President Barack Obama delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Obama. Good morning, everybody. This morning I want to extend to the people of Haiti the deep condolences and unwavering support of the American people following yesterday's terrible earthquake.

We are just now beginning to learn the extent of the devastation, but the reports and images that we've seen of collapsed hospitals, crumbled homes, and men and women carrying their injured neighbors through the streets are truly heart-wrenching. Indeed, for a country and a people who are no strangers to hardship and suffering, this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible. Our thoughts and prayers are also with the many Haitian Americans around our country who do not yet know the fate of their families and loved ones back home.

I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. The people of Haiti will have the full support of the United States in the urgent effort to rescue those trapped beneath the rubble, and to deliver the humanitarian relief—the food, water and medicine—that Haitians will need in the coming days. In that effort, our government, especially USAID and the Departments of State and Defense are working closely together and with our partners in Haiti, the region, and around the world.

Right now our efforts are focused on several urgent priorities. First, we're working quickly to account for U.S. embassy personnel and their families in Port-au-Prince, as well as the many American citizens who live and work in Haiti. Americans trying to locate family members in Haiti are encouraged to contact the State Department at 888/407-4747. I'm going to repeat that—888/407-4747.

Second, we've mobilized resources to help rescue efforts. Military overflights have assessed the damage, and by early afternoon our civilian disaster assistance team are beginning to arrive. Search and rescue teams from Florida, Virginia and California will arrive throughout today and tomorrow, and more rescue and medical equipment and emergency personnel are being prepared.

Because in disasters such as this the first hours and days are absolutely critical to saving lives and avoiding even greater tragedy, I have directed my teams to be as forward-leaning as possible in getting the help on the ground and coordinating with our international partners as well.

Third, given the many different resources that are needed, we are taking steps to ensure that our government acts in a unified way. My national security team has led an interagency effort overnight. And to ensure that we coordinate our effort, going forward, I've designated the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Dr. Rajiv Shah, to be our government's unified disaster coordinator.

Now, this rescue and recovery effort will be complex and challenging. As we move resources into Haiti, we will be working closely with partners on the ground, including the many NGOs from Haiti and across Haiti, the United Nations Stabilization Mission, which appears to have suffered its own losses, and our partners in the region and around the world. This must truly be an international effort.

Finally, let me just say that this is a time when we are reminded of the common humanity that we all share. With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are neighbors of the Americas and here at home. So we have to be there for them in their hour of need.

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I would encourage those Americans who want to support the urgent humanitarian efforts to go to whitehouse.gov where you can learn how to contribute. We must be prepared for difficult hours and days ahead as we learn about the scope of the tragedy. We will keep the victims and their families in our prayers. We will be resolute in our response, and I pledge to the people of Haiti that you will have a friend and partner in the United States of America today and going forward.

May God bless the people of Haiti and those working on their behalf.

Thank you very much.

Secretary Hillary Clinton delivered these remarks in Honolulu, Hawaii

Secretary Clinton. Hello, everybody. I have, as you might guess, been on the phone all morning and have at least made contact with the major players in our efforts on behalf of Haiti. The situation is horrific and, unfortunately, we do not have the kind of information yet that gives us a roadmap as to how we're going to be able to respond effectively, although we are moving a lot of our assets to position them to be able to do so.

I've spoken with the President, I've spoken with Secretary Gates, I've spoken with Administrator Raj Shah, I've spoken with Cheryl Mills, I've spoken with General Cartwright, and my team has spoken with many others.

I am going to go to Pacific Command right now, which has the necessary communications capacity, to do some additional outreach not only back to Washington but to some of our partners in the region. There are a number of nations who are in the same position we find ourselves, trying to figure out how to get safely into Port-au-Prince. The airport, as you've heard, is not yet fully evaluated. We should have a team on the ground momentarily, if they're not there right now.

Q. U.S. Military?

Secretary Clinton. Yes. Yes. A U.S. military team on the ground to do the assessment, to try to establish an air traffic control system. There was some issue this morning with journalists and others trying to get into Haiti with no option for air traffic control other than visual. And obviously we can't, or other nations can't, bring in the kind of heavy lift planes that are needed.

You probably know we have 45,000 American citizens in Haiti. They are our principal responsibility, to make sure that they're safe, to evacuate those who need medical care. The Coast Guard was able to get close to Port-au-Prince—the port has some damage as well—and through the use of helicopters, air-evacuated a number of American citizens.

The international nature of this is a real opportunity as well as a challenge. The UN is deeply troubled by the reports coming out of the UN mission. As you know, there are at least 7,000 Brazilian peacekeepers on the ground. But the head of the UN mission has not been found yet. We will look closely with the UN. My husband happens to be the UN Special Envoy. He is closely communicating with and working with working with American principals from the White House, the State Department, and USAID, and with the UN.

So we are working as actively as we possibly can under extremely challenging circumstances. But the United States is fully committed. Our military is fully committed. Our search-and-rescue teams are on the way or are about to be on the way. And we're going to do everything we can to try to save as many lives and to help bring about an orderly environment in which aid and reconstruction can take place.

Secretary Hillary Clinton delivered these remarks in Honolulu, Hawaii

Administrator Rajiv Shah, General Douglas Fraser, and Counselor Cheryl Mills delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Barack Obama delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Obama. Good morning, everybody. I've directed my administration to launch a swift, coordinated and aggressive effort to save lives and support the recovery in Haiti.

The losses that have been suffered in Haiti are nothing less than devastating, and responding to a disaster of this magnitude will require every element of our national capacity—our diplomacy and development assistance; the power of our military; and, most importantly, the compassion of our country. And this morning, I'm joined by several members of my national security team who are leading this coordinated response.

I've made it clear to each of these leaders that Haiti must be a top priority for their departments and agencies right now. This is one of those moments that calls out for American leadership. For the sake of our citizens who are in Haiti, for the sake of the Haitian people who have suffered so much, and for the sake of our common humanity, we stand in solidarity with our neighbors to the south, knowing that but for the grace of God, there we go.

This morning, I can report that the first waves of our rescue and relief workers are on the ground and at work. A survey team worked overnight to identify priority areas for assistance, and shared the results of that review throughout the United States government, and with international partners who are also sending support. Search and rescue teams are actively working to save lives. Our military has secured the airport and prepared it to receive the heavy equipment and resources that are on the way, and to receive them around the clock, 24 hours a day. An airlift has been set up to deliver high-priority items like water and medicine. And we're coordinating closely with the Haitian government, the United Nations, and other countries who are also on the ground.

We have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, and we've airlifted injured Americans out of Haiti. We're running additional evacuations, and will continue to do so in the days ahead. I know that many Americans, especially Haitian Americans, are desperate for information about their family and friends. And the State Department has set up a phone number and e-mail address that you can find at www.state.gov—www.state.gov—to inquire about your loved ones. And you should know that we will not rest until we account for our fellow Americans in harm's way.

Even as we move as quickly as possible, it will take hours—and in many cases days—to get all of our people and resources on the ground. Right now in Haiti roads are impassable, the main port is badly damaged, communications are just beginning to come online, and aftershocks continue.

None of this will seem quick enough if you have a loved one who's trapped, if you're sleeping on the streets, if you can't feed your children. But it's important that everybody in Haiti understand, at this very moment one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history is moving towards Haiti. More American search and rescue teams are coming. More food. More water. Doctors, nurses, paramedics. More of the people, equipment and capabilities that can make the difference between life and death.

The United States armed forces are also on their way to support this effort. Several Coast Guard cutters are already there providing everything from basic services like water, to vital technical support for this massive logistical operation. Elements of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division will arrive today. We're also deploying a Marine Expeditionary Unit, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, and the Navy's hospital ship, the Comfort.

And today, I'm also announcing an immediate investment of $100 million to support our relief efforts. This will mean more of the life-saving equipment, food, water and medicine that will be needed. This investment will grow over the coming year as we embark on the long-term recovery from this unimaginable tragedy.

The United States of America will also forge the partnerships that this undertaking demands. We will partner with the Haitian people. And that includes the government of Haiti, which needs our support as they recover from the devastation of this earthquake. It also includes the many Haitian Americans who are determined to help their friends and family. And I've asked Vice President Biden to meet in South Florida this weekend with members of the Haitian American community, and with responders who are mobilizing to help the Haitian people.

We will partner with the United Nations and its dedicated personnel and peacekeepers, especially those from Brazil, who are already on the ground due to their outstanding peacekeeping efforts there. And I want to say that our hearts go out to the United Nations, which has experienced one of the greatest losses in its history. We have no doubt that we can carry on the work that was done by so many of the U.N. effort that have been lost, and we see that their legacy is Haiti's hope for the future.

