sometimes cities get excited about how much there will make. the numbers are not accurate. there is no accepted accounting for the olympics. auditors look at the books. countries report after the games how they did economically. they want to show the games were successful so they keep off the books all sorts of costs which were contributed by the government or other agencies. in japan, the cost of construction is not considered an olympic expenditure. we do put that on the books in our case. the numbers are difficult to come by. the ultimate reason for the games in my view is an opportunity to serve. it is an opportunity to show one's committee but is not in national would fall unless you're lucky. >> how difficult is the security problem for the olympic games in utah?

we have had a lot of attention to new threats of terrorism. is this change in your calculation about what you have to do? >> there are three branches of security that we consider. one is the security within the venue itself or security within the fence. we have tens of millions of dollars in our budget. to bring in security people from around the country and around you talk as well as some of our own staff to provide all the security from magnetometers and other devices to individuals. we're careful and -- in protecting the venue. there is security outside the fence. police on the streets directing traffic, making sure that people are not going in places they should not. that is also a budget item. which we did not think about when we put our budget together. and by far the greatest security investment and the greatest security requirement is one provided by the federal

government which is not part of our budget because we do not know what the number is. it is confidential to us. the gao estimates it would be it would be a -- it would be a $200 million service to make sure we interdict any kind of an appropriate entry into this country and we provide absolute security against those types of acts, terrorist acts in and around the olympic city. i am convinced under the direction of the fbi and want to make it clear, i have no direction for that anti- terrorist security efforts. that is directed by the fbi and the agencies that work together with them under their direction i am convinced we will have six games. - safe games. we have some things going for us. we're a long way away from anywhere in the middle of the mountains and hopefully that will give us an opportunity to make sure we have absolute security for the people who come to this games, particularly our athletes and officials and elected officials. >> you spoke movingly of van

jansen picking himself up on the track. do you see yourself running for the senate? >> i did not just fall, i got crushed. it is hard to get back up. we were chatting about that before i began speaking. it was a great thrill. i cannot imagine. people get into politics for different reasons. i grew up in a political family. my mom and dad both ran for office. my dad ran as governor and he won three times and was a participant in what he called a mini campaign for president. it was short and revealing. during my campaign, he came back to boston and moved into our home for six months. i have five sons all of them in college or married and they came back to our home.

we lived together for six months to year and campaigned day in and day out. it was one of the great family experiences. i have to be honest. i recognize it is a long shot for a republican businessman who was born in detroit to be a kennedy democrat in massachusetts and i am not likely to keep banging my head against that wall but politics is great. i would love to run if i could win so i will have to wait for the center to get to be 98. and then we will reconsider it then. >> or pick another state. >> that has been taken. >> today is the test run of the if on on that new cross-country course. many of us find it frustrating in the weeks of coverage of the olympics, we get to see maybe 45 seconds of this unusual sport

by califon. -- the buyout lawn. can you give us to a half minutes? >> we did not decide what ntc decides to put on prime time. there is a plot in hand. we want to make sure you do not think you can see by califon or cross-country so you have to come out and see it in person. we will see tens of thousands of people in a way that you can see the entire course and what's the event. a lot of you do not know what if one is. it is one of the great olympic sports. europeans, particularly from the northern part of europe think it is fabulous and it is the number-one sport by television. it is not just physical, it is a mental sport. it has the mental element. these kids have to spread like crazy on cross-country skis and stop and take up the position

and should a target. they have to hit the bull's-eye and they put down their gun and go. you add one minute to their time. if they miss the target. try to make up a minute on 8 cross-country course is an eternity. 180, 190, who knows how fast it is going. they have to stop and pick up their rifle and decide when do i pick up the trigger? do i wait a little longer and by weight, chances are better of hitting the target but the longer i wait, i am seeing that person taking off. he or she is on their way. that decision, the way, how fast you go, how much you bring your heart rate down? sport so exciting. i was given a rifle was nothing but a laser guide at the end of it.

