Readout of the President’s Meeting on the Domestic Ebola Response

The President this afternoon convened a meeting with members of his national security and public health teams coordinating the whole-of-government response to Ebola. The President’s advisors updated him on the status of the contact tracing process to identify and, as necessary, monitor all individuals who may have come into contact with the Ebola patients in Dallas following their exposure. The team also discussed plans to augment resources available to state and local authorities in Dallas.  Specifically, in order to ensure the Dallas response is nimble and capable of leveraging effective coordination between the federal, state, and local levels—as well as with frontline healthcare workers—the administration, working closely with state and local officials, will support or designate the appointment of senior personnel to serve on the ground in Dallas. These officials include:

• An experienced Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) coordinator to ensure all federal assistance is meeting the most urgent needs; and,
• A White House liaison to fulfill the President’s pledge to provide all necessary federal resources.

The President underscored that the domestic response to Ebola cases must be seamless at all levels, just as we continue to move forward expeditiously with a whole-of-government approach to counter the outbreak at its source in West Africa.

Participants:

• The Vice President
• Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense
• Sylvia Burwell, Secretary of Health and Human Services
• Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security
• Denis McDonough, Chief of Staff
• Shaun Donovan, Director of the Office of Management and Budget
• John Podesta, Counselor to the President
• Susan Rice, National Security Advisor
• General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Samantha Power, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations (via secure video conference)
• Dr. John Holdren, Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Dr. Thomas Frieden, Director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention
• Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
• Rajiv Shah, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development
• Nancy Powell, State Department Ebola Coordinator
• Katie Beirne Fallon, Director of the Office of Legislative Affairs
• Jennifer Palmieri, Director of Communications
• Joshua Earnest, Press Secretary
• Suzanne George, Executive Secretary and Chief of Staff of the National Security Council
• Brian Egan, National Security Council Legal Advisor
• Rand Beers, Deputy Assistant to the President for Homeland Security