Aboard Air Force One
En Route Miami, Florida
8:55 A.M. EDT
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: Okay, good morning. Today in Surfside, the President and the First Lady will receive a command briefing from Incident Commander Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Governor Ron DeSantis, and Unified Command on the current status of the search-and-rescue efforts and the federal, state, and local resources being deployed as part of the response. Then they will thank the heroic first responders, search-and-rescue teams, and everyone who has been working around the clock for their tireless work.
The President and the First Lady will meet with the families who have been forced to endure this terrible tragedy to offer them comfort during this unimaginable, difficult time as search-and-rescue efforts continue.
At the end of the day, the President will deliver remarks on the tragedy, how he and the nation stand with the families and survivors, and the federal government's response efforts in coordination with our state and local partners.
On those efforts: As of 6:00 a.m. this morning, FEMA has deployed over 60 FEMA staff to support response efforts in Sunrise, Florida. FEMA is also deploying an additional 400 personnel across five urban search-and-rescue teams to assist with ongoing operation at the request of local officials.
Each of the — each of the urban search-and-rescue team has 80 personnel, and all five deployed US&R teams will arrive on site and be operational today. Two additional urban and research [search and] rescue teams are on standby to rapidly deploy and provide relief to the first responders who are working tireless — tirelessly if needed.
Last evening, FEMA awarded more than $20 million in federal funding to the Florida Division of Emergency Management for Emergency Protective Measures. Given the circumstances and the unprecedented response underway, led by the state — by state and local officials, FEMA expedited this request for funding from the state.
These funds will support the state and local governments' on-going, unbudgeted costs to conduct rescue operations. This additional fund — federal support from FEMA is authorized under the emergency declaration the President approved to coordinate disaster relief efforts, reimburse response costs, provide equipment and resources to assist with debris removal and emergency protective measures in order to try to save lives, and to provide temporary shelter and housing to alleviate the hardship and suffering for those who have been displaced.
With that, Alex, you want to kick us off?
Q Sure. Most Florida counties don't require condo inspections. And I'm wondering if the President believes that there needs to be a change in local or federal policy to require more inspections and to prevent future situations like this from occurring?
MS. JEAN-PIERRE: I'll say this, the National Institute of Standards and Technology — NIST — announced last night that they're launching a full investigation into what caused the partial collapse of the Champlain Towers South building.
So, as you know, the President supported an investigation in order to undermine [understand] what caused the terrible tragedy and ensure nothing like it ever happened again. So, we look forward to NIST's conclusions once the investigation is complete. And so, we're going to see what the investigation shows, and that will answer, hopefully, some questions that we all have on what happened.
Q What's the President's reaction to the CFO of the Trump Organization being indicted in New York?
