Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia Question-and-Answer Session With Reporters on Arrival.

THE PRESIDENT. [Inaudible]—with President Sadat. Well, we're trying to keep both the military and the political talks going on there.

Q. Mr. President, how do you apprise the reaction of Congress to your State of the Union address?

THE PRESIDENT. It was surprisingly good. The last speech I made to them was not one that aroused any applause at all. It was devoted entirely to energy. But I thought that the response last night was excellent.

Q. When are you going to get around to actually working out the difficulty with the Dallas-London route and putting your signature on the transatlantic route[inaudible]?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, that was not a difficult decision for me. My own inclination is, wherever possible, to encourage competition both in the international routes and also in the domestic routes. And I hope that the domestic carriers that have benefited from the flights overseas would be just as eager to have competition here on the domestic routes.

Q. Can we get a commitment from you to come to Atlanta to play a softball game with the media this summer— [laughter] —when it's warmer.

THE PRESIDENT. I don't know. I hope I get a chance to come back to Georgia this summer.

Q. Mr. President, some of the big city mayors were unhappy, and they expressed that unhappiness with the fact that you did not mention more help for the cities in your State of the Union address. What do you say to that?

THE PRESIDENT. Well, almost every item that's in the domestic budget is directly helpful to the major cities. We proposed hundreds of millions of dollars for basic education, for training programs, for public service jobs, for transportation, for housing, for crime control.

These moneys go into the urban centers, sometimes in much larger quantities than they do in other parts of the country, because the problems there are greater. And the fact that we don't have a special allotment of funds just for large cities is to be expected, and it certainly is no cause for concern by them.

I think the budget that I've put forward now—and our urban policy report that will be coming forward in March—will be very adequate for the cities, including Atlanta.

REPORTER. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT. It's good to see all of you. It's nice to be home. I think this is the first time I've been to Atlanta since I was President.

REPORTER. Welcome back.

THE PRESIDENT. Thank you.