Tests found no sign of anthrax spores inside the White House.
"We're making sure the West Wing and the White House is safe," President Bush said. "I'm confident when I come to work tomorrow that I'll be safe."
He declined to say whether he had been tested or was taking antibiotics as a precaution, stating only: "I don't have anthrax."
Bush urged Americans to remain calm and focused in the face of this bioterrorism.
"This country is too strong to let terrorists affect the lives of our citizens," Bush said. "I understand that people are concerned, and they should be, but they need to know their government is doing everything we possibly can to protect the lives of our citizens."
Bush and administration officials pledged more-aggressive testing and treatment, stepped-up efforts to secure antibiotics for anthrax and smallpox, and additional money to help the Postal Service improve its safety measures.
The Bolling mail-processing site was closed for tests and decontamination, and all mail deliveries from there were halted. At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleisher would not disclose what safety measures were being taken there but said: "There have been a series of security precautions that have been put in place here at the White House which give us high confidence that there is not an issue here."
None of the mail handlers at the processing site has reported anthrax symptoms. Still, the Secret Service said all the employees would be offered tests and antibiotics as a precaution.
One poisonous connection linked the White House mail facility to the anthrax hot spots reported earlier in Washington - all mail sent to the White House site was first processed at the Brentwood postal station.
The Brentwood station also handled an anthrax-tainted letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D., S.D.) that exposed 28 Capitol Hill workers to the bacteria.
