[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 27, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H30-H36]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

  The PRESIDENT. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the 105th 
Congress, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, since the last 
time we met in this Chamber, America has lost two patriots and fine 
public servants.

[[Page H31]]

 Though they sat on opposite sides of the aisle, Representatives Walter 
Capps and Sonny Bono shared a deep love for this House and an 
unshakable commitment to improving the lives of all our people.
  In the past few weeks, they have both been eulogized. Tonight I think 
we should begin by sending a message to their families and their 
friends that we celebrate their lives and give thanks to their service 
to our Nation.
  For 209 years, it has been the President's duty to report to you on 
the State of the Union. Because of the hard work and high purpose of 
the American people, these are good times for America. We have more 
than 14 million new jobs. The lowest unemployment in 24 years. The 
lowest core inflation in 30 years. Incomes are rising, and we have the 
highest homeownership in history. Crime has dropped for a record five 
years in a row and the welfare rolls are at their lowest level in 27 
years. Our leadership in the world is unrivaled. Ladies and gentlemen, 
the state of our union is strong.
  But with barely 700 days left in the 20th Century, this is not a time 
to rest; it is a time to build, to build the America within our reach.
  An America where everybody has a chance to get ahead with hard work. 
Where every citizen can live in a safe community. Where families are 
strong, schools are good, and all our young people can go on to 
college. An America where scientists find cures for diseases from 
diabetes to Alzheimer's to AIDS. An America where every child can 
stretch a hand across a keyboard and reach every book ever written, 
every painting ever painted, every symphony ever composed. Where 
government provides the opportunity and citizens honor the 
responsibility to give something back to their communities. An America 
which leads the world to new heights of peace and prosperity.
  This is the America we have begun to build; this is the America we 
can leave to our children if we join together to finish the work at 
hand. Let us strengthen our Nation for the 21st Century.
  Rarely have Americans lived through so much change, in so many ways, 
in so short a time. Quietly but with gathering force, the ground has 
shifted beneath our feet, as we have moved into an Information Age, a 
global economy, a truly new world.
  For five years now, we have met the challenge of these changes, as 
Americans have at every turning point in our history, by renewing the 
very idea of America: widening the circle of opportunity, deepening the 
meaning of our freedom, forging a more perfect union.
  We have shaped a new kind of government for the Information Age. I 
thank the Vice President for his leadership and the Congress for its 
support in building a government that is leaner, more flexible, a 
catalyst for new ideas. And most of all, a government that gives the 
American people the tools they need to make the most of their own 
lives.
  We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say 
government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer. My 
fellow Americans, we have found a third way. We have the smallest 
government in 35 years, but a more progressive one. We have a smaller 
government, but a stronger Nation.
  We are moving steadily toward an even stronger America in the 21st 
Century. An economy that offers opportunity. A society rooted in 
responsibility. And a Nation that lives as a community.
  First, Americans in this Chamber and across our Nation have pursued a 
new strategy for prosperity: Fiscal discipline to cut interest rates 
and spur growth; investments in education and skills in science and 
technology and transportation to prepare our people for the new 
economy; new markets for American products and American workers.
  When I took office, the deficit for 1998 was projected to be $357 
billion, and heading higher. This year, our deficit is projected to be 
$10 billion, and heading lower. For three decades, six presidents have 
come before you to warn of the damage deficits pose to our Nation. 
Tonight, I come before you to announce that the Federal deficit, once 
so incomprehensibly large that it had 11 zeros, will be simply zero.