We will partner with other nations and organizations. And that's why I've been reaching out to leaders from across the Americas and beyond who are sending resources to support this effort. And we will join with the strong network of nongovernmental organizations across the country who understand the daily struggles of the Haitian people.

Yet even as we bring our resources to bear on this emergency, we need to summon the tremendous generosity and compassion of the American people. I want to thank the many Americans who have already contributed to this effort. I want to encourage all Americans who want to help to go to whitehouse.gov to learn more. And in the days ahead, we will continue to work with those individuals and organizations who want to assist this effort so that you can do so.

Finally, I want to speak directly to the people of Haiti. Few in the world have endured the hardships that you have known. Long before this tragedy, daily life itself was often a bitter struggle. And after suffering so much for so long, to face this new horror must cause some to look up and ask, have we somehow been forsaken?

To the people of Haiti, we say clearly, and with conviction, you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster and recovery. And through it all, your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So today, you must know that help is arriving—much, much more help is on the way. Thank you very much, everybody.

President Barack Obama delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Obama. Good afternoon, everybody. I wanted to just make a brief statement on the latest situation in Haiti so that the American people are fully up to date on our efforts there.

This morning I spoke with President Préval of Haiti, who has been in regular contact with our ambassador on the ground. I expressed to President Préval my deepest condolences for the people of Haiti and our strong support for the relief efforts that are underway.

Like so many Haitians, President Préval himself has lost his home, and his government is working under extraordinarily difficult conditions. Many communications are down and remain—and many people remain unaccounted for. The scale of the devastation is extraordinary, as I think all of us are seeing on television, and the losses are heartbreaking.

I pledged America's continued commitment to the government and the people of Haiti—in the immediate effort to save lives and deliver relief, and in the longterm effort to rebuild. President Préval and I agreed that it is absolutely essential that these efforts are well coordinated among the United States and the government of Haiti; with the United Nations, which continues to play a central role; and with the many international partners and aid organizations that are now on the ground.

Meanwhile, American resources continue to arrive in Haiti. Search and rescue efforts continue to work, pulling people out of the rubble. Our team has saved both the lives of American citizens and Haitian citizens, often under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

This morning, the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson arrived, along with helicopters that will be critical in delivering assistance in the days to come. They are preparing to move badly needed water, food, and other life-saving supplies to priority areas in Port-au-Prince. Food, water, and medicine continues to arrive, along with doctors and aid workers.

At the airport, help continues to flow in, not just from the United States but from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, among others. This underscores the point that I made to the President this morning: The entire world stands with the government and the people of Haiti, for in Haiti's devastation, we all see the common humanity that we share.

And as the international community continues to respond, I do believe that America has a continued responsibility to act. Our nation has a unique capacity to reach out quickly and broadly and to deliver assistance that can save lives.

That responsibility obviously is magnified when the devastation that's been suffered is so near to us. Haitians are our neighbors in the Americas, and for Americans they are family and friends. It's characteristic of the American people to help others in time of such severe need. That's the spirit that we will need to sustain this effort as it goes forward. There are going to be many difficult days ahead.

So, so many people are in need of assistance. The port continues to be closed, and the roads are damaged. Food is scarce and so is water. It will take time to establish distribution points so that we can ensure that resources are delivered safely and effectively and in an orderly fashion.

But I want the people of Haiti to know that we will do what it takes to save lives and to help them get back on their feet. In this effort I want to thank our people on the ground—our men and women in uniform, who have moved so swiftly; our civilians and embassy staff, many of whom suffered their own losses in this tragedy; and those members of search and rescue teams from Florida and California and Virginia who have left their homes and their families behind to help others. To all of them I want you to know that you demonstrate the courage and decency of the American people, and we are extraordinarily proud of you.

I also want to thank the American people more broadly. In these tough times, you've shown extraordinary compassion, already donating millions of dollars. I encourage all of you who want to help to do so through whitehouse.gov where you can learn about how to contribute.

And tomorrow I will be meeting with President Clinton and President George W. Bush here at the White House to discuss how to enlist and help the American people in this recovery and rebuilding effort going forward.

I would note that as I ended my call with President Préval, he said that he has been extremely touched by the friendship and the generosity of the American people. It was an emotional moment. And this President, seeing the devastation around him, passed this message to the American people. He said, “From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the people of Haiti, thank you, thank you, thank you.”

As I told the President, we realize that he needs more help and his country needs more help—much more. And in this difficult hour, we will continue to provide it.

Thank you very much.

Administrator Rajiv Shah and Counselor Cheryl Mills delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

Ms. Mills. First of all, I want to just start out by saying that our commitment, the United States commitment to Haiti, is a long and deep one. And it is one that President Obama spoke about, is not only going to be in their hour of need, but is going to be for the long term.

And that's something that President Obama just reiterated in a 30-minute conversation he had with President Preval shortly ago. They spoke for quite some time and they spoke about not only the need for the immediate recovery, but also the need for the long-term rebuilding. That's something that Secretary Clinton has been focused on for quite some time here at the State Department—the commitment to being a partner with Haiti as they were building towards economic growth and sustainability.

We've been focused on that primarily because Haiti is not only our neighbor, but also we have a unique and special relationship with Haiti, and the needs in Haiti have always been needs that have been larger than the needs that you would anticipate in such a small space. And so we had been focused on thinking about how we could ensure the long-term viability and sustainability of their agriculture, of their energy, and of their health sectors in addition to being effective partners with them as they thought about their justice sectors. And we are going to continue to think in this moment of crisis about how, as we build and rebuild for the long term, that we do it cognizant of the ways in which we can catalyze the kind of economic and sustainable growth that is rightfully part of Haiti's future. And so that is a commitment that we will continue.

We have been coordinating very closely with the Haitian Government. Our ambassador has been in touch with President Preval and Prime Minister Bellerive. They have met several times yesterday. They are meeting again today, have already had one meeting, will be meeting again. That regular contact is allowing the kinds of things that need to get done and the kind of leadership that the Haitian Government is able to assert to ensure that we are acting consistent with not only the immediate goals and needs, but also that we are working in a partnership with the international community in a way that ensures the kind of coordination that is critical at this moment, given the number of countries, the number of disaster assistance relief organizations, and the number of people who are on the ground who both are in need and are providing support.

The UN has arrived with their new UN leadership who we are closely coordinating with and who we are committed to supporting in their role both in disaster assistance and in the role that they provide in providing long-term security in Haiti. MINUSTAH has been there for quite some time. We're committed to providing whatever support, but our military who is there are there on a humanitarian and a relief mission, and we are quite clear about that.

Administrator Shah. Hello. I wanted to provide an update building on the points just raised. Of course, the conversation the President had with President Preval is a clear demonstration of the partnership that we have at that level and at all levels. Many of our disaster assistance response leaders on the ground have had continual contact with different ministries in the Haitian Government, with different levels of government there, and with their United Nations colleagues so that we pursue our work in a swift and aggressive and coordinated manner.

I wanted to provide an update on the leadership of our work in Haiti, on our search-and-rescue efforts, and then introduce the major components of our relief operation. Our disaster assistance response team, led by Tim Callahan, is in the process of doubling in size. We're bolstering its capabilities to use satellite imagery and improve its planning capacities to make sure that it has the resources and the capacities to really help be strategic and targeted about putting assets and putting commodities in the hands of the nonprofit organizations and other types of entities on the ground that can deliver those services to people and that we can map that in an effective way and make sure we're covering affected areas in a broad and effective manner.

Our urban search-and-rescue teams, there are now 24 total teams on the ground actively engaged in search-andrescue. Most of these teams have between 70 and 80 individuals and are fully equipped. Four of those teams are from the United States. Of course, our Fairfax, Virginia team was the first one on the ground and has been actively providing service support and leadership to make sure this effort is coordinated and effective.

We continue to send additional capabilities and will continue to send teams, but our belief is now that there is a significant urban search-and-rescue effort underway. And it is still attempting to save lives. There is still an important open window of time—today, tonight, and perhaps even parts of tomorrow—when we have the ability to save lives—Haitian lives, American lives, and the lives of partner government and people that are there on the ground.

We are also mounting today a major relief operation. This, of course, has been in planning and works for—since the beginning of this crisis. The United States is mounting this operation in close coordination between the FEMA, the USAID, a number of other civilian agencies, and the Department of Defense, that as the President noted, is today—now has the aircraft carrier, the Vinson, there. And that will dramatically improve our capabilities to provide critically needed commodities and service support to the NGO partners and to other partners and directly to the Haitian public, as necessary.

There are a few important principles of this relief operation that I wanted to highlight. Our first and foremost goal is to meet basic needs: food, water, shelter, blankets, tarps. Those are the types of things that we are focused on meeting in a sustainable and effective way.