with this i could shoot those targets and on the screen behind me, my staff -- my staff watched how poor shot i was. i gained great respect to do something after a while your heart is racing fast. it is a great sport. come on out, we will see -- save a place for you. >> how extensive is your involvement in the continuing investigation of the fbi and justice investigations of the olympic scandal? >> that is an easy question. i have virtually no involvement in the investigation. you make a decision when you come into an organization that is in turn around as to what you will focus on. the focus of our management team had to be exclusively in getting ready for the winter games of 2002 and the athletes of the world. you think about the kids in the training they go through and the kind of expectations that have for our organization, it

struck me as being irresponsible for me and the members of my management team to carry out a romney report of what happened in the past. we had an ethics panel in salt lake city investigate what happened prior, during the bid process. this ethics report was handed to me. the report said anyone who is implicated by that report was asked to leave our organization or voluntarily moved on to something else, even though there were not convicted. even if the cast a shadow. the experience of these athletes, it was appropriate for them to step aside and they did so. currently, there is a very large investigation -- i did not know how large, an ongoing investigation by the justice department. it is the premier investigative agency. it has asked us for documents from our files. where only so willing to provide everything we can to

help that investigation. our first request called for copies. the copy machine bill was $250,000 just for those companies. -- copiesit has cost us into the millions of dollars to gather files, to cat -- collect the files and copy them. that is something we're willing to do. in a democracy if there has been evaluate it. is there any other country in the world that in the middle of the olympics would investigate itself. answer we have enough confidence not to try to hide this and bury it. we have enough confidence in our democratic ways that we will evaluate ourselves and let the chips fall where they live. i support that effort. i am not part of the investigation itself and continue to focus virtually exclusively on getting ready for the taliban -- olympians of 2002.

>> was it a hard sell to get you to take this job? >> that's a pretty deep and personal question. i was involved in bain capital. these have been very good times to be in investments. we get to keep a portion of the profits we made. contemplating new investments in a robust market with internet companies going through the ceiling and other companies doing extremely well. and i g >> under the circumstances, was

it hard to get you to take this job? what factors influence your decision to come on? >> that is a deep personal question. i was happily involved in a business i began 15 years ago called bain capital, a venture capital and buy up business. these had been very good times to be in investment. we managed money for other people and got to keep a portion of the profit been made. financially, these were very attractive time for me and my partners. there are about 18 of us. i was sitting at my desk one day, contemplating new investments in a robust market with internet companies going through the ceiling and other companies doing extremely well. and i got a call from a person i had a hard time saying no to. the idea for me to come to the olympic games was originated by a friend in salt lake city. he knew to call me and asked me what i thought about the idea and knew i would immediately say that is ridiculous, i have no interest. it is one of the great ironies that someone of such little athletic ability is actually involved in the olympics. my son's pointed out there is still circumstance under which they would predict i would be on the front page of the sports section. [laughter] but this friend called my wife and said, would mitt consider coming out to the games? he and she had a long conversation. after that, she called me up office and said not dismiss this. she made the pitch. and said he made as much money as you need to make. you really want to spend the rest of your life making money? i am not the oldest guy in the world but do you want to keep on doing the same thing and making no particular contribution of the then raising money for companies and so

forth? she said this is the olympics. think about it. as i began, i said no, you're nuts. i went out to you talk about a week later and the chairman of our board spoke with me and made himself an hour to. i went home and started thinking about the olympics and the things you have heard me speak about today. if the olympics were just about getting money for the utah community, i have no interest. branding the community was not high on my agenda either. if the olympics was about presenting young heroes of the world, i recognize that the games were in trouble in the olympics itself could be in trouble, it would be a great effort but it wasn't until my

campaign with my family to come together as a family to work tirelessly to make the game successful. win or lose, and would have been a great struggle. most people in this room will face this question -- what will i do with my life and will i use all of it just earning money? for me and my wife, this came down to an opportunity to have a different experience in life. meeting the olympians, these athletes is a life changing experience. you love them theory they are phenomenal it is in part because they do not know they are phenomenal. they do not recognize how unusual they are. they do not see the seeds of character that set them apart. coming to respect them has been one of the great thrills of my life. there are other thrills being part of the olympics. i mentioned a sport called skeleton. the reason i mention that with the cookie sheet that you slide down the top sled trek -- the bob sled track is because i