  I will submit to Congress for 1999 the first balanced budget in 30 
years. And if we hold fast to fiscal discipline, we may balance the 
budget this year, 4 years ahead of schedule. You can all be proud of 
that because turning a sea of red ink into black is no miracle. It is 
the product of hard work by the American people and of two visionary 
actions in Congress: the courageous vote in 1993 that led to a cut in 
the deficit of 90 percent and the truly historic bipartisan balanced 
budget agreement passed by this Congress.
  Here is the really good news. If we maintain our resolve, we will 
produce balanced budgets as far as the eye can see. We must not go back 
to unwise spending or untargeted tax cuts that risk reopening the 
deficit. Last year, together, we enacted targeted tax cuts so that the 
typical middle class family will now have the lowest tax rates in 20 
years.
  My plan to balance the budget next year includes both new investments 
and new tax cuts targeted to the needs of working families: for 
education, for child care, for the environment.
  But whether the issue is tax cuts or spending, I ask all of you to 
meet this test: approve only those priorities that can actually be 
accomplished without adding a dime to the deficit.
  Now, if we balance the budget for next year, it is projected that we 
will then have a sizable surplus in the years that immediately follow. 
What should we do with this projected surplus? I have a simple, four-
word answer: save Social Security first.
  Tonight I propose that we reserve 100 percent of the surplus, that is 
every penny of any surplus, until we have taken all the necessary 
measures to strengthen the Social Security system for the 21st century. 
Let us say, let us say to all Americans watching tonight, whether you 
are 70 or 50 or whether you just started paying into the system, Social 
Security will be there when you need it.
  Let us make this commitment: Social Security first. Let's do that 
together.
  I also want to say that all the American people who are watching us 
tonight should be invited to join in this discussion, in facing these 
issues squarely and forming a true consensus on how we should proceed.
  We will start by conducting nonpartisan forums in every region of the 
country, and I hope that lawmakers of both parties will participate. We 
will hold the White House conference on Social Security in December, 
and one year from now I will convene the leaders of Congress to craft 
historic bipartisan legislation to achieve a landmark for our 
generation, a Social Security system that is strong in the 21st 
century.
  In an economy that honors opportunity, all Americans must be able to 
reap the reward of prosperity. Because these times are good, we can 
afford to take one simple, sensible step to help millions of workers 
struggling to provide for their families. We should raise the minimum 
wage.
  The information age is first and foremost an education age in which 
education must start at birth and continue throughout a lifetime.
  Last year from this podium I said that education has to be our 
highest priority. I laid out a ten-point plan to move us forward and 
urged all of us to let politics stop at the schoolhouse door. Since 
then, this Congress, across party lines, and the American people have 
responded in the most important year for education in a generation, 
expanding public school choice, opening the way to 3,000 new charter 
schools, working to connect every classroom in the country to the 
information superhighway, committing to expand Head Start to a million 
children, launching America Reads, sending literally thousands of 
college students into our elementary schools to make sure all our 8-
year-olds can read.
  Last year I proposed and you passed 220,000 new Pell Grant 
scholarships for deserving students. Student loans are already less 
expensive and easier to repay. Now you get to deduct the interest. 
Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax-free 
education IRAs. And this year for the first 2 years of college families 
will get a $1,500 tax credit, a Hope Scholarship that will cover the 
cost of most community college tuition. And for junior and senior year, 
graduate school and

[[Page H32]]

job training, there is a lifetime learning credit. You did that and you 
should be very proud of it.
  And because of these actions, I have something to say to every family 
listening to us tonight: Your children can go on to college. If you 
know a child from a poor family, tell her not to give up. She can go on 
to college. If you know a young couple struggling with bills, worried 
they won't be able to send their children to college, tell them not to 
give up. Their children can go on to college. If you know somebody 
who's caught in a dead-end job and afraid he can't afford the classes 
necessary to get better jobs for the rest of his life, tell him not to 
give up. He can go on to college.
  Because of the things that have been done, we can make college as 
universal in the 21st century as high school is today. And, my friends, 
that will change the face and future of America.
  We have opened wide the doors of the world's best system of higher 
education. Now we must make our public elementary and secondary schools 
the world's best as well by raising standards, raising expectations and 
raising accountability.
  Thanks to the actions of this Congress last year, we will soon have, 
for the very first time, a voluntary national test based on national 
standards in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math.
  Parents have a right to know whether their children are mastering the 
basics, and every parent already knows the key: good teachers and small 
classes. Tonight I propose the first ever national effort to reduce 
class size in the early grades. My balanced budget will help to hire 
100,000 new teachers who have passed a State competency test. Now, with 
these teachers, listen, with these teachers we will actually be able to 
reduce class size in the first, second and third grades to an average 
of 18 students a class all across America.
  Now, if I have got the math right, more teachers teaching smaller 
classes requires more classrooms. So I also propose a school 
construction tax cut to help communities modernize or build 5,000 
schools.
  We must also demand greater accountability. When we promote a child 
from grade to grade who hasn't mastered the work, we don't do that 
child any favors. It is time to end social promotion in America's 
schools.
  Last year, last year in Chicago, they made that decision, not to hold 
our children back but to lift them up. Chicago stopped social promotion 
and started mandatory summer school to help students who are behind to 
catch up. I propose, I propose to help other communities follow 
Chicago's lead. Let's say to them, stop promoting children who don't 
learn and we will give you the tools to make sure they do.
  I also ask this Congress to support our efforts to enlist colleges 
and universities to reach out to disadvantaged children starting in the 
6th grade so that they can get the guidance and hope they need so they 
can know that they too will be able to go on to college.
  As we enter the 21st century, the global economy requires us to seek 
opportunity not just at home but in all the markets of the world. We 
must shape this global economy, not shrink from it. In the last 5 years 
we have led the way in opening new markets with 240 trade agreements 
that remove foreign barriers to products bearing the proud stamp ``Made 
in the USA''.
  Today, record high exports account for fully one-third of our 
economic growth. I want to keep them going, because that's the way to 
keep America growing and to advance a safer, more stable world.
  Now, all of you know, whatever your views are, that I think this is a 
great opportunity for America. I know there is opposition to more 
comprehensive trade agreements. I have listened carefully, and I 
believe that the opposition is rooted in two fears: first, that our 
trading partners will have lower environmental and labor standards 
which will give them an unfair advantage in our market and do their own 
people no favors even if there's more business; and, second, that if we 
have more trade, more of our workers will lose their jobs and have to 
start over.