Second, as with our urban search-andrescue operation, we want this operation to be deeply coordinated, both across civilian and military assets of the United States and, even more important, across all of the different relief efforts that are taking place with other countries and other organizations. So we've been actively engaged in staying connected with those partners.

Third, we want this to be the groundwork for a sustainable redevelopment of Haiti and of Port-au-Prince. As the counselor has mentioned, we've had a longstanding and important relationship with Haiti with significant financial flows and significant partnerships to improve the development and health outcomes for that population. So we want to do things now that lay the groundwork for being effective in that area in the future.

And fourth, we really do want people thinking out of the box. In this next few days, we are confident that we'll be able to provide the traditional channels of distribution, the NGO partners and the other humanitarian relief partners with enough commodities and support to saturate their basic distribution capacities given the limited capacities that so many partners have in this current context. We are working with those partners and trying to ask—and we want to thank so many of them for really being creative in thinking about how they might do things differently to expand their reach and expand their ability to reach affected populations. And that will continue to be very important to make sure we have the broadest reach possible.

I'd like to run through a few quick numbers to provide a sense of scale. On food, we already have mobilized and have en route 600,000 humanitarian daily rations. These will be provided via the aircraft carrier as the mechanism of entry. In addition, we are mobilizing—we have mobilized $48 million worth of food assistance. This will be enough food assistance to provide several months of food for the affected population of 2 million individuals. And in addition to that, we're continuing to work with the World Food Program and a range of other partners to mobilize even greater commodities of food and items of food and different capacities to improve local milling efforts and other efforts to make sure that Haiti has the food it needs now and into the near future.

On water, we are in the process of mobilizing 100,000 10-liter containers, collapsible containers, so that people can access potable water and we can prevent some of the challenges that will occur if that is limited, especially in the area of public health. We believe 20,000 of those will arrive today as part of the initial lift of commodities that is on its way.

We have four major water purification systems identified, plus the water purification and production capacities of the military assets, the ships that will be there. So we are confident we'll be able to improve the situation in terms of access to potable water. We have six more that have been identified and other storage and warehouse facilities that USAID manages around the world, and we're mobilizing those to be able to enter Haiti as soon as possible.

And finally, we're working aggressively on a range of other commodity categories like shelter, blankets, and tarps, and working with our partners on the ground to identify how those can best be deployed. But we are confident we'll have the ability to send significant commodities, significant materials, and significant supplies, and we are working with our partners to identify the very best ways to make sure they're distributed to an affected population.

Thank you.

Q. I'd like to ask Dr. Shah a question about some of those figures you just provided. It sounds like this is what you intend to do starting today in terms of actually delivering water and food and so forth. Has nothing been delivered directly up to this point, and why not, by the U.S.?

Administrator Shah. No, we've already had deliveries of commodities from the very beginning of this effort. This is a different scale of that. Our initial—we had limited capacity to send things into Haiti and we made our immediate priority saving lives, and so urban search-and-rescue and the operation to save lives was part of that immediate effort. Now we have military transport and logistic capabilities, we have support and cooperation and partnership at the airport, and a number of other transport routes that we're working on that will expand the capacity to send more.

So this has been underway. The minute this happened, all of these things began to be mobilized. The reason we can start to have things there is we did not hesitate one moment in really unloading the vast majority of our stocks and assets to make sure this could get there as soon as possible.

Q. So is the U.S. military mainly distributing these materials or is it going through the NGOs mainly?

Administrator Shah. Well, the distribution—well, transport and logistics to get there is a combination of civilian charter and military capacities to get those materials there as soon as possible. It's really whatever is most effective. And in terms of distributing things when we're there, we will first work with partners and NGOs to saturate their capacity to reach affected populations and then push into direct delivery and other—a range of other potential solutions consistent with our partnerships with the UN and with other actors on the ground to make sure we do that in a smart and coordinated way.

Q. And just a quick follow-up on that.

Given your experience with previous disasters, how long would you expect the—particularly, the military U.S. component to be there? And going forward with this longer-term commitment, are you envisioning a scale-up, a big scale-up of U.S. civilian helpers, AID and others? Are we looking at a sort of a civilian surge on the Afghan model or what?

Administrator Shah. Well, let me address both those points. On the first one, certainly as we do the planning, the planning is all guided by what are the assets and capacities that Haiti needs to have as capacity there so that these military assets can be withdrawn. So, for example, in planning the water support, the goal is to consider, well, how much water—how much potable water would we need produced by the ships that are down there? What can that do to help stabilize the situation in the coming days and weeks? But what can we do in parallel to that to help build strong local capacity so that that's not necessary anymore?

The goal very much for every sector where we're developing a strategic approach is around how do you help build the local capacity, with the great local nonprofit organizations and under the leadership of the Haitian Government, to make sure that these emergency assets can go back.

But I think it's important to recognize that this is an immediate emergency. And I think at today's 2 o'clock briefing, Tim Callahan will be able to describe the extent to which there are significant immediate needs. And I'm—and so it's our responsibility, and the President has directed us, to be very responsive to meeting those needs in any way possible in this immediate timeframe.

Q. Charlie Wolfson with CBS. I want to follow on that in a general sense, because everyone has seen the pictures of some looting, some people running around the streets with machetes, giving a sense of some disruption in the security situation, so that if the UN is playing that role, it's obviously not totally effective everywhere there. I'm not sure it ever was, but it doesn't seem to be now. I just want a sense of how worried you are about the security situation and how worried you are about it getting out of control.

Ms. Mills. Well, first, I would take exception to the fact that—the statement that the UN had not done an effective job in providing security and stability in Haiti. I think that is actually one of the things they've done quite well, and so I would like to just be transparent about both the government's—our government's experience of that and my own observations with respect to the role that they've played there with respect to security.

I have not had the opportunity to see some of the images that you're speaking of. I'm confident that those images, likely are going to always exist in moments like this. I think what the key goal is, is whether or not we have large-scale calm and order. And I do believe that is something that the UN team there is providing, and we are committed to providing them with whatever support is necessary to ensure they can continue to play that role.

Secretary Janet Napolitano delivered this statement in Washington, DC

Secretary Napolitano. As part of the Department's ongoing efforts to assist Haiti following Tuesday's devastating earthquake, I am announcing the designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010. This is a disaster of historic proportions and this designation will allow eligible Haitian nationals in the United States to continue living and working in our country for the next 18 months. Providing a temporary refuge for Haitian nationals who are currently in the United States and whose personal safety would be endangered by returning to Haiti is part of this Administration's continuing efforts to support Haiti's recovery.

At this moment of tragedy in Haiti it is tempting for people suffering in the aftermath of the earthquake to seek refuge elsewhere. But attempting to leave Haiti now will only bring more hardship to the Haitian people and nation. The international community has rallied to deliver relief to Haiti. Much has already arrived and much more is on its way. The Haitians are resilient and determined and their role in addressing this crisis in their homeland will be essential to Haiti's future.

It is important to note that TPS will apply only to those individuals who were in the United States as of January 12, 2010. Those who attempt to travel to the United States after January 12, 2010 will not be eligible for TPS and will be repatriated.

The Department of Homeland Security continues to extend sympathy to our Haitian neighbors and support the worldwide relief effort underway in every way we can. Four Coast Guard cutters have arrived in Haiti, in addition to a variety of Coast Guard assets that were already in the area to support military air traffic control, conduct damage assessments and rescue people in need of assistance. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) continues to work closely with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department—the lead U.S. federal agencies in the response—while coordinating the deployment of state and local Urban Search and Rescue Teams from across the country to Haiti and standing by to provide food, water and other resources as requested. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has provided aircraft to support response efforts.

Haitians in the U.S. who are eligible to apply for TPS should go to www.uscis.gov or call USCIS toll-free at (800) 375-5283.

President Barack Obama, President Bill Clinton, and President George W. Bush delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Obama. Good morning, everybody. In times of great challenge in our country and around the world, Americans have always come together to lend a hand and to serve others and to do what's right. That's what the American people have been doing in recent days with their extraordinary generosity and contributions to the Haitian people.

At this moment, we're moving forward with one of the largest relief efforts in our history—to save lives and to deliver relief that averts an even larger catastrophe. The two leaders with me today will ensure that this is matched by a historic effort that extends beyond our government, because America has no greater resource than the strength and the compassion of the American people.

We just met in the Oval Office—an office they both know well. And I'm pleased that President George W. Bush and President Bill Clinton have agreed to lead a major fundraising effort for relief: the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. On behalf of the American people, I want to thank both of you for returning to service and leading this urgent mission.

This is a model that works. After the terrible tsunami in Asia, President Bush turned to President Clinton and the first President Bush to lead a similar fund. That effort raised substantial resources for the victims of that disaster—money that helped save lives, deliver aid, and rebuild communities. And that's exactly what the people of Haiti desperately need right now.