began starting the sport. -- trying the sport. i began way down low at the bottom. but my sled got up to about 50 miles an hour, i was terrified. i borrowed some shoes to -- because he had spiked a the bottom of them. he said when you get out there, put your sled down and go down. he showed me how to steer. when i got to the end of the track, i was terrified. my face is 2 inches off the ice. you are right there going 40 or 50 miles an hour. when i gave him back his shoes, i dragged my toes on the ice that there were big holes in the front of his shoes. i was a little embarrassed. now i'm going from the top of the course. last week i hit 66 miles an hour, it is to the exhilarating. i'm so bad and so chicken, i appreciate how great these

athletes are. >> your answer about the role of money in raises the obvious question -- wouldn't it be better if these great athletes were pure amateurs the with the olympic games used to be? >> the great majority of the athletes in the olympics, summer and winter, are not in any way going to receive any compensation for their participation in or after the games. most of the sports disappear from a financial standpoint. i met the sister of one of the greatest the libyans, bonnie blair. her sister was a speed skating champion. there were three sisters of bonnie blair who were champions. four girls than to one family, on national champions in a sport. her sister was a flight attendant going into salt lake city. they do not make a limb -- a living being off -- being athletes.

the great majority have no financial incentive to speak of associated with the games. there are some sports where the line between amateur and professional is so different from one country to the next that it was difficult for the international olympic committee to create a dividing line so the competition between countries seem fair. there was never a greater moment than -- in the history of sport as a when the demands winter hockey team won in 1980. our true amateurs beat their true professionals but generally, that does not happen. to have competition even and fair amount to different countries in some sports like basketball and hockey, that sometimes you need to integrate the professional along with the nonprofessional to make the team is more even than the

competition world class. i think it would be great if the lines were clear in all countries but the rules are so blurry among different countries that there have been some exceptions and there is some money for those particular sports. >> before i asked the final question, i want to give you the national press club equivalent of a gold medal. our cherished coffee cup, a certificate of our appreciation and if you could let us know if 2002 is a la nina year. >> our mountains are so high and we have snowmaking capacity at every mountain that there is no issue. we got some practice for that this week. we did not have any snow and we have a world championship cross- country event in utah.

we got about 100 dump trucks and filled them with snell to see if we could create entire track -- with snow and to see if we could create an entire track. this no sticks to the side. so we got all of oil and spurred into the trucks and the slides right out. regardless of the weather patterns, we will have absolutely fabulous winter games in salt lake city in 2002. >> thank you for coming. i would also like to thank the national press club staff members for helping us with today's lunch and also thanks to the national press club library for their research. we do appreciate it. we are adjourned. thank you. [applause]

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> some one of the issues he talked about was security and additional funding for the 2002 winter games in salt lake city. he took over as president and ceo. he asked congress for additional help. this was september 19, 2000. >> this bill provides a staggering court team $0.8 million for communications

infrastructure, including radios associated with law enforcement responsibilities. this item is one example of the fiscal abuse surrounding the stage again of the olympic games in salt lake. this past year, we requested the general accounting office to conduct an audit into federal financial support for u.s. cities hosting the olympics. specifically, we asked them to answer to questions -- the amount of federal funding and support provided to 1984, 1986 summer olympics and the types of products and activities funded and supported and the federal policies authorizations and agency controls at the place for providing funds and support to the games. what they discover is the least 24 federal agencies reported providing are planning to

provide a combined total of almost $2 billion for leavitt related projects and activities for the 1984 and 1996 summer olympic games and the 2002 winter olympic games. the number staggering but what is more shocking but not too surprising, once an egregious practice begins and goes unchecked, federal funds flowing to of the coast cities has accelerated. the gao county tax care provided about $75 million in funding for the 1984 los angeles games. by 1996, the bill escalated to $609 million. for the upcoming 2002 olympics, that bill to american taxpayers is estimated to be $1.3 billion. that is outrageous and it is a disgrace.

to put these projects on this appropriations bill. a think the senator from utah as on the floor now. another project that is not authorized, i will filibuster the bill until i am -- until i fail to do so. i wrote a letter to the senator from utah in september 1997. i said i am writing about the recent efforts to add funds to appropriations measures for the 2002 olympics. i went on to say, i recognize the proper preparations are vital. it seems the best course of action would be to require the committee in coordination with congress to prepare and submit a comprehensive plan detailing the funding anticipating from the taxpayers.

please call me so we could start work immediately to establish some rationality in the process of preparing for the olympics of that. in a surprising breech of senatorial courtesy, the senator never responded. i wrote him another letter a year letter asking for the same and never got a response. the gao determines that $1.3 billion, $974,000 for the utah state. the agency network, $3 million to olympic regional development authority upgrades. $2 million for bus facilities. $500,000 for salt lake city olympics transit bus. on and on.

