[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 19, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S330-S335]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS ON THE STATE OF THE UNION--MESSAGE FROM THE 
                            PRESIDENT--PM 1

  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the President of the United States, together with an accompanying 
report; which was ordered to lie on the table.

  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored guests, 
my fellow Americans:
  Tonight, I have the honor of reporting on the State of the Union.
  Let me begin by saluting the new Speaker of the House, and thanking 
him for extending invitations to two special guests who are sitting in 
the gallery with Mrs. Hastert. Lyn Gibson and Wei Ling Chestnut are the 
widows of the two brave Capitol Police Officers who gave their lives to 
defend freedom's house.
  Speaker Hastert: At your swearing in, you asked us to work in a 
spirit of civility and bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly 
that.
  I stand before you to report that America has created the longest 
peacetime economic expansion in our history--with nearly 18 million new 
jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the 
highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare rolls in 30 
years--and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.
  For the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. From a 
deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last 
year. We are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25 years.
  Violent crime is the lowest in a quarter century. Our environment is 
the cleanest in a quarter century.
  America is a strong force for peace from Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, 
to the Middle East.
  Thanks to the pioneering leadership of Vice President Gore, we have a 
government for the Information Age. Once again, our government is a 
progressive instrument of the common good, rooted in our oldest values: 
opportunity, responsibility, community. A modern government, devoted to 
fiscal responsibility and determined to give our people the tools they 
need to make the most of their own lives. A 21st Century government for 
21st Century America.
  My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the state of 
our union is strong.
  America is working again. The promise of our future is limitless. But 
we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our prosperity to 
lull us

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into complacency. How we are as a nation far into the 21st Century 
depends upon what we do as a nation today.
  So with our budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our 
confidence rising, now is the moment for this generation to meet our 
historic responsibility to the 21st Century. Let's get to work.


                   the aging of 21st century america

  Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed opportunity to address 
a remarkable new challenge: the aging of America.
  With the number of elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the Baby 
Boom will become a Senior Boom.
  So first and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st 
Century.
  Early in this century, being old meant being poor. When President 
Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote to thank him for 
eliminating what one woman called the ``stark terror of penniless, 
helpless old age.'' Even today, without Social Security, half our 
nation's elderly would be forced into poverty.
  Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013, payroll taxes will no 
longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments. And by 2032, the Trust 
Fund will be exhausted, and Social Security will be unable to pay out 
the full benefits older Americans have been promised.
  The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not to 
make drastic cuts in benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; and not 
to drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it.
  Instead, I propose that we make the historic decision to invest the 
surplus to save Social Security.
  Specifically, I propose that we commit sixty percent of the budget 
surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small 
portion in the private sector just as any private or state government 
pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social 
Security sound for 55 years.
  But we must aim higher. We should put Social Security on a sound 
footing for the next 75 years. And we should reduce poverty among 
elderly women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as other 
seniors--and we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social 
Security can earn.
  These changes will require difficult but fully achievable choices. 
They must be made on a bipartisan basis. They should be made this year. 
I reach out my hand to those of you of both parties and both houses and 
ask you to join me in saying; We will Save Social Security now. Last 
year, we wisely reserved all of the surplus until we knew what it would 
take to save Social Security. Again, I say, we should not spend any of 
it until Social Security is truly saved. First things first.
  Second, once we have saved Social Security, we must fulfill our 
obligation to save and improve Medicare. Already, we have extended the 
life of Medicare by 10 years--but we should extend it for at least 
another decade. Tonight I propose that we use one out of every six 
dollars in the surplus over the next 15 years to guarantee the 
soundness of Medicare until the year 2020.
  But again, we should aim higher. We must be willing to work in a 
bipartisan way and look at new ideas, including the upcoming report of 
the bipartisan Medicare commission. If we work together, we can secure 
Medicare for the next two decades and cover seniors' greatest need--
affordable prescription drugs.
  Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, 
to save, to invest, to create wealth. From its beginning, Americans 
have supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings. 
Yet today, millions of people retire with little to live on other than 
Social Security. Americans living longer than ever must save more than 
ever.
  Therefore, in addition to saving Social Security and Medicare, I 
propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st 
Century. I propose that we use 11% of the surplus to establish 
Universal Savings Accounts--USA Accounts--to give all Americans the 
means to save. With these new accounts, Americans can invest as they 
choose, and receive funds to match a portion of their savings, with 
extra help for those least able to save.
  USA Accounts will help all Americans to share in our nation's wealth, 
and enjoy a more secure retirement.
  Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. I propose a tax credit of 
$1,000 for the aged, ailing and disabled and the families who care for 
them. Long term care will become a bigger and bigger challenge with the 
aging in America--and we must help our families deal with it.
  I was born in 1946, the first year of the Baby Boom. And I can tell 
you that our generation is determined not to let our growing old place 
an intolerable burden on our children and their ability to raise our 
grandchildren. Our economic success and fiscal discipline now give us 
an opportunity to lift that burden.
  Saving Social Security, Medicare and creating USA accounts is the 
right way to use the surplus. If we do so, we will still have resources 
to meet our critical needs in education and defense. And this plan is 
fiscally sound. Listen to this: By saving the money we need to save 
Social Security and Medicare, over the next fifteen years we will 
achieve the lowest level of publicly held debt since 1917.
  With these four measures--saving Social Security, strengthening 
Medicare, establishing USA Accounts, and supporting long-term care--we 
can begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to establish 
true security for 21st Century seniors.


