Secretary of State Colin Powell
Remarks Introducing President Bush at the State Department
State Department
Washington, D.C.
October 4, 2001
10:20 A.M. EDT
SECRETARY POWELL: Good morning, colleagues. Please take your seats. It is a great pleasure to welcome the President back to his State Department. (Applause.)

Mr. President, we are very pleased to have you back. And, before introducing you, let me take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of all of my colleagues in the Department, here present and around the world, and my colleagues from the US Agency for International Development and the Peace Corps and all of the members of the foreign policy family. Let me thank you for the support that you have given to us over the past almost nine months, for the confidence you have shown in us, and for what you have done in sending up to the Congress a responsible budget that will make sure we are the twenty-first century foreign policy team that America deserves and will have. And we thank you for that, Mr. President. (Applause.)

And, Mr. President, on behalf of everyone here, I want to thank you for the leadership that you have provided to the nation and to the world over the last three-plus weeks since the tragic incidents of September 11th. The world has come together behind your leadership. The world will stick with you. And I can assure you that your State Department is out there making sure that everybody understands the nature of the campaign you are leading, and that we will get you the support that you need. I just want to tell you, Mr. President, that my colleagues are with you.

And now it is my great pleasure once again to introduce you to them. Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of our foreign policy team, President George W. Bush. (Applause.)

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