$925,000 for public safety programs. $1 million for the security and training. $2 million dollars for the water conservation district. mr. president, this has turned into, but the olympic games supposedly funded by salt lake city began -- which began in corruption and bribery has turned into an incredible product for salt lake city. the gao found there was no effective mechanism in place for tracking federal funding. one thing i try to do in a letter to the senator in 1997. the gao determine federal agencies generally did not

attract funding in support of the olympic games. $690 million was authorized. most of which was done through objectionable legislative pork barreling. it is astounding that federal bureaucrats got $1.3 billion as a writ of the course of business. the sports act named after my good friend and colleague, alaska sets out the process by which the olympic committee operates. and how in they go about selecting a u.s. bid this city. in this act is a uniquely american tenant establishing that the united states olympic movement, including the bid and host city process, is an entirely independent private

sector entity. however, as this report points out, the american taxpayer has now become by far the largest single underwriter of the cost of hosting the olympics. this is not about private voluntary giving to the olympic movement. nor is it about corporate sponsorships. this is about a cocktail of fiscal irresponsibility made it congressional pork barreling. as i outlined earlier, the taxpayer funding has increased dramatically in recent years. in the 1984 summer olympics, $75 million in federal support. most notable about this figure aside from how low it is a brother -- compared to atlanta and salt lake is what it was used for.

91% was used to provide safety during the planned staging of the games. only $7 million were for naught security related services. providing safety and security support is a proper role for the federal government. no one would dispute what the federal government should provide whatever support necessary to ensure the games are safe for everyone. however, the american taxpayer should not be burdened with the building up the basic infrastructure necessary to a city to be able to pull off hosting the olympic games. by the time it got to atlanta, says was not the case. other classic examples include $331,000 to purchase flowers and grasses for venues and parks around atlanta, $3.5 million to do things like installing solar electric systems at the olympic swimming pool. it is astounding as the numbers

are, they pale in comparison to salt lake city. almost $1.3 billion of federal funding and support is planned or has already been provided in the city of salt lake. $645 million, 51% is for construction of roads and highways. $353 million, up 28%, is for mass transit projects. approximately $107 million in miscellaneous activities like building temporary parking lots and $161 million for safety and security. as of april 2000, the federal government planned to spend some $7 million to provide spectator transportation and venue enhancement to the salt lake games. this includes $47 million in congressional approved taxpayer funding for transportation systems. among other things, so that officials planned to ask the

federal government for $91 million to pay for things like transporting borrowed buses to and from salt lake, additional bus drivers, maintenance and construction and operations. most of the money taken from taxpayers to pay the bill for the salt lake games is going to develop, build and complete major highway and transit improvement projects -- especially those critical to the success of the olympic games. this last phrase is of vital to understanding the game being played in salt lake city. it works this way -- the city decides they want to host an olympics to put their home town on the map. in order to manage, leaders know they will have to meet certain structure demands. they develop their plans than the pork barreling starts. the gao makes several recommendations, including the selection of a big city,

tracking for funds and more direct oversight. among other things, they also recommend a larger role for omb in exercising oversight in agency activities. i believe there are two fundamental reforms that to take place -- budget reform. appropriations for a living activities should occur to the regular budget process, subject to the sunshine of public scrutiny and debate within congress. the usoc should not continue the bid of cities that did not have the capacity to host the games. what has happened here is what happens to in congress, you start out with a little pork barrelling and it gets bigger and bigger. we saw that on the defense appropriations bill. $4 million to protect

i will filibuster and everything in my power to delay any more appropriations bills that have this spending for salt lake city. there is a process of authorization for this project. they are conducted by the authorizing committees. some of them may be worth while and necessary. some of them may deserve to be authorized but instead they are stuck into an appropriations bill without scrutiny. i do not understand how we republicans call ourselves conservatives and then treat the taxpayers' dollars in this fashion. mr. president, this is terribly objectionable. it is up to $1.3 billion. we still have another year at least to go. this has got to stop.