                          21st century schools

  There are more children, from more diverse backgrounds, in our public 
schools than at any time in our history. Their education must provide 
the knowledge and nurture the creativity that will allow our nation to 
thrive in the new economy.
  Today we can say something we could not say six years ago: with tax 
credits and more affordable student loans, more Pell grants and work-
study jobs, education IRAs, and the new HOPE Scholarship tax cut that 
more than 5 million Americans will receive this year, we have opened 
the doors of college to all.
  With our help, nearly every state has set higher academic standards 
for public schools, and a voluntary national test is being developed to 
measure the progress of our students. With over one billion dollars in 
discounts available this year, we are on our way to our goal of 
connecting every classroom and library to the Internet.
  Last fall, you passed our proposal to start hiring 100,000 new 
teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. Now I ask you to 
finish the job.
  Our children are doing better. SAT scores are up. Math scores have 
risen in nearly all grades. But there is a problem: While our fourth 
graders outperform their peers in other countries in math and science, 
our eighth graders are around average, and our twelfth graders rank 
near the bottom.
  We must do better. Each year the national government invests more 
than $15 billion in our public schools. I believe we must change the 
way we invest that money, to support what works and to stop supporting 
what doesn't.
  Later this year, I will send Congress a plan that for the first time 
holds states and school districts accountable for progress and rewards 
them for results. My Education Accountability Act will require every 
school district receiving federal help to take the following five 
steps.
  First, all schools must end social promotion.
  No child should graduate from high school with a diploma he or she 
can't read. We do our children no favors when we allow them to pass 
from grade to grade without mastering the material.
  But we can't just hold students back when the system fails them. So 
my balanced budget triples the funding for summer school and after 
school programs. We can keep one million students learning beyond 
regular school hours, when parents work and juvenile crime soars.
  If you doubt this will work, look at Chicago, which ended social 
promotion and made summer school mandatory for those who don't master 
the basics. Math and reading scores are up three years running--with 
some of the biggest gains in some of the poorest neighborhoods.
  Second, all states and school districts must turn around their worst 
performing schools--or shut them down. That is the policy established 
by Gov. Jim Hunt in North Carolina,

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where test scores made the biggest gains in the nation last year. My 
budget includes $200 million to help states turn around their failing 
schools.
  Third, all states and school districts must be held responsible for 
the quality of their teachers. The great majority of teachers do a fine 
job. But in too many schools, teachers don't have college majors--or 
even minors--in the subjects they teach.
  New teachers should be required to pass performance exams. All 
teachers should know the subjects they are teaching. My balanced budget 
contains new resources to help them reach higher standards.
  To attract talented young teachers to the toughest assignments, I 
recommended a six-fold increase in college scholarships for students 
who commit to teach in the inner cities, isolated rural areas and 
Indian communities. Let's bring excellence into every part of America.
  Fourth, we must empower parents, with more information and more 
choices. In too many communities, it is easier to get information on 
the quality of the local restaurants than on the quality of the local 
schools. Every school district should issue report cards on every 
school.
  And parents should have more choice in selecting their public 
schools. When I became President, there was just one independent, 
public charter school in all of America. With our support, there are 
1100 today. My budget assures that early in the next century, there 
will be 3000.
  Fifth, to ensure that our classrooms are truly places of learning, 
all states and school districts must adopt and implement discipline 
policies.
  Now, let's do one more thing for our children. Today, too many of our 
schools are so old they're falling apart, or so overcrowded students 
must learn in trailers. Last fall, Congress missed the opportunity to 
change that. This year, with 53 million children in our schools, 
Congress must not miss that opportunity again. I ask you to help our 
communities build or modernize 5000 schools.
  If we do these things--end social promotion, turn around failing 
schools, build modern ones, support qualified teachers, promote 
innovation, competition and discipline--we will begin to meet our 
generation's historic responsibility to create 21st Century schools.