  I think we should seek to advance worker and environmental standards 
around the world. I have made it abundantly clear that it should be a 
part of our trade agenda, but we cannot influence other countries' 
decisions if we send them a message that we're backing away from trade 
with them. This year I will send legislation to Congress and ask other 
nations to join us to fight the most intolerable labor practice of all: 
Abusive child labor.
  We should also offer help and hope to those Americans temporarily 
left behind by the global marketplace or by the march of technology, 
which may have nothing to do with trade. That's why we have more than 
doubled funding for training dislocated workers since 1993. And if my 
new budget is adopted, we will triple funding. That's why we must do 
more, and more quickly, to help workers who lose their jobs for 
whatever reason. You know, we help communities in a special way when 
their military base closes. We ought to help them in the same way if 
their factory closes.
  Again, I ask the Congress to continue its bipartisan work to 
consolidate the tangle of training programs we have today into one 
single GI bill for workers, a simple skills grant so people can, on 
their own, move quickly to new jobs, to higher incomes and brighter 
futures.
  Now, we all know in every way in life change is not always easy, but 
we have to decide whether we're going to try to hold it back and hide 
from it or reap its benefits. And remember the big picture here. While 
we've been entering into hundreds of new trade agreements, we've been 
creating millions of new jobs. So this year we will forge new 
partnerships with Latin America, Asia and Europe, and we should pass 
the new African Trade Act. It has bipartisan support.
  I will also renew my request for the fast track negotiating authority 
necessary to open more new markets, create more new jobs, which every 
President has had for two decades.
  You know, whether we like it or not, in ways that are mostly 
positive, the world's economies are more and more interconnected and 
interdependent. Today an economic crisis anywhere can affect economies 
everywhere. Recent months have brought serious financial problems to 
Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and beyond.
  Now, why should Americans be concerned about this? First, these 
countries are our customers. If they sink into recession, they won't be 
able to buy the goods we'd like to sell them. Second, they are also our 
competitors. So if their currencies lose their value and go down, then 
the price of their goods will drop, flooding our market and others with 
much cheaper goods, which makes it a lot tougher for our people to 
compete. And finally, they are our strategic partners. Their stability 
bolsters our security.
  The American economy remains sound and strong, and I want to keep it 
that way. But because the turmoil in Asia will have an impact on all 
the world's economies, including ours, making that negative impact as 
small as possible is the right thing to do for America, and the right 
thing to do for a safer world.
  Our policy is clear: No nation can recover if it does not reform 
itself. But when nations are willing to undertake serious economic 
reform, we should help them do it. So I call on Congress to renew 
America's commitment to the International Monetary Fund. I think we 
should say to all the people we are trying to represent here that 
preparing for a far-off storm that may reach our shores is far wiser 
than ignoring the thunder until the clouds are just overhead.
  A strong Nation rests on the rock of responsibility. A society rooted 
in responsibility must first promote the value of work, not welfare. We 
can be proud that after decades of finger-pointing and failure, 
together we ended the old welfare system, and we are now replacing 
welfare checks with paychecks.
  Last year, after a record 4-year decline in welfare rolls, I 
challenged our Nation to move 2 million more Americans off welfare by 
the year 2000. I am pleased to report we have also met that goal, 2 
full years ahead of schedule.
  This is a grand achievement, the sum of many acts of individual 
courage, persistence and hope. For 13 years, Elaine Kinslow of 
Indianapolis, Indiana, was on and off welfare. Today, she is a 
dispatcher with a van company, she saved enough money to move her