Every day that goes by, we learn more about the horrifying scope of this catastrophe—destruction and suffering that defies comprehension. Entire communities buried under mountains of concrete. Families sleeping in the streets. Injured desperate for care. Many thousands feared dead.

That's why thousands of American personnel—civilian and military—are on the scene working to distribute clean drinking water and food and medicine, and thousands of tons of emergency food supplies are arriving every day.

It will be difficult. It is an enormous challenge to distribute this aid quickly and safely in a place that has suffered such destruction. That's what we're focused on now—working closely with our partners: the Haitian government, the United Nations, and many organizations and nations—friends from Argentina and France, from Dominican Republic and Brazil, and countries all around the world.

And Secretary Hillary Clinton will be in Haiti today to meet with President Préval and continue our close coordination with his government. But we also know that our longer-term effort will not be measured in days and weeks; it will be measured in months and even years. And that's why it's so important to enlist and sustain the support of the American people. That's why it's so important to have a point of coordination for all the support that extends beyond our government.

Here at home, Presidents Bush and Clinton will help the American people to do their part, because responding to a disaster must be the work of all of us. Indeed, those wrenching scenes of devastation remind us not only of our common humanity but also of our common responsibilities. This time of suffering can and must be a time of compassion.

As the scope of the destruction became apparent, I spoke to each of these gentlemen, and they each asked the same simple question: How can I help? In the days ahead they'll be asking everyone what they can do—individuals, corporations, NGOs, and institutions. And I urge everyone who wants to help to visit www.clin tonbushhaitifund.org.

We're fortunate to have the service of these two leaders. President Bush led America's response to the Asian tsunami, aid and relief that prevented even greater loss of life in the months after that disaster. And his administration's efforts to fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa treated more than 10 million men, women, and children.

As President, Bill Clinton helped restore democracy in Haiti. As a private citizen, he has helped to save the lives of millions of people around the world. And as the United Nations special envoy to Haiti, he understands intimately the daily struggles and needs of the Haitian people.

And by coming together in this way, these two leaders send an unmistakable message to the people of Haiti and to the people of the world: In these difficult hours, America stands united. We stand united with the people of Haiti, who have shown such incredible resilience, and we will help them to recover and to rebuild.

Yesterday we witnessed a small but remarkable display of that determination—some of you may have seen it—Haitians with little more than the clothes on their back marched peacefully through a ruined neighborhood, and despite all their loss and all their suffering they sang songs of faith and songs of hope.

These are the people we're called upon to help. Those are the hopes that we're committed to answering. That's why the three of us are standing together today. And with that, I would invite each President to say a few words. I'm going to start with President Bush.

President Bush. I join President Obama in expressing my sympathy for the people of Haiti. I commend the President for his swift and timely response to the disaster. I am so pleased to answer the call to work alongside President Clinton to mobilize the compassion of the American people.

Like most Americans, Laura and I have been following the television coverage from Haiti. Our hearts are broken when we see the scenes of little children struggling without a mom or a dad, or the bodies in the streets or the physical damage of the earthquake.

The challenges down there are immense, but there's a lot of devoted people leading the relief effort, from government personnel who deployed into the disaster zone to the faith-based groups that have made Haiti a calling.

The most effective way for Americans to help the people of Haiti is to contribute money. That money will go to organizations on the ground and will be—who will be able to effectively spend it. I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water—just send your cash. One of the things that the President and I will do is to make sure your money is spent wisely. As President Obama said, you can look us up on clintonbushhaitifund.org.

The Haitian people have got a tough journey, yet it's amazing how terrible tragedies can bring out the best of the human spirit. We've all seen that firsthand when American citizens responded to the tsunami or to Katrina or to the earthquake in Pakistan. And President Clinton and I are going to work to tap that same spirit of giving to help our brothers and sisters in the Caribbean.

Toward the end of my presidency, Laura made a trip down to Haiti to look at the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief programs down there. I remember clearly her coming back and telling me about the energy and optimism of the people of Haiti. There's just an unbelievable spirit amongst the Haitian people. And while that earthquake destroyed a lot, it didn't destroy their spirit.

So the people of Haiti will recovery and rebuild, and as they do they know they'll have a friend in the United States of America. Mr. President, thank you for giving me the chance to serve.

President Clinton. First, I want to thank President Obama for asking President Bush and me to do this, and for what I believe has been a truly extraordinary response on the part of the American government. Because I've been working down there for nearly a year as the U.N. special envoy, I've been in constant touch with our people through the U.N. on the ground, and you know we lost a lot of our people there—the largest loss of life in the history of the United Nations on a single day. The United States has been there from the beginning. The military has been great. The response by the State Department and AID has been great. I just can't say enough about it. And the people in Haiti know it, and I'm grateful.

Secondly, I'd like to thank President Bush for agreeing to do this, and for the concern he showed for Haiti. Before this happened, my foundation worked with the PEPFAR people on the AIDS problems in Haiti and I saw how good they were and what they did and how many lives they saved.

Finally, let me say that—I don't have to read the Web site because they did—but I want to say something about this. Right now all we need to do is get food and medicine and water and a secure place for them to be. But when we start the rebuilding effort, we want to do what I did with the President's father in the tsunami area. We want to be a place where people can know their money will be well spent; where we will ensure the ongoing integrity of the process.

And we want to stay with this over the long run. My job with the U.N. basically is not at all in conflict with this because I'm sort of the outside guy. My job is to work with the donor nations, the international agencies, the business people around the world to try to get them to invest there, the nongovernmental organizations, the Haitian diaspora community.

I believe before this earthquake Haiti had the best chance in my lifetime to escape its history—a history that Hillary and I have shared a tiny part of. I still believe that. The Haitians want to just amend their development plan to take account of what's happened in Port-au-Prince and west, figure out what they got to do about that, and then go back to implementing it. But it's going to take a lot of help and a long time.

So I'm just grateful that President Bush wants to help, and I've already figured out how I can get him to do some things that he didn't sign on for. (Laughter.)

Again, I have no words to say what I feel like. When you—I was in those hotels that collapsed. I had meals with people who are dead. The cathedral church that Hillary and I sat in 34 years ago is a total rubble. But what these men have said is true: It is still one of the most remarkable, unique places I have ever been. And they can escape their history and build a better future if we do our part. And President Obama, thank you for giving us a chance to do a little of that.

President Obama. Well, these gentlemen are going to do an extraordinary job, but really what they're going to be doing is just tapping into the incredible generosity, the ingenuity, the can-do spirit of the American people in helping our neighbors in need. So I want to thank each of them not only for being here today but what I know is going to be an extraordinary effort.

I want to make sure that everybody got that Web site one more time. Obviously we're just standing it up, but it will immediately give people a means to contact our offices—www.clintonbushhaitifund.org.

And I just want to amplify one thing that was said. We were talking in the back. In any extraordinary catastrophe like this, the first several weeks are just going to involve getting immediate relief on the ground. And there are going to be some tough days over the next several days. People are still trying to figure out how to organize themselves. There's going to be fear, anxiety, a sense of desperation in some cases.

I've been in contact with President Préval. I've been talking to the folks on the ground. We are going to be making slow and steady progress, and the key now is to—for everybody in Haiti to understand that there is going to be sustained help on the way.

But what these gentlemen are going to be able to do is when the news media starts seeing its attention drift to other things but there's still enormous needs on the ground, these two gentlemen of extraordinary stature I think are going to be able to help ensure that these efforts are sustained. And that's why it's so important and that's why I'm so grateful that they agreed to do it.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Administrator Rajiv Shah delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

Administrator Shah. Hello. We've been working very hard, so this was a good chance to come together as a team to talk through some difficult issues and make sure we were living up to the President's expectations.

When the President charged us with responsibility for responding to the tragic crisis in Haiti after the earthquake, he charged us to have a swift and aggressive and coordinated response, and we've been doing that from the very beginning. Many of the departments represented in the room today sent people and assets and resources to Haiti almost immediately, with an effort in health, efforts in water and sanitation, efforts in agriculture and food, and a broad range of other federal emergency assets that could address this crisis.

Today was a chance to take stock of the performance and to make sure we were doing everything we possibly could to accelerate our efforts and do even better by reaching more people in Haiti with needed and critical supplies of food, water, shelter, and other critically needed items like medical kids and access to medical services.

We had a broad range of principals in the room. Secretary Napolitano spoke about the role that FEMA has played that has been critical in standing up the capacity to get urban search and rescue teams into the country. Urban search and rescue has been a phenomenal effort. There have been thousands of search and rescue professionals, more than 510 American search and rescue professionals that have saved over 70 lives. So it's been an extraordinary effort by a group of real heroes.

