KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — President Bush is applauding elected officials for heeding his call to bolster police and emergency teams with volunteers and announcing he'll seek $50 million from Congress to boost that effort.
Bush was touring Knoxville's Citizens' Police Academy, a training center for volunteers, on Monday.
Later, he planned an address to local officials who have set up councils to coordinate the Citizen Corps that Bush called for in his State of the Union address. It is a network of everyday Americans pitching in on community-level police, emergency response and counterterrorism efforts.
The president has proposed spending $230 million in 2003 to establish Citizen Corps councils in local communities. Monday, the White House said he would seek another $50 million for the effort.
Among the mayors in Knoxville for the announcement were Anthony Williams of Washington and James Hahn of Los Angeles, two Democrats who flew with Bush on Air Force One.
Bush was announcing that more than 40 communities are forming councils to coordinate their local Citizen Corps efforts.
History will view Bush's new effort as the period when communities banded together to prepare for terrorism, said John Bridgeland, head of the USA Freedom Corps.
"And in the process, if no terrorism comes, (they) strengthened crime prevention, natural disaster preparedness and emergency and public health response," Bridgeland said.
After returning to the White House on Monday afternoon, Bush planned to address labor leaders, urging the Senate to pass legislation aimed at protecting businesses against skyrocketing premiums on terrorism insurance.
Bush's trip was notable for the absence of a political fund-raising event. Of the 11 domestic trips he has taken since the start of March, he has raised campaign cash for Republicans in all but three.
In part, the visit here had no fund-raiser because the White House has been unable to dissuade Rep. Ed Bryant, R-Tenn., from running for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Fred Thompson.
Twice last month, White House political chief Karl Rove talked to Bryant, subtly urging him not to run against Lamar Alexander, the president's choice to win the nomination.
Bryant said he is running anyhow, and told associates the White House should stop butting into GOP primaries.
The visit here to discuss the Citizen Corps also offered an opportunity for Bush to change the subject from the Mideast crisis that has been vexing him to the noncontroversial volunteerism effort.
But White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush spoke to Secretary of State Colin Powell Monday morning about Powell's trip to the region, and said envoy Anthony Zinni would meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon later in the day to reinforce Bush's demand that Israelis begin to withdraw from Palestinian territory immediately.