[[Page H33]]

family into a good neighborhood, and she is helping other welfare 
recipients go to work.
  Elaine Kinslow and all those like her are the real heroes of the 
welfare revolution. There are millions like her all across America, and 
I am happy she could join the First Lady tonight.
  Elaine, we are very proud of you. Please stand up.
  We still have a lot more to do, all of us, to make welfare reform a 
success, providing child care, helping families move closer to 
available jobs, challenging more companies to join our welfare-to-work 
partnership, increasing child support collections from deadbeat parents 
who have a duty to support their own children.
  I also want to thank Congress for restoring some of the benefits to 
immigrants who are here legally and working hard, and I hope you will 
finish that job this year.
  We have to make it possible for all hard-working families to meet 
their most important responsibilities. Two years ago, we helped 
guarantee that Americans can keep their health insurance when they 
change jobs. Last year, we extended health care to up to 5 million 
children. This year, I challenge Congress to take the next historic 
steps.
  One hundred sixty million of our fellow citizens are in managed care 
plans. These plans save money, and they can improve care. But medical 
decisions ought to be made by medical doctors, not insurance company 
accountants. I urge this Congress to reach across the aisle and write 
into law a Consumer Bill of Rights that says this: You have the right 
to know all your medical options, not just the cheapest. You have the 
right to choose the doctor you want for the care you need. You have the 
right to emergency room care, wherever and whenever you need it. You 
have the right to keep your medical records confidential. Now, 
traditional care or managed care, every American deserves quality care.
  Millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have lost their 
health insurance. Some are retired, some are laid off, some lose their 
coverage when their spouses retire. After a lifetime of work, they are 
left with nowhere to turn. So I ask the Congress, let these hard-
working Americans buy into the Medicare system. It will not add a dime 
to the deficit, but the peace of mind it will provide will be 
priceless.
  Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest 
health threat that they face, an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by 
multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. I challenge Congress, let's 
pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will improve public 
health, protect our tobacco farmers, and change the way tobacco 
companies do business forever. Let's do what it takes to bring teen 
smoking down. Let's raise the price of cigarettes by up to $1.50 a pack 
over the next 10 years, with penalties on the tobacco industry if it 
keeps marketing to our children. Now, tomorrow, like every day, 3,000 
children will start smoking, and 1,000 will die early as a result. Let 
this Congress be remembered as the Congress that saved their lives.
  In the new economy, most parents work harder than ever. They face a 
constant struggle to balance their obligations to be good workers, and 
their even more important obligations to be good parents.
  The Family and Medical Leave Act was the very first bill I was 
privileged to sign into law as President in 1993. Since then, about 15 
million people have taken advantage of it, and I have met a lot of them 
all across this country. I ask you to extend that law to cover 10 
million more workers and to give parents time off when they have to go 
see their children's teachers or take them to the doctor.
  Child care is the next frontier we must face to enable people to 
succeed at home and at work. Last year I cohosted the very first White 
House Conference on Child Care with one of our foremost experts, 
America's First Lady. From all corners of America we heard the same 
message without regard to region or income or political affiliation: We 
have to raise the quality of child care. We have to make it safer. We 
have to make it more affordable.

