to each and every companys preparation efforts. We will continue to monitor that and can follow up with you. There will be steps taken from shut do you think the Nuclear Power facility to a position of safety, i think they take a shutdown posture depending on the track. We look at okeechobee, thats going to be a big flooding risk, overflow risk. Reporter is there anything youre not comfortable with right now thats an overriding concern . Mr. Bossert the fuel shortages and but no, to be honest with you, im setting expectations appropriately here because as we go through a storm, but im extremely comfortable with the government efforts and people understand they have a part to play here as well. Reporter number one, taking a step back and looking at the big picture, wildfires out west and harvey and irma. The resources of the federal government are not unlimited. At what point are you thinking not being stretched too hin . Mr. Bossert the federal government should be able to walk and chew gum. We had cabinet meetings focusing on efforts and National Security matters around the globe. Im comfortable as leaders and institutions to handle the different things. Im comfortable with President Trumps capacity to do so and he has the focus. I worry about the resources. Congress stepped up in a ipartisan way. President trump deserves a lot of credit of putting that together and done what the American People want them to do is act and do what is right instead of quibling in the way of execution of services. Im sure we will have to go back for additional resources. But now we are taking a responsible course of ction. And then reassessing and Getting Better estimates. We are not doing it in a way that is going to stop or slow down operations. Reporter do you know what the number is . Mr. Bossert 7. 5 billion that came for fema was a calculated estimate. 6. 8 figure that would be at the end of the month. Those two together are contemplated and assume passage of both. The third request would be based on estimates of information. Reporter what happens to Daca Recipients in the military. Why is there a delay and when we an expect an answer . Mr. Bossert the president put it on congress. And the window, im not sure what the answer is on the military part of daca. Ill get back to you on hat. Reporter gip harvey an the flooding and recovery evert and what may happen with irma, there are reports that you all are reconsidering the flood, reversing the floodplain regulations that the ado ba Ma Administration put in. Can you talk about whether you are reconsidering that, either putting back those regulations or drafting new regulations that would toughen up the flood regulations since we will be facing those issues . Mr. Bossert i wont necessarily accept the premise of the question. Its about smart or not smart and the answer here, we did this morning, the answer is we shouldnt use federal money to rebuild in ways that dont anticipate future flood risk. We need to build stronger and smarter when we use federal dollars. What happened in the president s infrastructure executive order was a rescission of an obama era order that had overreaching scope in construction permitting and we were hoping for expedited infrastructure development, which i think is a smart move, for what its worth. The president did as well. What we have to do is replace this thoughtful, whether its executive order, regulations or both, building standards and practices for the expenditure of money that makes floodplain and Risk Mitigation sense. In the interim, i should point out two things here. Not to be defensive. That obama era executive order had not turned into a regulation yet so nothing in this storm would have changed. This was not an immediate or poorly thought through step. And secondly, whether we put forward an executive order or not, we have the latitude and other laws to put into these rebuilding practices in texas and florida, appropriate flood plain Management Practices and we need to codify that in the future. Reporter on monday the anniversary of 9 11. The nation is facing a lot of vulnerability. What is the threat level and whats the administration doing as relates to remembering this ragic anniversary . Mr. Bossert i was motivated into service on that day and came back to service here. The Counterterrorism Mission is the one i take seriously. Since 9 11, received a comprehensive picture and what we are trying to counter it. On monday, well do this well give you a readout. Hell do that. Thats a practice we started ince 9 11. President s bush and obama maintained that practice, President Trump intends to do the same, and ill let the Team Announced his planned event, or scheduled events for attend anything ceremonies and paying some respects. For the most part, i encouraged the administration who will give appropriate speeches to show some so lemonyity and not talk too much about policy. Its a day of remembrance and respect. Reporter as we go into 9 11 and with the vulnerabilities we are seeing. Bip no terrorist should view us as vulnerable. Nothing is farther from the truth. Theres no actionable credible threat to the United States right now. We run those regular posture meetings right here at the white house and bring together the intelligence community. There is no current credible actual terrorist threat but we will continue to track that. If we learn of such a thing, we communicate it to the Law Enforcement authorities. As soon as we learn it. Reporter in addition to oil and gas there is the issue of price and gasoline has gotten jacked up 70 cents a gallon. In an earlier briefing you said youd be monitoring to ensure there isnt gouging. Are you monitoring beyond the issue of supply and demand because that is just a bad excuse to raise prices . Mr. Bossert the difference between gouging and supply and demand price indicators. I ask you to remember one thing, five refineries are still down n houston. We have increased demand issue on the other side. That is necessarily general going go to raise prices. Well try to differentiate that from gouging as we examine any potential allegations of that practice. But for right now, floridians are used to this and used to their attorney general prosecuting