Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, let me talk generally about the hurricane. There is a lot of aid left to go to south Florida which…”

“Well, first of all, let me talk generally about the hurricane. There is a lot of aid left to go to south Florida which has been approved but not spent, that's tied up in various Government pipelines. Some of it was not pushed through under the previous administration. But I have to say, frankly, some of it was slowed down because of the transition, the change of governments. That happens. And I'm going to put someone on that next week because of something Governor Chiles said to me. I want to put one person in charge of making sure that all the assistance that's supposed to go to south Florida for Hurricane Andrew actually goes there as quickly as possible. We'll run through all those Departments and try to push it out. On Homestead Air Force Base: In the campaign, President Bush said that he would just rebuild it while we were closing a lot of other air force bases. The Congress voted against that and said Homestead had to be considered along with all other bases. I agree with that; I think we have to consider Homestead along with all other air bases. There's a base commission, and they will evaluate the needs for it. But let me say what I believe, based on having spent an enormous amount of time in south Florida and having talked to your congressional delegation about it and others. I think that is an invaluable asset. I think it is important to rebuild enough support systems so that all the retired military personnel, around the air base at least, don't lose the dependence they had on it and turn around and leave your community, which would be bad for you. I think it's important to find a mission for Homestead. And I believe that there are a number of multiple use missions which are potential. We may even have joint use between military and commercial uses. I've given a good deal of thought to it, and it's one of the things that I want to talk to you folks about. Now, if it clears the base closing commission, it will just be rebuilt with its mission. If it doesn't, then I think we need to look at whether there is a mixed use for it as both a military and commercial mission. It's an incredible resource for south Florida, and it has to be used as a part of the rebuilding process. So if the base is not rebuilt because the base closing commission doesn't recommend it, then I'll help you do something else with it to generate an equal amount of jobs.”