  So here is my plan: Help families to pay for child care for 1 million 
more children. Scholarships and background checks for child care 
workers, and a new emphasis on early learning. Tax credits for 
businesses that provide child care for their employees. And the larger 
child care tax credit for working families.
  Now, if you pass my plan, what this means is that a family of 4 with 
an income of $35,000 and high child care costs will no longer pay a 
single penny of Federal income tax.
  You know, I think this is such a big issue with me because of my own 
personal experience. I have often wondered how my mother when she was a 
young widow would have been able to go away to school and get an 
education and come back and support me if my grandparents had not been 
able to take care of me. She and I were really very lucky. How many 
other families have never had that same opportunity? The truth is, we 
do not know the answer to that question, but we do know what the answer 
should be. Not a single American family should ever have to choose 
between the job they need and the child they love.
  A society rooted in responsibility must provide safe streets, safe 
schools, and safe neighborhoods. We pursued a strategy of more police, 
tougher punishment and smarter prevention, with crime fighting 
partnerships with local law enforcement and citizen groups where the 
rubber hits the road. I can report to you tonight that it is working. 
Violent crime is down, robbery is down, assault is down, burglary is 
down for five years in a row all across America. Now we need to finish 
the job of putting 100,000 more police on our streets.
  Again, I ask Congress to pass a juvenile crime bill that provides 
more prosecutors and probation officers to crack down on gangs and guns 
and drugs and bar violent juveniles from buying guns for life. And, I 
ask you to dramatically expand our support for after-school programs. I 
think every American should know that most juvenile crime is committed 
between the hours of 3 in the afternoon and 8 at night. We can keep so 
many of our children out of trouble in the first place if we give them 
some place to go other than the streets, and we ought to do it.
  Drug use is on the decline. I thank General McCaffrey for his 
leadership, and I thank this Congress for passing the largest antidrug 
budget in history. Now I ask you to join me in a groundbreaking effort 
to hire 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and to deploy the most 
sophisticated available new technologies to help close the door on 
drugs at our borders. Police, prosecutors and prevention programs, as 
good as they are, they cannot work if our court system does not work. 
Today there are large numbers of vacancies in our Federal courts. Here 
is what the Chief Justice of the United States wrote: Judicial 
``vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without 
eroding the quality of justice.'' I simply ask the United States Senate 
to heed this plea and vote on the highly qualified nominees before you 
up or down.
  We must exercise responsibility not just at home, but around the 
world. On the eve of a new century, we have the power and the duty to 
build a new era of peace and security. But make no mistake about it, 
today's possibilities are not tomorrow's guarantees. America must stand 
against the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism. We must combat an 
unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals and 
drug traffickers. These 21st century predators feed on technology and 
the free flow of information and ideas and people, and they will be all 
the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall into their hands.
  To meet these challenges, we are helping to write international rules 
of the road for the 21st century, protecting those who join the family 
of nations, and isolating those who do not.
  Within days, I will ask the Senate for its advice and consent to make 
Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic the newest members of NATO. For 
50 years, NATO contained communism and kept America and Europe secure. 
Now these three formerly Communist countries have said yes to 
democracy. I ask the Senate to say yes to them, our new allies. By 
taking in new members and working closely with new partners, including 
Russia and Ukraine, NATO can help to assure that Europe is a stronghold 
for peace in the 21st century.

[[Page H34]]