i am glad we got the gao study. it is a classic example of what happens with pork barrel spending and it contributes to the alienation of the american voter. these are my taxpayers' dollars as well as the citizens of utah. i have an obligation to my constituents and the state of arizona that pay their taxes. the spending should not be spent on this. i asked a list of objectives for provisions be part of the record. >> is there an objection? hearing none, -- so ordered. >> the senator from arizona spoke about the report. i believe the senator from arizona has made a signet

digging contribution and moved -- is attempting to move the congress in a direction we should go with respect to the olympic games. he has raised appropriate concerns. i can be specific about some of them. i will not be specific about them all because they are quite lengthy. for example, the $14.8 million for communications and for structure to which he objects in the department of treasury portion of the conference report. it was inserted at the request of the secret service who told us that -- told the appropriations committee that was the amount required. this was not something that was asked for by the salt lake organizing committee or by the senator from utah. it came from the departments themselves. that is true of some of the other items.

rather than get bogged down in a debate over the appropriateness of this or that amount, everyone of which has had that debate in the process of getting to the report, i would like to address the issue of the gao report and the, that the senator from arizona made about -- he said that the federal role with respect to let the games has increased dramatically from the $75 million that was appropriated in 1984 for the olympics in los angeles to the amount that has not been appropriated and it's going to be appropriated for the olympics in salt lake city, showing the step up from los angeles to atlanta to salt lake city. the cost of putting on the olympics has been expanded by a significant percentage. i do not have the number currently available. by adding additional sports.

the organizers in the salt lake of the committee have told me that even though the-- their budget is close to the budget at lillehammer, their costs are substantially higher because of the additional sports that added. some lost track of what happens to all of this. the head of the committee, mitt romney, has told me that in the budget he was handed from the u.s. olympic committee implied more sponsorships for the winter olympics that atlanta had for the summer olympics in 1996. he has to go out and sell those sponsorships now because the budget has built in the assumption that money will be there. he is still something like 40 or $50 million shy of being able

to cover his budget, even though he has outsold the sponsorships that went into atlanta. so he has more sponsorship money coming from atlanta for the winter games, which are less popular than the summer games, and he is still short. that is what has happened as everybody reacts to what happened in 1984 who assumed that the olympics are part -- pot of gold. they are clearly not emir getting to the point where we may be back where we were pre- los angeles window city wants to hosted because they will end up with a major deficit. he said we will not have it doesn't -- deficit because it is absolutely necessary. we will cut back to whatever amount of money we have.

we do not want to have america host an olympics that seems to be second-class by comparison to the rest of the world but financially, we have no choice if we cannot close that gap. i believe mitt romney will be able to close that gap and bring it down so that we will have an exact meeting of expenses and revenues. in this picture comes to a question that has been raised by the senator from arizona -- what is a role of the federal government? increasingly, the federal government plays an important role in the olympics because as the olympics get bigger and bigger with more and more nations, more and more athletes and more and more opportunities for international terrorism, they become a bigger and bigger problem for the federal government.

i think the whole question that was raised by the senator from arizona and by the report has -- as to formalization of the federal role is a legitimate question. the proposal in the gao report endorsed by the settle -- by the senator, if formal process within congress to attract these appropriations is a right and proper proposal. we probably should have done it after the atlanta olympics when we had the first indications that this is what was going to happen. we did not. i would be willing to join the senator from arizona and craft a way to do this once the salt lake olympics are over so that if another city if the olympics, this process will be in place. it is the responsible thing to do and i applaud the senator

from arizona in helping us move in that direction. as the gao report says with respect to the $2 billion figure used by the senator from arizona, according to federal officials, "most of these funds would have been awarded to these cities or states even if they had not hosted the olympic games. although the funds could have been provided later if the games were not held." let me talk specifically about the two largest items the renovation of i-15, the interstate highway that runs through the salt lake valley.

