Please be seated.

As I think everyone knows by now,

this first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit has been the largest

gathering we've ever hosted with African heads of state

and government -- and that includes about 50 motorcades.

So I want to begin by thanking the people of Washington,

D.C. for helping us host this historic event --

and especially for their patience with the traffic.

As I've said, this summit reflects the reality that even

as Africa continues to face great challenges we're also

seeing the emergence of a new, more prosperous Africa.

Africa's progress is being led by Africans,

including leaders here today.

I want to take this opportunity again to thank my fellow

leaders for being here.

Rather than a lot of prepared speeches,

our sessions today were genuine discussions -- a chance to truly

listen and to try to come together around some pragmatic

steps that we can take together.

And that's what we've done this week.

First, we made important progress in expanding our trade.

The $33 billion in new trade and investments that I announced

yesterday will help spur African development and support tens

of thousands of American jobs.

With major new commitments to our Power Africa initiative,

we've tripled our goal and now aim to bring electricity

to 60 million African homes and businesses.

And today I reiterated that we'll continue to work

with Congress to achieve a seamless and long-term renewal

of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

We agreed that Africa's growth depends, first and foremost,

on continued reforms in Africa, by Africans.

The leaders here pledged to step up efforts to pursue reforms

that attract investment, reduce barriers that stifle trade --

especially between African countries -- and to promote

regional integration.

And as I announced yesterday, the United States will increase

our support to help build Africa's capacity to trade

with itself and with the world.

Ultimately, Africa's prosperity depends on Africa's greatest

resource -- its people.

And I've been very encouraged by the desire of leaders here

to partner with us in supporting young entrepreneurs,

including through our Young African Leaders Initiative.

I think there's an increasing recognition that if countries

are going to reach their full economic potential,

then they have to invest in women -- their education,

their skills, and protect them from gender-based violence.

And that was a topic of conversation this afternoon.

And this week the United States announced a range

of initiatives to help empower women across Africa.

Our New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition continues

to grow, aiming to lift 50 million Africans from poverty.

In our fight against HIV/AIDS, we'll work with 10 African

countries to help them double the number of their

children on lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs.

And even as the United States is deploying some of our medical

first responders to West Africa to help control the Ebola

outbreak, we're also working to strengthen public health

systems, including joining with the African Union to pursue

the creation of an African Centers for Disease Control.

I also want to note that the American people are renewing

their commitment to Africa.

Today, InterAction -- the leading alliance of American

NGOs -- is announcing that over the next three years its members

will invest $4 billion to promote maternal health,

children's health, and the delivery of vaccines and drugs.

So this is not just a government effort,

it is also an effort that's spurred

on by the private sector.

Combined with the investments we announced yesterday --

and the commitments made today at the symposium hosted

by our spouses -- that means this summit has helped

to mobilize some $37 billion for Africa's progress on top

of, obviously, the substantial efforts that

have been made in the past.

Second, we addressed good governance,

which is a foundation of economic growth

and free societies.

Some African nations are making impressive progress.

But we see troubling restrictions

on universal rights.

So today was an opportunity to highlight the importance

of rule of law, open and accountable institutions,

strong civil societies, and protection

of human rights for all citizens and all communities.

And I made the point during our discussion that nations that

uphold these rights and principles will ultimately

be more prosperous and more economically successful.

In particular, we agreed to step up our collective efforts

against the corruption that costs African economies tens

of billions of dollars every year -- money that ought

to be invested in the people of Africa.

Several leaders raised the idea of a new partnership to combat

illicit finance, and there was widespread agreement.

So we decided to convene our experts and develop an action

plan to promote the transparency that is essential

to economic growth.

Third, we're deepening our security cooperation to meet

common threats, from terrorism to human trafficking.

We're launching a new Security Governance Initiative

to help our African countries continue to build strong,

professional security forces to provide for their own security.

And we're starting with Kenya, Niger, Mali, Nigeria,

Ghana and Tunisia.

During our discussions, our West African partners made it clear

that they want to increase their capacity to respond to crises.

So the United States will launch a new effort to bolster

the regions early warning and response network

and increase their ability to share information

about emerging crises.

We also agreed to make significant new investments

in African peacekeeping.

The United States will provide additional equipment to African

peacekeepers in Somalia and the Central African Republic.

We will support the African Union's efforts to strengthen

its peacekeeping institutions.