  Next, I will ask Congress to continue its support for our troops and 
their mission in Bosnia. This Christmas, Hillary and I traveled to 
Sarajevo with Senator and Mrs. Dole and a bipartisan congressional 
delegation. We saw children playing in the streets where two years ago 
they were hiding from snipers and shells. The shops were filled with 
food, the cafes were alive with conversation.
  The progress there is unmistakable, but it is not yet irreversible. 
To take firm root, Bosnia's fragile peace still needs the support of 
American and allied troops when the current NATO mission ends in June. 
I think Senator Dole actually said it best. He said, this is like being 
ahead in the fourth quarter of a football game. Now is not the time to 
walk off the field and forfeit the victory.
  I wish all of you could have seen our troops in Tuzla. They are very 
proud of what they are doing in Bosnia and we are all very proud of 
them.
  One of those brave soldiers is sitting with the First Lady tonight, 
Army Sergeant Michael Tolbert. His father was a decorated Vietnam vet. 
After college in Colorado, he joined the Army. Last year, he led an 
Infantry unit that stopped a mob of extremists from taking over a radio 
station that is a voice of democracy and tolerance in Bosnia.
  Thank you very much, Sergeant, for what you represent. Please stand 
up.
  In Bosnia, and around the world, our men and women in uniform always 
do their mission well. Our mission must be to keep them well-trained 
and ready, to improve their quality of life, and to provide the 21st 
Century weapons they need to defeat any enemy.
  I ask Congress to join me in pursuing an ambitious agenda to reduce 
the serious threat of weapons of mass destruction. This year, four 
decades after it was first proposed by President Eisenhower, a 
comprehensive nuclear test ban is within reach. By ending nuclear 
testing we can help to prevent the development of new and more 
dangerous weapons and make it more difficult for non-nuclear states to 
build them.
  I am pleased to announce that four former chairmen of the Joint 
Chiefs of Staff, Generals John Shalikashvili, Colin Powell, David Jones 
and Admiral William Crowe, have endorsed this treaty, and I ask the 
Senate to approve it this year.
  Together, we must also confront the new hazards of chemical and 
biological weapons and the outlaw states, terrorists, and organized 
criminals seeking to acquire them.
  Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade and much of 
his nation's wealth not on providing for the Iraqi people but on 
developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to 
deliver them. The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly 
remarkable job, finding and destroying more of Iraq's arsenal than was 
destroyed during the entire Gulf War. Now, Saddam Hussein wants to stop 
them from completing their mission.
  I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and 
Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein: You cannot defy the will of 
the world. And when I say to him: You have used weapons of mass 
destruction before. We are determined to deny you the capacity to use 
them again.
  Last year, the Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention to 
protect our soldiers and citizens from poison gas. Now we must act to 
prevent the use of disease as a weapon of war and terror. The 
Biological Weapons Convention has been in effect for 23 years now. The 
rules are good, but the enforcement is weak. We must strengthen it with 
a new international inspection system to detect and deter cheating.
  In the months ahead, I will pursue our security strategy with old 
allies in Asia and Europe, and new partners from Africa to India and 
Pakistan, from South America to China. And from Belfast to Korea to the 
Middle East, America will continue to stand with those who stand for 
peace.

  Finally, it is long past time to make good on our debt to the United 
Nations. More and more, we are working with other Nations to achieve 
common goals. If we want America to lead, we have got to set a good 
example. As we see so clearly in Bosnia, allies who share our goals can 
also share our burdens.
  In this new era, our freedom and independence are actually enriched, 
not weakened, by our increasing interdependence with other nations, but 
we have to do our part.
  Our Founders set America on a permanent course toward ``a more 
perfect union.'' To all of you I say it is a journey we can only make 
together, living as one community.
  First, we have to continue to reform our government, the instrument 
of our national community.
  Everyone knows elections have become too expensive, fueling a fund-
raising arms race. This year, by March the 6th, at long last the Senate 
will actually vote on bipartisan campaign finance reform proposed by 
Senators McCain and Feingold. Let us be clear: A vote against McCain-
Feingold is a vote for soft money and for the status quo. I ask you to 
strengthen our democracy and pass campaign reform this year.
  But at least equally important, we have to address the real reason 
for the explosion in campaign costs: the high cost of media 
advertising. For the folks watching at home, those were the groans of 
pain in the audience.
  I will formally request that the Federal Communications Commission 
act to provide free or reduced-cost television time for candidates who 
observe spending limits voluntarily. The airwaves are a public trust 
and broadcasters also have to help us in this effort to strengthen our 
democracy.
  Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, we have reduced the 
Federal payroll by 300,000 workers, cut 16,000 pages of regulation, 
eliminated hundreds of programs, and improved the operations of 
virtually every government agency. But we can do more.
  Like every taxpayer, I am outraged by the reports of abuses by the 
IRS. We need some changes there: New citizen advocacy panels, a 
stronger taxpayer advocate, phone lines open 24 hours a day, relief for 
innocent taxpayers. Last year, by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, 
the House of Representatives passed sweeping IRS reforms. This bill 
must not now languish in the Senate. Tonight I ask the Senate: Follow 
the House. Pass the bipartisan package as your first order of business.
  I hope to goodness before I finish I can think of something to say 
``Follow the Senate'' on so I will be out of trouble.
  A nation that lives as a community must value all its communities.
  For the past five years, we have worked to bring the spark of private 
enterprise to inner-city and poor rural areas with community 
development banks, more commercial loans into poor neighborhoods, 
cleanups of polluted sites for development.
  Under the continued leadership of the Vice President, we proposed to 
triple the number of empowerment zones to give business incentives to 
invest in those areas. We should also give poor families more help to 
move into homes of their own, and we should use tax cuts to spur the 
construction of more low-income housing.
  Last year this Congress took strong action to help the District of 
Columbia. Let us renew our resolve to make our capital city a great 
city for all who live and visit here.
  Our cities are the vibrant hubs of great metropolitan areas. They are 
still the gateways for new immigrants from every continent who come 
here to work for their own American dreams. Let's keep our cities going 
strong into the 21st century. They are a very important part of our 
future.
  Our communities are only as healthy as the air our children breathe, 
the water they drink, the Earth they will inherit.
  Last year we put in place the toughest ever controls on smog and 
soot. We moved to protect Yellowstone, the Everglades, Lake Tahoe. We 
expanded every community's right to know about toxics that threaten 
their children.
  Just yesterday our food safety plan took effect, using new signs to 
protect consumers from dangers like e-coli and salmonella.
  Tonight I ask you to join me in launching a new clean water 
initiative, a far-reaching effort to clean our rivers, our lakes and 
our coastal waters for our children.
  Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide 
problem of climate change, global warming, the