Secretary Sebelius spoke about the efforts of the Health and Human Services Department that has sent a series of disaster medical assistance teams, more than 260 health professionals that are now deployed on the ground providing medical services to meet the critical needs in Haiti.

Secretary Clinton spoke about her personal engagement with the President of Haiti and with leaders—foreign ministers all around the world to make sure that this was a strong and coordinated response. And Ambassador Rice spoke about the critical efforts we're making to do this work in close coordination and partnership with the United Nations, the World Food Program, and all of the different U.N. agencies.

That's just a little bit of what we discussed, but I'd say the main point I would make is that we're very focused on doing a lot more every day than we did before. And in that context we are trying to do that with a great deal of focus. In water, for example, we now have 18 major water production units up and running, providing nearly 2 million liters a day of safe and purified water to the Haitian population. In addition to that, we're bringing in truck convoys of bottled water and water on trucks from the Dominican Republic into Haiti and distributing that throughout Port-au-Prince.

We have water coming in from the U.S. military, with bottled-water distribution and some helicopter-based distribution of food and water as well.

Food is another sector where we are clearly doing more every single day. We've already deployed 600,000 humanitarian daily rations and are working to secure and provide nearly 17 million MREs, meals ready to eat, which was the request from the World Food Program. In addition to that we've procured a significant amount of food assistance, including purchasing local rice, 6,500 tons of local rice so we can make sure that the Haitian population has access to adequate food.

We could go through a number of other sectors—in fuel and energy—but that was the tone of the conversation, was around are we doing more every single day, because that is what it will take to meet the President's high expectations.

Q. Why hasn't the Pentagon set up Army field hospitals like the Israelis have? And are there plans to do that?

Administrator Shah. We've been working in close coordination with a lot of different donors. We have disaster medical assistance teams. We're sending medical supplies to some of the existing hospitals that are operable and that are working. And tomorrow the USS Comfort will arrive. That is a major hospital and medical facility with the capacity to work with 1,000 patients. So we are aggressively putting all of these resources there so that we can make sure we're providing health and medical services very broadly to the entire health system there.

Secretary Hillary Clinton delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

Secretary Hillary Clinton and Prime Minister Stephen Harper delivered these remarks in Montreal, Canada

Q. Yes, I'd like to ask you about a comment that the Haitian prime minister made this morning when she said that the strategy for the recovery and rebuilding effort needs to be rethought and retooled in light of the fact that so many people have fled the capital and gone into the countryside. I'm wondering if you see it that way also, and what are the implications for that kind of a change in direction?

Secretary Clinton. Well, Bob, this was a very important point that Prime Minister Bellerive made, because one of the problems that the Haitians themselves recognize, as well as other outside experts, is that over the last several decades, the population of Port-au-Prince has swollen exponentially. Services did not and could not keep up. The countryside was depopulated in ways that were contrary to the future economic growth and prosperity of the entire country.

So I was quite heartened to hear the prime minister say that as part of our multilateral efforts to assist Haiti, we should look at how we decentralize economic opportunity and work with the Haitian Government and people to support resettlement, which they are doing on their own as people leave Port-au-Prince and return to the countryside from which most of them came. Agriculture has not gotten the attention that it deserves as being one of the pillars of the economy in Haiti. In fact, this past year, as we were working on our own bilateral plan with Haiti, agriculture was our principal emphasis.

And so we are prepared, working with partners like Canada, to assist in caring for those who leave Port-au-Prince, working to provide not only assistance, but sources of livelihoods, and seeing the entire country as in need of assistance which will help what we do in Port-au-Prince be more successful.

Prime Minister Harper. I agree with that. I would just say I thought it was an interesting observation. Obviously, we're in—I think the truth is we're in the very early stages of thinking longer-term here, in what the rebuilding strategy really is. So I think it's a useful observation, one that, we can adapt to it. I think, as Secretary Clinton said, it really would help with development going forward with a more balanced and (inaudible) development.

At the same time, I think it does also indicate to us the need for us to work closely with the Haitians, who do understand the conditions on the ground maybe a little better than some of us with high intentions but a little bit farther away here. So I think it's a useful observation as we go forward.

Chairman's Statement from the Haiti Ministerial Preparatory Conference in Montreal, Canada

The Government of Haiti, alongside members of the international community with a deep and long-standing commitment to the people of Haiti, gathered in Montreal, Canada, on 25 January 2010. We solemnly expressed our profound sorrow for the devastating loss of life following the catastrophic earthquake that befell Haiti on 12 January 2010. As a group, we paid special tribute to the remarkable resilience, strength and courage of the Haitian people and reaffirmed our solidarity with Haiti throughout the relief, recovery and reconstruction process.

Participants stressed that the current situation remains dire, that the needs are immense and that the Haitian people continue to suffer. We resolved to remain swift and steadfast in our support. We will continue to urgently respond to pressing requirements in the most affected areas.

Participants recognized the continued leadership and sovereignty of the Government of Haiti. We reiterated our commitment to undertake a coordinated, coherent and comprehensive approach to meeting Haiti's immediate and longer-term needs. Together, we are fully committed to building a new Haiti that meets the legitimate and long-held aspirations of the Haitian people for their country.

I. The following principles will guide our joint approach to Haiti's reconstruction and development:

Ownership: Haitians own their future. We will respect Haitian sovereignty, will directly involve the Haitian people, and will be aligned with the priorities of the Government of Haiti.

Coordination: We will work together. Under the leadership of the Government of Haiti, and with a key coordination role by the United Nations, we will coordinate our efforts with national, international and regional organizations of the Americas, international financial institutions and a broad range of partners, to the benefit of the Haitian people. We will define priority sectors and responsibilities.

Sustainability: We will stand with Haiti for the long term. An initial 10-year commitment is essential, as is a concerted effort to build Haiti's capacity. Sustainable development, including environmental sustainability, climate resilience, disaster risk reduction and emergency preparedness, will be a cornerstone of our joint approach.

Effectiveness: We will deliver. We will adhere to the principles of aid effectiveness and good humanitarian donorship, and will build on lessons learned.

Inclusiveness: We will reach out. We will encourage and facilitate the involvement of Haitians in their diversity, nongovernmental organizations, local and international civil society, the Haitian diaspora, and the private sector.

Accountability: We will be accountable. Mutual transparency and accountability on the part of the Government of Haiti and the international community, including in the allocation and management of resources, will form an integral component of our joint approach. We will establish robust tracking and evaluation systems to assess performance and measure results.

II. While continuing to deliver humanitarian assistance, participants highlighted the following longer-term strategic objectives:

Strengthened Democratic Governance To build effective, accountable and transparent democratic institutions able to deliver basic services and to protect and promote human rights.

Sustained Social and Economic Development

To create the conditions for sustainable long-term development, economic growth and poverty reduction, drawing equally on both women and men, and meeting the needs of the most vulnerable.

Enduring Stability and Respect for the Rule of Law

To continue to support the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti's (MINUSTAH's) efforts to maintain security, especially through the contribution of police and military, while Haiti reconstitutes its national security institutions and rebuilds its justice system.

To integrate security, justice and the rule of law as essential components of democratic governance and social and economic development.

These long-term strategic objectives build on the early progress in implementing Haiti's National Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and the Government of Haiti's 2009 Report: A New Paradigm. They also provide a platform for regional efforts, particularly in concert with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American

States (OAS).

III. Participants agreed to maintain highlevel international attention and focus on Haiti. We pledged to continue to provide support to meet basic needs, and reached a common understanding on a road map toward Haiti's reconstruction and development.

Assessment

Restore the operational capacity of the Government of Haiti to ensure its ability to meet its governance responsibilities and engage with its people.

Urgently conduct post-disaster and reconstruction-focused needs assessments.

Coordination and Support

Urgently convene an international conference to be held in March in the United States, steered by the Government of Haiti, and with the support of key donors and partners, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, the European Union, Spain and France.

Agree on an effective coordination mechanism to ensure coherence of effort.

Action

Convene technical meetings to create an action plan to guide reconstruction and development.

Establish clear and realistic benchmarks and an ongoing tracking mechanism for implementation of the action plan.

We are acutely aware of the enormity and the urgency of the tasks ahead. Undaunted, we remain resolute in our conviction to work with Haiti. The people of Haiti who have endured so much deserve no less.

Administrator Rajiv Shah and Counselor Cheryl Mills delivered these remarks in Washington, D.C.

Administrator Shah. I'll just share a few broad thoughts and then provide a sectorby-sector update on where we are with the current unified relief effort.

First, rebuilding Haiti, first and foremost, is a partnership with the Haitian Government and we are fortunate to be working with the Haitian Government across the range of sectors that I'll describe. In most cases, it is the Government of Haiti, through coordinating systems on the ground, that is providing the specific strategic leadership about what gets done in what neighborhoods and at what pace. And that has been very important to guide the efforts of our collective response efforts but also efforts of other donors and other partners.