And most importantly, we're launching a new African

peacekeeping rapid response partnership with the goal

of quickly deploying African peacekeepers in support

of U.N. or AU missions.

And we'll join with six countries that in recent years

have demonstrated a track record as peacekeepers -- Ghana,

Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda.

And we're going to invite countries beyond Africa to join

us in supporting this effort, because the entire world

has a stake in the success of peacekeeping in Africa.

In closing, I just want to say that this has been

an extraordinary event, an extraordinary summit.

Given the success that we've had this week,

we agreed that summits like this can be a critical part

of our work together going forward, a forcing mechanism

for decisions and action.

So we agreed that the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit will

be a recurring event to hold ourselves accountable

for our commitments and to sustain our momentum.

And I'll strongly encourage my successor to carry on this work,

because Africa must know that they will always have a strong

and reliable partner in the United States of America.

So with that, I'm going to take a couple of questions.

I'm going to start with Julie Pace of Associated Press.

Where's Julie?

There she is.

The Press: Thank you, Mr. President.

There's been a lot of discussion surrounding this

summit about the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

And there's an untested and unapproved drug in the U.S.

that appears to be helping some of the Americans

who are infected.

Is your administration considering at all sending

supplies of this drug if it becomes available to some of

these countries in West Africa?

And could you discuss a bit the ethics of either

providing an untested drug to a foreign country,

or providing it only to Americans and not to other

countries that are harder hit if it could possibly save lives?

The President: Well, I think we've got to let

the science guide us.

And I don't think all the information is in on whether

this drug is helpful.

What we do know is that the Ebola virus,

both currently and in the past, is controllable if you

have a strong public health infrastructure in place.

And the countries that have been affected are the first to admit

that what's happened here is, is that their public health

systems have been overwhelmed.

They weren't able to identify and then isolate

cases quickly enough.

You did not have a strong trust relationship between some of the

communities that were affected and public health workers.

As a consequence, it spread more rapidly than has been

typical with the periodic Ebola outbreaks that

have occurred previously.

But despite obviously the extraordinary pain and hardship

of the families and persons who've been affected,

and despite the fact that we have to take this very

seriously, it is important to remind ourselves this is not

an airborne disease; this is one that can be controlled

and contained very effectively if we use

the right protocols.

So what we've done is to make sure that we're surging

not just U.S. resources, but we've reached out

to European partners and partners from other countries,

working with the WHO.

Let's get all the health workers that we need on the ground.

Let's help to bolster the systems that they

already have in place.

Let's nip as early as possible any additional outbreaks

of the disease.

And then during the course of that process,

I think it's entirely appropriate for us to see if

there are additional drugs or medical treatments that can

improve the survivability of what is a very deadly

and obviously brutal disease.

So we're going to -- we're focusing on the public health

approach right now because we know how to do that.

But I will continue to seek information about what we're

learning with respect to these drugs going forward.

The Press: If this drug proves to be effective,

would you support fast-tracking its approval

in the United States?

The President: I think it's premature for me to say

that because I don't have enough information.

I don't have enough data right now to offer an opinion on that.

Jon Karl, ABC News.

The Press: Thank you, Mr. President.

When you were running for President, you said,

"The biggest problems we're facing right now have to do with

George Bush trying to bring more and more power into the

executive branch and not go through Congress at all.

And that's what I intend to reverse."

So my question to you -- has Congress's inability

to do anything significant given you a green light

to push the limits of executive power, even a duty to do so?

Or put another way -- does it bother you more to be accused

of being an imperial President, pushing those limits,

or to be accused of being a do-nothing President who

couldn't get anything done because he faced

a dysfunctional Congress?

The President: Well, I think that I never have a green light.

I'm bound by the Constitution; I'm bound

by separation of powers.

There are some things we can't do.

Congress has the power of the purse, for example.

I would love to fund a large infrastructure proposal right

now that would put millions of people to work

and boost our GDP.

We know we've got roads and bridges and airports

and electrical grids that need to be rebuilt.

But without the cooperation of Congress,

what I can do is speed up the permitting process, for example.

I can make sure that we're working with

the private sector to see if we can channel investment

into much-needed projects.

But ultimately, Congress has to pass a budget

and authorize spending.

So I don't have a green light.

What I am consistently going to do is,

wherever I have the legal authorities to make progress

on behalf of middle-class Americans and folks working