Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney, 7/27/12
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
James S. Brady Press Briefing Room
12:00 P.M. EDT
MR. CARNEY: Thanks for being here, everyone. I’m sorry I’m late. Actually, on my way here, I dumped most of a cup of water on the floor outside the Oval Office — very embarrassing. Pete Souza, the White House photographer, insisted that it was a cup of coffee and he was going to make a “Picture of the Day” out of it. (Laughter.) But it was, in fact, water.
I have no announcements. I wanted to take the toughest questions first, but I don’t see Connie here. (Laughter.) She got me yesterday.
So we’ll go straight to the Associated Press.
Q Thank you. At the Israel bill signing today — I know you got a similar question on the Olympics readout yesterday — but how much of the timing of this bill signing today and the announcement of the $70 billion in addition to that are tied to Romney’s upcoming visit to Israel?
MR. CARNEY: Well, Julie, as I think you know, the bill the President signed today that reaffirms the United States’ unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security was passed by Congress this month and was sent to the President a week ago. And the President has been traveling, so, as is normally the case, he signs a bill when he gets it from Congress — a bill that he supports — and that’s what he did. So the timing of the passage and signing of this legislation was not up to us, but up to Congress.
And then on the announcement that funds had been transferred to fund our support for Iron Dome, the rocket defense program, the President directed those funds to be made available in May and the transfer was made in recent days. And since this is a program that is very directly related to the U.S.-Israeli security relationship, it’s entirely appropriate to make that announcement at the same time that he’s signing this bill that was passed in a bipartisan way in Congress.
So I think that both the bill and the funds announcement reflect
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/27/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-72712
Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=18775
Posted by RobertButler
on Jul 30 2012. Filed under Barack Obama.
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