[[Page H35]]

gathering crisis that requires worldwide action.
  The vast majority of scientists have concluded unequivocally that if 
we do not reduce the emission of greenhouse gases at some point in the 
next century, we will disrupt our climate and put our children and 
grandchildren at risk.
  This past December, America led the world to reach a historic 
agreement, committing our Nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 
through market forces, new technologies, energy efficiency.
  We have it in our power to act right here, right now. I propose $6 
billion in tax cuts and research and development to encourage 
innovation, renewable energy, fuel-efficient cars, energy-efficient 
homes.
  Every time we have acted to heal our environment, pessimists told us 
it would hurt the economy. Well, today our economy is the strongest in 
a generation. And our environment is the cleanest in a generation. We 
have always found a way to clean the environment and grow the economy 
at the same time. And when it comes to global warming, we will do it 
again.
  Finally, communities means living by the defining American value, the 
ideal heard round the world, that we are all created equal. Throughout 
our history we haven't always honored that ideal, and we have never 
fully lived up to it.
  Often it is easier to believe that our differences matter more than 
what we have in common. It may be easier, but it is wrong. What must we 
do in our day and generation to make sure that America truly becomes 
one Nation? What do we have to do? We are becoming more and more 
diverse. Do you believe we can become one Nation?
  The answer cannot be to dwell on our differences but to build on our 
shared values. We all cherish family and faith, freedom and 
responsibility. We all want our children to grow up in a world where 
their talents are matched by their opportunities.
  I have launched this national initiative on race to help us recognize 
our common interests and to bridge the opportunity gaps that are 
keeping us from becoming one America.
  Let us begin by recognizing what we still must overcome. 
Discrimination against any American is un-American. We must vigorously 
enforce the laws that make it illegal.
  I ask your help to end the backlog at the Equal Employment 
Opportunity Commission. Sixty thousand of our fellow citizens are 
waiting in line for justice, and we should act now to end their wait.
  We should also recognize that the greatest progress we can make 
toward building one America lies in the progress we make for all 
Americans without regard to race. When we open the doors of college to 
all Americans, when we rid all our streets of crime, when there are 
jobs available to people from all our neighborhoods, when we make sure 
all parents have the child care they need, we are helping to build one 
Nation.
  We, in this Chamber and in this government, must do all we can to 
address the continuing American challenge to build one America. But we 
will only move forward if all our fellow citizens, including every one 
of you at home watching tonight, is also committed to this cause. We 
must work together, learn together, live together, serve together. On 
the forge of common enterprise, Americans of all backgrounds can hammer 
out a common identity.