Second, the recovery effort—this is now shifting as we're ramping up the relief effort and we're trying, in a very focused way, to do things that are sustainable, that are appropriate, and that can contribute to a strong Haitian recovery in terms of the economic recovery and in terms of the recovery of the capacity of public services to sustain services provided to the Haitian population. So when we were talking earlier, our priority and our focus was around saving lives through search-and-rescue, and it has obviously evolved.

Third, every day we are very focused on doing better than we did the day before. And that continual metric we track in quantitative terms, sector by sector.

And finally, I'll just remind folks—and I enjoy sharing this because it's an important point—that it is the resilience of the Haitian people that is the primary vehicle through which most relief is provided, and I was reminded of that when I visited and walked through a settlement near the presidential palace. And you walk through that environment, and we would—we pulled up a blanket and saw a 12-volt battery connected to an inverter connected to a power strip charging probably 20 mobile phones. And people are, in fact, using those types of systems to stay connected to get information and to make effective decisions about where to go for food and supplies and for shelter and other forms of support.

In the food sector, we've now provided food and two-week rations to more than 800,000 Haitians. The rate of daily service has more than tripled from an initial rate of around 45,000 served a day to now more than 120,000 today. The reason for that significant improvement has been putting in place a fixed distribution system at 16 sites throughout Port-au-Prince. And the U.S. military, together with the World Food Program, the Government of Haiti, and a number of NGO partners, has come together to make that system an effective one.

Our reports from distributions that are done by providing coupons to women who then can come and receive rice, and soon will be able to receive other commodities and even non-food items through the system, has been distributions have been orderly, distributions have been calm, that there has been a sense of hopefulness around them, and that in addition to those fixed-point distributions, we're all—we've also served more than 250,000 people outside of Port-au-Prince in neighboring cities. So that's an important step forward for the overall relief effort. And we will continue to work towards the target of reaching 2 million people served.

In shelter, our target remains between 240- and 300,000 households and providing them with services and the capacity to provide shelter for themselves, and shelter that would be protective in an event of rains. We believe, through the combined efforts of a number of NGO partners, UN partners, and the Government of Haiti, that we've reached approximately 70,000 of those households, especially with plastic sheeting and shelter kits and some training to help support their efforts to build and to maintain a shelter for themselves.

The rate in terms of the rate of the number of the people we're reaching in that sector has increased significantly in the last 10 days, and we continue to track that, and believe we now have enough materials, plastic sheeting, shelter kits, and NGO capacity to serve up to 260,000 households. So we believe that system is on track.

There are challenges that, of course, remain. Sanitation is one of them, and exploring how we support efforts to remove rubble in a way that allows for effective placement of these shelters and of families is another challenge that we're working through under the leadership of the Government of Haiti.

In health, we've had similar progress. We have worked with the Pan American Health Organization, CDC, and the Government of Haiti through its 43 hospitals to help put in place a disease surveillance system that has now 51 surveillance sites. We will soon be starting vaccination campaigns for DPT, for measles, mumps and rubella, and tetanus toxoid. They'll be targeted, of course, to different subgroups of the population.

In addition to that, we continue with the trauma service and medical service that's been provided by the Disaster Medical Assistance Teams and by the USNS Comfort that has been in the theater. We estimate U.S. medical professionals have now seen more—or nearly 25,000 patients; that's a tremendous achievement. Of course, the needs with such a tragic situation are far in excess of that, but it is an important point. And we are now working collectively with our NGO partners and, in particular, partners of our PEPFAR program and with the CDC to really help transition some of these medical assets that were brought down by the Disaster Medical Teams to NGO partners who can help sustain their ability to serve Haitians, and also make sure those assets get integrated into a sustained and more effective healthcare system for Haiti.

The other focus in the health sector for us will continue to be on post-trauma and post-operative care. And we're increasing capacity in Haiti primarily by identifying and expanding the capacities at 31 sites that we believe have the capacity to provide post-operative and orthopedic services.

In water, water has remained, I think, a success story; that we have had approximately 2 million liters delivered daily to nearly 160 sites. That has continued to increase steadily week by week, and we have not seen shortages of water in pockets or with settlements.

I mentioned previously sanitation is more of a challenge, and so we're making that an increasing priority, and also expanding distribution of chlorine tablets at water distribution sites to prevent disease spread.

Other parts of the relief effort include a jobs program. We now are providing, through the Government of Haiti and in partnership with the Government of Haiti, nearly 5,600 daily jobs. Many of these jobs are around clearing rubble, and clearing rubble in strategic areas per a plan developed through the Government of Haiti. That will be very important, of course, for both creating space to build latrines and also creating sites where people can settle in a more effective and sustainable way, and that's an important part of our solution. And over time, more of these jobs will also migrate to those areas where people who have left Port-au-Prince and gone to secondary cities will be, so that there are expanded employment opportunities, and over a longer term, of course, transitioning that to private sector employment opportunities will be an increasingly important priority.

So as you can see, sector by sector, we're trying to make sure we just continue to solve problems and do better every day, do that in partnership with the Government of Haiti, and do that in a way that helps create the basis for sustained and sustainable activity so that the Haitian people have access to services that they need at this—in what continues to be, of course, a tragic emergency response situation.

Q. Do you have a better handle on the demographics of this disaster? We get various numbers going around, but do we know it's going to be two million people needing full food aid for a year? Do you have a better handle on that now?

Administrator Shah. Well, the original estimates, you recall, were as high as four million. We were doing a lot of planning around four million. I think that number has probably come down to around two million, which continues to be the planning metric that we use in defining, for instance, how much food assistance we should be providing, how we're working with the World Food Program to size the response over the course of the next year.

That said, that's a very rough and inaccurate overall estimate. And the reality is on the ground every morning, these teams are getting together and saying, “How many people did we reach yesterday? How can we do that better? What are the areas of need?” And through NGO networks and through the Government of Haiti, we're able to reach more and more people in different parts of the country, and even in parts outside of Port-au-Prince. So people have been migrating outside of Port-au-Prince to secondary cities. They're receiving a greater degree of support as well. So it's probably less accurate to say there's one fixed number that works for—across every sector.

Q. And can I have—my second question, real quick, was just looking forward. When it comes to the local economy and rebuilding that, I was curious if there is a plan or an idea about providing loans for local businesses, loan guarantees for banks to get that rolling again and boost employment—local employment there.

Ms. Mills. I mean, I think all of those, obviously, are going to be things that are going to be examined very closely because you ultimately want to build an economy that can actually be sustainable, and we want to create the best opportunity to do that in an effective fashion. That is certainly something that had already been anticipated prior to the earthquake, and there had been a number of investors who had traveled down to a large-scale conference and thinking about how they could invest and how the local businesses actually could be a larger part of the investment to kind of spur economic growth. That has to clearly be a central element of the planning that gets done over the long haul. It's something certainly President Preval has been very focused on. And I anticipate as they come forward with what their plan for long-term development is, that that will be a central part of it.

Q. Can I ask about the—more about the jobs program? Dr. Shah, you mentioned that 5,600 through U.S. participation were working right now. You didn't mention a goal. Is that something that's going to grow a lot more? I know a lot of UNDP is involved, other private organizations, but I'm wondering about the U.S. program working with the government. And also if there's some plan or hope that this—expanding these programs kind of gets the private sector going instead of food aid, but getting people cash so they can go to the private markets that are up and running.

Administrator Shah. Well, you're absolutely right, and let me start with the private markets piece because I would just reiterate that in every sector, the single most important relief strategy has been the private market. Food markets have been operating throughout, are now very robust. We're seeing people buying a range of food items and cooking and charcoal is moving in markets. So that's just in food that—it's absolutely true in water. And water, we supported—we now have a convoy of 200 trucks that go back and forth between Santo Domingo and Portau-Prince. But a lot of what they bring is then distributed through private markets and through NGOs. But private markets have been a huge part of the successful effort to get water to where water is needed, because there have been local water companies that do that and had the capacity to do that very quickly after the disaster.

In that same vein, in every area that we work in, we are, together with the government, planning what is the right strategy to make sure that we're providing food to those populations in need, but doing that in a way that is cognizant of the government's own aspirations to have a strong and vibrant agriculture sector. And there's been an active discussion about that and people are tracking market prices to understand the impacts of the relief effort on private markets. So I think that's a very important point. I'm glad you raised it.

On the jobs program, that is, again, directed by the government and in concert with UNDP, which is also—and I think you made reference to—also launching various programs. The way these programs work, of course, at the government's direction is they—it's local mayors or local political leaders identify priorities in their areas. They work through their own mechanisms or with partner NGOs to identify what needs to get done, and on a day-to-day basis they go out and hire people, pay a minimum wage, and then provide that employment opportunity and also get important public works done. I think as that—that is also a part of a transition strategy, of course, to a private sector based employment strategy, but I think that will take some time.