both projects, properly authorized, properly funded, with respect to transportation activities. i-15 was 10 years beyond its designed life when construction began on it before renovation. the project was outlined for nine years under standard construction procedures. working with the highway administration, came up with a method of doing it which is called design build to. you design it while you are building it. you do it simultaneously. in the process, they cut the

time from nine years to 4.5. they also cut the cost by close toa billion dollars. yes, it will enhance the olympics. gao has included its total in its calculation of the cost of the olympics, but it had to be done, it was a logical expense of the highway trust fund, it was funded in the normal fashion, and because of the pressure of the olympics put on it in terms of time, we now have a pilot project with design built that is coming in ahead of schedule and under budget. we're saving taxpayers money by virtue of the pressure of the olympics but on this highway project. there is absolutely no question but that the money would have been spent even if the olympics

had not come to salt lake city. it may not have been spent as wisely or as prudently as it is being spent if we had not had the pressure of the olympics. the second issue is the mass transit system in salt lake city. it stood with all the other mass transit systems being reviewed by the department of transportation. it was approved in the clinton administration as an appropriate transit program for the metropolitan area that was experiencing tremendous growth and congestion. the contractors insist that it will be available for the

olympics, it will certainly help the olympics, but it was not approved as an olympic project. it was not examined as an olympic project. it was not evaluated by the department of transportation. its cost is included in the gao study because it occurred in the period it when things were being spent in utah. i must make a further footnote in respect to i-15. it is being funded largely by state funds. the federal dollars only became available after it was passed in 1998 and the state decided

we cannot wait. had we not have the olympics and waited for a full federal participation, the state of utah would be paying less than it is now. the state of utah has put up a substantial sum of money by virtue of this for this and the structure. we do not complain about that because we will have its act of the games are over. we will have benefit after the games are over. i do want to make it clear that if you take the $2 billion figure to which the senator from arizona referred, and break it down, you come up with a much smaller figure for the federal participation in -- olympics. back to the earlier point, we

must address the question of the federal role. let us look at what the olympics due to any country that gets them in today's world. my wife and i went to japan to see the olympics put on in japan. we read the japanese newspapers. we did not come up with a firm figure. the japanese newspaper speculated that the total amount japan as the country spent in order to put on the olympics was a $13 billion. highest figure i read was $18 billion. given the kind of accounting sleight of hand that

accompanied the japanese olympics, i think the higher figure is the accurate one. even if we take a lower figure, japan decided they could not put on an olympics or the of world attention without making such infrastructure improvements as to spend ultimately $13 billion. i participated in the benefits of that. i rode the bullet train from downtown tokyo to were the olympics were held. they decided they could not put in the olympics without putting a bullet train. we viewed the olympics as basically a scoring event. the rest of the world use the olympics very differently and once a country is awarded the olympics to one of its host cities, the entire national government of that country

becomes engaged. we need to think this one through. if we ever want to hold the olympic games in the united states again, and have the games be presented to the world on anything like the level the world has come to expect, we're going to have to face the facts that the federal government must be involved in a formal kind of way. the gao comments about this growing upon us are correct. a formal examination of the american federal government participation in the olympics is overdue. the fact is now, no city in this country can but for, accept, and put on the olympic games without significant federal support.

the clinton administration has recognized that. i have been a long critic of the clinton administration in a number of areas. in this area, the clinton administration has stepped up to the plate and supported absolutely everything that has to be done to see the olympics are put on in an appropriate way. the olympics games in salt lake city in 2002 are going to be fabulous. we have the best mountains, the best snow, the best facilities. it is going to be a fabulous experience for the entire world and all americans are going to be very proud of the job the

salt lake olympics organizing committee will do in putting that on. but the organizing committee could not do it without the kind of support that has been provided by all but federal agencies who have been called upon in the various appropriation bills that have gone through. as a look to the future, and anticipate the possibility that at some point, some other american city will either gain the summer games or the winter games, we should put in place the recommendations of the gao and recognize right up front that is a national effort. it is a federal responsibility as well as a city responsibility. perform as every other country in the world performs with respect to this particular opportunity.