  We see it today in the United States military, in the Peace Corps, in 
AmeriCorps. Wherever people of all races and backgrounds come together 
in a shared endeavor and get a fair chance, we do just fine. With 
shared values and meaningful opportunities and honest communication and 
citizen service, we can unite a diverse people in freedom and mutual 
respect. We are many. We must be one.
  In that spirit, let us lift our eyes to the new millennium. How will 
we mark that passage? It just happens once every thousand years.
  This year Hillary and I launched the White House Millennium Program 
to promote America's creativity and innovation and to preserve our 
heritage and culture into the 21st century. Our culture lives in every 
community, and every community has places of historic value that tell 
our stories as Americans. We should protect them. I am proposing a 
public-private partnership to advance our arts and humanities and to 
celebrate the millennium by saving America's treasures, great and 
small.
  And while we honor the past, let us imagine the future.
  Think about this, the entire store of human knowledge now doubles 
every 5 years. In the 1980s, scientists identified the gene causing 
cystic fibrosis. It took 9 years.
  Last year scientists located the gene that causes Parkinson's disease 
in only 9 days. Within a decade, gene chips will offer a road map for 
prevention of illnesses throughout a lifetime. Soon we will be able to 
carry all the phone calls on Mother's Day on a single strand of fiber 
the width of a human hair. A child born in 1998 may well live to see 
the 22nd century.
  Tonight, as part of our gift to the millennium, I propose a 21st 
Century Research Fund for path-breaking scientific inquiry, the largest 
funding increase in history for the National Institutes of Health, the 
National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute.
  We have already discovered genes for breast cancer and diabetes. I 
ask you to support this initiative so ours will be the generation that 
finally wins the war against cancer and begins a revolution in our 
fight against all deadly diseases.
  As important as all this scientific progress is, we must continue to 
see that science serves humanity, not the other way around. We must 
prevent the misuse of genetic tests to discriminate against any 
American. And we must ratify the ethical consensus of the scientific 
and religious communities and ban the cloning of human beings.
  We should enable all the world's people to explore the far reaches of 
cyberspace. Think of this: The first time I made a State of the Union 
speech to you, only a handful of physicists used the Worldwide Web. 
Literally just a handful of people. Now, in schools and libraries, 
homes and businesses, millions and millions of Americans surf the net 
everyday.
  We must give parents the tools they need to help protect their 
children from inappropriate material on the Internet, but we also must 
make sure that we protect the exploding global commercial potential of 
the internet.
  We can do the kinds of things that we need to do and still protect 
our kids. For one thing, I ask Congress to step up support for building 
the next generation Internet. It's getting kind of clogged, you know, 
and the next generation Internet will operate at speeds up to a 
thousand times faster than today.
  Even as we explore this innerspace in the new millennium, we're going 
to open new frontiers in outer space. Throughout all history humankind 
has had only one place to call home: Our planet earth. Beginning this 
year, 1998, men and women from 16 countries will build a foothold in 
the heavens. The International Space Station, with its vast expanses, 
scientists and engineers will actually set sail on an uncharted sea of 
limitless mystery and unlimited potential, and this October a true 
American hero, a veteran pilot of 149 combat missions and one five-hour 
space flight that changed the world will return to the heavens. 
Godspeed, John Glenn.
  John, you will carry with you America's hopes. And on your uniform 
once again you will carry America's flag, marking the unbroken 
connection between the deeds of America's past and the daring of 
America's future.
  Nearly 200 years ago a tattered flag, its broad stripes and bright 
stars still gleaming through the smoke of a fierce battle moved Francis 
Scott Key to scribble a few word on the back of an envelope, the words 
that became our national anthem. Today that Star Spangled Banner, along 
with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of 
Rights are on display just a short walk from here. They are America's 
treasures and we must also save them for the ages.
  I ask all Americans to support our project to restore all our 
treasures so that the generations of the 21st century can see for 
themselves the images and the words that are the old and continuing 
glory of America, an America that has continued to rise through every 
age, against every challenge, of people of great works and greater 
possibilities who have always, always

[[Page H36]]

found the wisdom and strength to come together as one nation, to widen 
the circle of opportunity, to deepen the meaning of our freedom, to 
form that more perfect union. Let that be our gift to the 21st century. 
God bless you and God bless the United States.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  At 10 o'clock and 25 minutes p.m. the President of the United States, 
accompanied by the committee of escort, retired from the Hall of the 
House of Representatives.
  The Assistant to the Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests 
from the Chamber in the following order: The members of the President's 
Cabinet; the Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme 
Court of the United States; the Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

                          ____________________