Q. So just the 5,600, is there some goal for—

Administrator Shah. Well, we're trying—our goal is more every day under the direction and capacity of the government. That's true across every sector. And so just a few days ago, that number was 2,800 and it's now 5,600. We anticipate it will grow significantly through February.

Q. Can you update us on how many Haitian orphans are still waiting to come back to the U.S., how many are in the pipeline? And then can you address these 10 Americans or missionaries, whatever they were—is there any concern that this has put a long-term damper on the relationship between the U.S. and Haiti with adoptions? Will this have a long-term effect?

Ms. Mills. So there's about 575 children who have already been processed through. I don't have a good number, but I can actually have P.J. get back to you with what at least we would anticipate. I would imagine that there's still at least another hundred children that would actually be—assuming that they get their paperwork in order—would be in the pipeline. But there might be more than that, and we certainly can get back to you on that.

In terms of concern, actually, no, and I'll tell you why. We've had very good relations with the leadership of the Haitian Government and, in particular, had sat down and talked through the careful parameters we were placing on those children that we would allow to have humanitarian parole into the United States. And I think that gave them a lot of confidence that we were taking very seriously the need to ensure that only children who were already in process were actually going to be paroled out of the country and that we were not seeking to have any other children paroled out of the country at this time, that this is really the time for UNICEF and a lot of the other NGOs who are working on the ground there to actually ensure that they were placing children with families or identifying families that might be more extended families in the instance where children had been separated from more immediate families. And so that process has continued apace and I actually feel very good about the careful parameters that we've placed on the orphans that we would parole in.

Administrator Rajiv Shah and General Douglas Fraser delivered these remarks in Haiti

Administrator Shah. Thank you.

We come today in partnership and in the spirit of cooperation both to mourn the tremendous loss of life and the tremendous suffering that's been incurred from this terrible tragic earthquake on its near one month anniversary.

We also come to continue our dialogue with the government of Haiti and to continue to learn what we can do to help support the people of Haiti and to help carry out President Obama's commitment to serve the people of Haiti as effectively, as swiftly, and as aggressively as possible.

We had the chance this morning to meet with President Preval and with Prime Minister Bellerive and other members of the Cabinet and continue to take their guidance and their advice and work under their direction in all of our efforts here in Haiti.

What we've seen today is that there's been a tremendous amount of progress in the past month, primarily led by Haitians and the resilience of the Haitian people, but also by the humanitarian assistance workers from around the world and from the United States.

Finally, we recognize that today is an opportunity to renew our commitment to continue to serve Haiti and the Haitian people, not just to meet immediate needs but also for the long term.

Thank you.

Now I'll introduce my colleague and partner in this effort, General Doug Fraser.

General Fraser. Thank you very much.

As Dr. Shah said, we come here at a time of mourning for the Haitian people and our hearts go out to all the people of Haiti and all those who have suffered during this disaster.

The partnership we have with the government of Haiti, with the United Nations, with MINUSTAH, with all of the U.S. government led by Dr. Shah and USAID has been instrumental in the capacities we've been able to gather here and support in Haiti.

There's really great cooperation amongst the entire international community to support the government of Haiti and the people of Haiti, and that will continue as long as that requirement is still a need.

Thank you very much.

Q. Jonathan Cass with Associated Press.

General, we understand that the number of American troops here in Haiti has been reduced about 10,000 from the high water mark. We were wondering if there was going to be a continued drawdown, what we could expect to see in terms of those numbers as far as the future goes, and then what that's going to mean here on the ground in Haiti.

General Fraser. Today on the ground supporting Haiti there are roughly 13,000 U.S. military men and women supporting the efforts here in Haiti. Of that roughly 6500 are on the ground in Haiti. We brought a lot of capability, a lot of flexibility to Haiti to deal with the immediate situation. As the international aid and relief efforts have improved and increased in Haiti, we've seen an ability to transition those capabilities to other needs around the world.

I think what is important is that it is a transition. The capacity that we have here, if it is still required, will transition to other U.S. government organizations or NGOs or UN organizations. It is not an exit of capability.

So it is a transition of immediate relief capability to an enduring capacity here in Haiti.

Q. Richard Harris, NPR.

I was talking earlier in the week with the UN organization that's running the place. Right after the rains, many many people got wet here. The UN said there was shelter for about 300,000, really good tents or tarps for 300,000 and the need is for a million. And that basically the problem is not that there are tents sitting around here, but there are tents and tarps and so on that need to be delivered from the U.S. and elsewhere. Are there plans to expand the amount of aid that is coming from the U.S. to Haiti for things like shelter?

Administrator Shah. Yes. President Preval asked us to redouble our efforts to expand shelter assistance to Haitians and Haitian families. So we will be expanding both shipments of materials to Haiti for that purpose and expanding the distribution of shelter kits, sanitation and support for the development of safe shelters for Haitian families that have been displaced.

Q. John Bolls, CNN. A question for either one who wants to answer.

A month on, specific examples of what is now working well, specific examples of what needs to be working better, and looking ahead, where do you go from this point on? What are the immediate challenges?

You also said that you're working very closely with the Haitian government, that they're overseeing it. Again, specific examples of something that the Haitian government has been hands-on in doing that you have taken their direction on. Thank you.

Administrator Shah. It's sometimes hard to describe the successes because the needs are so tremendous. But this was the largest and most successful international search and rescue effort ever assembled in history. We've seen real progress with more than two million people served with food rations; with significant increases in water availability that meet humanitarian targets; and with health and medical interventions that range from immunization to prevent the spread of disease in the future and surgical capacities with literally thousands of surgeries being performed.

Of course it's not enough, and we're always very focused on expanding all of these efforts, but those are important milestones and important indicators of progress.

In each of those sectors, as well as in the efforts to create Cash For Work programs for rubble removal and in other areas, we're taking the direction of the government of Haiti quite specifically and very directly. AFP: Mike Smith from AFP.

You mentioned the drawdown in the numbers of troops and you mentioned a long term commitment. What does that mean? Do you have a length of time for how long that's going to last? And do you have a number of troops in mind for how many will be here for that long term commitment eventually?

General Fraser. It's important, I think, to remember that the capability and the capacity the United States military brought in was for immediate relief. As the capability here in Haiti improves and the international community as well as the government of Haiti is able to take on and sustain those capabilities and the immediate need is no longer there, the need for military forces and U.S. military forces, then it declines.

For example, here at the airport we have the capacity for 160 flights per day. We're now having a band of about 80 flights a day; and the government of Haiti is taking over running the airport during daylight hours when was their norm for operating that pre-earthquake.

We're seeing support in the food distribution and the capabilities there, and needs are going down. Needs are going down from an emergency medical capacity of post-earthquake.

So as we look toward the future we will only keep that capacity that is needed here to support U.S. government and international capabilities, and that is still an effort that's ongoing to define.

One other question was the timeframe. We are looking at it from a capacity standpoint, not necessarily a timeframe. So as capacity meets demands, then we'll look for transition.

President Barack Obama and President René Préval delivered these remarks in Washington, DC

President Obama. Please be seated. Good afternoon, everybody. And on behalf of the American people, I want to welcome President Préval, the First Lady, and their delegation to the United States.

The President and I have just concluded a very productive meeting in the Oval Office on the urgent and overriding challenges before us—helping the people of Haiti as they recover and rebuild after one of the most devastating natural disasters ever to strike our hemisphere.

Mr. President, as I did when I spoke to you in those first days after the earthquake, I again want to express to you and to the Haitian people the deepest condolences of the American people. Your grief is shared by our strong and vibrant Haitian American community, some of whom join us here today and who continue to mourn the loss of their loved ones back in Haiti. To you, and to our fellow Americans, please know that you remain in our thoughts and in our prayers.

The United States joins in mourning the loss of American citizens, as more than 100 Americans died in this earthquake—and our hearts also go out to their loved ones. We also remember that this natural disaster was an international tragedy, taking the lives of Dominicans and Canadians, French, Brazilians, and people from dozens of nations around the world.

President Préval and his delegation offered an update on the status of relief, recovery and reconstruction efforts—the progress so far and the daunting challenges ahead in a disaster that, even now, defies comprehension. To offer just some perspective on the awful scale of Haitian loss, it's as if the United States, in a terrible instant, lost nearly 8 million people; or it's as if one-third of our country—100 million Americans—suddenly had no home, no food, or water. That gives you a sense of, relative to the populations, what has happened in Haiti. No nation could respond to such a catastrophe alone. It would require a global response. And that's exactly what we have seen these past two months.