if we decide as a congress that we do not want federal participation in the games,make that decision clear. no american city can never afford the kinds of things that are required. mr. president, i thank the senator from arizona for raising this issue. for bringing this to an understanding of the importance of the recommendations and for giving me the opportunity to give the specifics about the $2 billion figure. the federal government, in fact, will spend far less than that figure, far less than $1 billion, carl less than however many hundreds of millions of dollars. i did not know the number and i do not know anybody who does. it will be less than any other

federal government has spent to bring the olympics to their host country. it demonstrates to us that we have to have the kind of planning and coordination for which the senator from arizona calls. >> in the fall of 2001, a couple of weeks after the terrorist attacks on september 11, mitt romney met with members of the utah delegation to talk about the issues of funding and security. this was from october 3, 2001. >> thank you, center for organizing the meeting -- thank you, senator, for organizing the meeting. i think we're all moved most, when we receive the support of our friends. i was in shock following the events of september 11.

i sell the german singing the national anthem. i finally broke down. it was the support of our friends that touched us most deeply. today, i did not know what to expect. it was overwhelming. it was positive. on behalf of the athletes, thousands of young people around the world, who look to these games and hope this will be a place for them to show their courage and strength and sacrifice, on behalf of them, i am moved untouched and greatly appreciative of the leadership of our country to do everything necessary to fill our obligation to host a safe and secure gains. i'm entirely confident that what has been put in place by the secret service, the public safety command, it is a plan which is complete, comprehensive, and robust.

it will minimize every possible risk to the extent humanly possible to wish to ensure the safety of the athletes and spectators. let me turn to any questions you might have and then we will end this brief conference. >> [inaudible] , more and in what way is will the federal government help? >> we're not going to talk about the money involved. a variety of important reasons, but with regards to the way the games will be run and security, i might as well turn it over to mitt romney. i would rather have him answer the questions. >> should we take a moment?

let's take a moment for just a second until the motorcade goes by. thank you. the specific requests are being organized by the secret service, fbi, and the utah public safety command. they will call for additional personnel. the state of utah is contributing 2000 personnel from their current law enforcement team to the effort protecting the games. the federal government has a substantial portion of those resources. that number will increase by a significant amount. the exact number is not something we are prepared to give you today. the speaker of the house made it very clear that he wanted to see a full briefing on all of the plans prepared by the respected agencies for the games. until we have all of those plans completed, we cannot give you a final figure. there's also a certain amount

of financial resources that will be requested. the numbers are very small relative to the amount that his party been appropriated by the federal government, $200 million. the additional resources this small, relative to that which has already been appropriated. however, every action will be taken that is conceivable to secure aerospace, the news, and to secure the safety of the people. there is no specific plan with regards to the federal military personnel. in atlanta, the props the number of federal troops is about 15,000. i think it is likely there will be some increase in the support of the military nature.

the number of federal officers and federal troops will be substantially less. a small fraction of that compares to those that were employed in atlanta. >> you mentioned that some of the security procedures might cause some inconvenience this. can you go into some detail about what those will be? >> i do not think he will see a substantial difference before and after september 11. they already called for extensive searches. i do not think he will see a big difference, but we originally told people to plan to get to a venue two hours before the event began.

it will not be more than two hours. >> has there been any word about whether the faa has cleared the olympic workers? >> that is an ongoing process. many of the plans continue to be worked out. i would tell you that we came away with today was an absolute unanimous show of support from all the people in that room to do what is essential and necessary. the specifics are that are can be worked out by the appropriate agencies. i am confident it will be supported by the state, federal, local departments. i think we're probably finished.

one more question? if not, thank you very much. >> if you want to get more information on mitt romney's role in the 2002 winter games in south lake -- salt lake city. you can watch this and all of our campaign programming on c- span.org/campaign2012. >> this morning, the house is in at 10:00 eastern and legislative work begins at noon which included measured by congressman ron paul but would subject the federal reserve to outside auditors. on c-span 2, the senate will begin work on a measure that would temporarily extend the bush-era tax cuts.

on c-span 3, the head of the nuclear regulatory commission will testify about his safety regulations. she will be joined by her fellow commission members before a joint house energy and fed committee. coming up in about 45 minutes, maryland congressman chris van hollen is the top democrat of the budget committee to talk about finance legislation and tax increases. ron paul will join us in about 90 minutes to discuss the november elections and his house bill on the federal reserve which is on the floor today. also, the co-chairman of the state budget crisis taskforce on sexual problems facing the state budget. plus today's news and your calls plus today's news and your calls on "washington