Mr. President, even as you and other Haitian leaders have endured your personal tragedies—losing your own homes, your loved ones—you have carried on with great courage and determination. You've persevered, leading an international effort with critical support from the United Nations, many partner nations and countless nongovernmental organizations. Representatives of some of the NGOs are here today, and for the extraordinary work that you've done to uplift lives every day—in Haiti and around the world—often at great risk to your own lives, we salute you as well.

In this international response, the United States has been proud to play a leading role. Mr. President, we are joined today by men and women representing all the Americans who answered Haiti's call in its hours of need, including members of Congress, and many state and local officials who we thank for their support, and leaders from across my administration—the Department of State, USAID, Homeland Security, FEMA, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and the Department of Defense, including our great folks at Southern Command. Today I want to thank all of them for leading a swift and coordinated response during one of the most complex humanitarian efforts ever attempted.

We're joined by Ambassador Ken Merten and some of our heroic embassy staff who worked around the clock. We're joined by our disaster response teams, who were on the scene within 24 hours; our military personnel who quickly reopened the airport and the port, making way for a massive humanitarian effort; our search and rescue teams, who crawled into the rubble to pull survivors out to safety, Haitian and American; the volunteer physicians and nurses and paramedics who treated tens of thousands of patients with life-threatening injuries; and all our men and women in uniform who have helped to distribute desperately needed food and water and medicine to millions of people—our remarkable soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen.

I just want to personally say how extraordinarily proud I am of each and every one of you, because I think you represent what's best in America. And I could not be prouder of the response that all of you were engaged in during this humanitarian crisis.

Now, no relief effort of this magnitude is without its difficulties, but there should be absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind, along with their Haitian and international partners, these men and women made a difference. They saved lives—countless lives—of men and women and children.

So, Mr. President, if you will permit us this moment to briefly express once again our admiration for all those who stepped forward, who volunteered, who represent the true character of our country and who projected to the world the best face of America—a face of compassion and generosity. Each and every one of you can take enormous pride at your service, and every single American thanks you for making us so proud.

I also want to acknowledge the enormous generosity of so many individual Americans, who gave what they could to support Haiti even in difficult economic times. That help makes possible an extraordinary response from the courageous and capable nongovernmental organizations that have been at the scene, and that support all kinds of efforts that the government is engaged in. And I know that the support of the American people will continue to be essential as Haiti tries to recover and rebuild.

As President Préval and I discussed, the situation on the ground remains dire, and people should be under no illusions that the crisis is over. Many Haitians are still in need, desperate need in some cases, of shelter and food and medicine. And with the spring rains approaching, those needs will only grow. The challenge now is to prevent a second disaster.

And that's why, at this very moment, thousands of Americans, both civilian and military, remain on the scene at the invitation of the Haitian government. And that's why, even as the U.S. military responsibly hands off relief functions to our Haitian and international partners, America's commitment to Haiti's recovery and reconstruction must endure and will endure. This pledge is one that I made at the beginning of this crisis and I intend for America to keep our pledge. America will be your partner in the recovery and reconstruction effort.

Toward that end, the international donors conference at the United Nations later this month will be an opportunity, an important opportunity, for all parties. Haiti can lead the way, and will lead the way, with a strong vision for its future. The international community can pledge the resources that will be necessary for a coordinated and sustained effort. And working together, we can ensure that assistance not simply delivers relief for the short term, but builds up Haiti's capacity to deliver basic services and provide for the Haitian people over the long term.

So, Mr. President, in the face of devastation that shocked the world, the people of Haiti responded with resolve and faith that inspired the world—in song and in prayer, and in the determination to carry on. As you declared during last month's national day of mourning, it is time to wipe away the tears; it is time for Haiti to rebuild.

And to you, and to the Haitian people, I say today, as you embark on the heavy work ahead, you will continue to have a steady and reliable partner in the United States of America.

So with that, let me turn this over to President Préval.

President Préval. Mr. President, dear friends in Congress, members of the organizations that helped Haiti in this moment of need, the Haitians of Washington. The damages caused in Haiti by the earthquake of January 12, 2010 are unimaginable. But the response from the international community—from Asia to Africa, from the United States, from Canada, from all of Latin America, from the Caribbean, from Europe, all the way to the Middle East—this response, thanks to its swiftness, thanks to its size, was commensurate with the disaster.

Today, here and now, I would like to thank the American people, I would like to thank Congress, I would like to thank the administration, and you, in particular, Mr. President, as well as your wife, not

only for the material aid, but also for the moral support, the psychological support, that helped us realize that we were not alone and that provide us great comfort in our distress.

You, thanks to your statements, sent a message to all of those who provided help to Haiti. Needless for me to repeat that which you said. So I would like to thank you for having made it possible for these people to come to help us.

Mr. President, for me this is also an opportunity to express my sympathy, my condolences, to all of the American families for whom members of their families were killed, injured in Haiti during this earthquake.

Dear friends, we must draw the lessons from what occurred in Haiti. These are lessons for all of mankind. The Haiti earthquake was immediately followed by the earthquake in Chile, as well as other earthquakes throughout the world. And the countries that have seismic risks are not merely those countries which are located on top of seismic faults. In fact, the tsunamis, which are the repercussions of break in faults, threaten other regions as well as the United States.

In addition to earthquakes and tsunamis, global warming is a major concern for the entire planet. We must draw the lessons from what occurred in Haiti—the massive, spontaneous, generous help was a good response to the disaster. However, its effectiveness must be improved, because effectiveness depends on the quality of coordination.

This is why I support the idea of the creation of so-called “red helmets” within the United Nations, and these would be an observatory, a warning system, a provision system for natural disaster, and a humanitarian force which would be the equivalent of the blue helmets. It was proposed that there should be so-called “red helmets,” a humanitarian force in order to intervene, and that would work in a coordinated manner as soon as the first minutes after a disaster, which are fundamental to saving lives.

Mr. President, during our meeting I mentioned what Haiti's preoccupations and priorities were. Our priorities are, first and foremost, as you said, protection of those people who today are homeless and who must be relocated. And in parallel, we must prepare the rainy season, which just last week has already caused the deaths of 15 people.

And at the same time, much more basically, we must deal with the need of rebuilding Haiti, thanks to an effective decentralization policy—namely, offering health care, education, jobs to all Haitians, men and women, regardless of where they live in the country, in order to prevent migratory flows towards the big cities, towards Port-au-Prince, and that will help avoid that disaster such as the earthquake would cause so many victims.

On March 31st, there will be at the United Nations an international conference in order to support the reconstruction of Haiti. I do hope that all participants will share this philosophy, this vision, of decentralization.

And at the same time, just as the first responders, I do recommend the concept of a coordination via the creation of a trust fund, a donors trust fund, whose implementation would be done followed according to a unique procedure carried out by one executing agency. We talked about this and I do know that we can already count on your support to be the advocate of that idea during this conference in support of our vision.

Thank you very much.

Secretary Hillary Clinton delivered these remarks in New York City, New York at the International Donors Conference: Towards a New Future for Haiti

Secretary Clinton. Thank you for the immediate response to the overwhelming catastrophe that afflicted the Haitian people and thank you for your continuing commitment.

We have had over 140 nations working to support the Government of Haiti in delivering food, temporary shelter, and medical care to thousands of survivors. But the emergency relief is only the beginning of what will be a long road to recovery, as the Secretary General just pointed out; one that will require global support.

I know we've heard these imperatives before—the need to coordinate our aid, hold ourselves accountable, share our knowledge, track results. But now, we cannot just declare our intentions. We have to follow through and put them into practice. Therefore, this is not only a conference about what financially we pledge to Haiti. We also have to pledge our best efforts to do better ourselves—to offer our support in a smarter way, a more effective way that produces real results for the people of Haiti.

So let us say here, with one voice, we will pass this test for us. To that end, the United States pledges $1.15 billion for Haiti's long-term recovery and reconstruction. This money will go toward supporting the Government of Haiti's plan to strengthen agriculture, energy, health, security, and governance. We are committed to working with the people and organizations throughout Haiti, including civil society groups, private businesses, NGOs, and citizens. And I'm very glad to see so many of them represented here today.

We will also be looking for ways to engage our Haitian diaspora. Haitian Americans have much to contribute to this effort. And we will seek specifically to empower the women of Haiti. I've said this so many times that I know I sound like a broken record, but investing in women is the best investment we can make in any country. And investing in the Haitian women will fuel the long-term economic recovery and progress, not only for them, but for their families.

Over the years, all of our countries have learned many lessons, particularly from the tsunami that the United Nations was instrumental in leading the response to. Now, we must put those lessons to work in Haiti. I'm very excited and very committed on behalf of President Obama, the Government of the United States, and the people of the United States to help Haiti and to help the leaders of Haiti lead a recovery effort worthy of their highest hopes.