               21st century support for american families

  We must do more to help the millions of parents who give their all 
every day at home and at work.
  The most basic tool of all is a decent income. Let's raise the 
minimum wage by a dollar an hour over the next two years.
  And let's make sure women and men get equal pay for equal work by 
strengthening enforcement of equal pay laws.
  Working parents also need quality child care. Again, this year, I ask 
Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for working 
families, improved safety and quality, and expanded after-school 
programs. Our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home 
parents. They need support too.
  The Family Medical Leave Act--the first bill I signed into law--has 
now helped millions of Americans care for a new baby or an ailing 
relative without risking their jobs. We should extend Family Leave to 
10 million more Americans working in smaller companies.
  Parents should never face discrimination in the workplace. I will ask 
Congress to prohibit companies from refusing to hire or promote workers 
simply because they have children.
  America's families deserve the world's best medical care.
  Thanks to bipartisan federal support for medical research, we are on 
the verge of new treatments to prevent or delay diseases from 
Parkinsons to Alzheimers to arthritis to cancer.
  As we continue our advances in medical science, we cannot let our 
health care system lag behind.
  Managed care has transformed medicine in America--driving down costs, 
but threatening to drive down quality as well. I say to every American: 
You should have the right to know all your medical options--not just 
the cheapest. You should have the right to see a specialist. You should 
have the right to emergency care. You should have the right to 
continuity of care--to keep your doctor during pregnancy or 
chemotherapy or other treatment.
  I have ordered these rights to be extended to the 85 million 
Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health 
programs. But only Congress can pass the Patients' Bill of Rights for 
all Americans. Last year, Congress missed that opportunity. This year, 
for the sake of our families, Congress must not miss that opportunity 
again. Pass a strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights.
  As more of our medical records are stored electronically, the threats 
to our privacy increase. Because Congress has given me the authority to 
act if it does not do so by August, one way or another, we will protect 
the privacy of medical records this year.
  Two years ago, we acted to extend health coverage to up to 5 million 
children. Now, we should make it easier for small businesses to offer 
health insurance, and to give people between the ages of 55 and 65 who 
lose their health insurance the chance to buy into Medicare. And we 
should continue to ensure access to family planning.
  No one should have to choose between keeping health care and taking a 
job. We should pass the landmark bipartisan legislation, proposed by 
Senators Jeffords, Kennedy, Roth and Moynihan, to allow people with 
disabilities to keep health insurance when they go to work.
  We need to enable public hospitals, and community and university 
health centers, to provide basic, affordable care for working families 
who have no insurance. My balanced budget makes a down payment toward 
that goal.
  And we must step up our efforts to treat and prevent mental illness. 
No American should ever be afraid to address this disease. This year, 
we will host a White House Conference on Mental Health. With 
sensitivity and commitment, Tipper Gore is leading our efforts here--
and I thank her.
  As everyone knows, our children are targets of a massive media 
campaign to hook them on cigarettes. I ask this Congress to resist the 
tobacco lobby--to reaffirm the FDA's authority to protect children from 
tobacco, and hold the tobacco companies accountable while protecting 
tobacco farmers.
  Smoking has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars under 
Medicare and other programs. The states are right: taxpayers shouldn't 
pay for the costs of lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related 
illnesses--the tobacco companies should. Tonight, I announce that the 
Justice Department is preparing a litigation plan to take the tobacco 
companies to court. And with funds we recover, we should strengthen 
Medicare.
  If we act in these areas--minimum wage, family leave, child care, 
health care and the safety of our children--we will begin to meet our 
generation's historic responsibility to strengthen our families for the 
21st Century.


                         a 21st century economy

  Today, America is the most dynamic, competitive, job creating economy 
in history.
  But we can do even better--in building a 21st Century economy for all 
Americans.
  Today's income gap is largely a skills gap. Last year, Congress 
passed a law enabling workers to get a skills grant to choose the 
training they need. This year, I recommend a five year commitment to 
this new system so that we can provide that training for all Americans 
who lose their jobs, and expand rapid response teams to help towns 
where businesses have closed. And I ask for a dramatic increase in 
federal support for adult literacy, so we can mount a national campaign 
aimed at the millions of working people who read at less than a fifth 
grade level.
  In the past six years, we have cut the welfare rolls nearly in half. 
Two years ago, from this podium, I asked five companies to lead a 
national effort to hire people off welfare.
  Tonight, our Welfare to Work Partnership includes 10,000 companies 
who have hired hundreds of thousands of people--and our balanced budget 
will help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and pride of work.
  We must bring the spark of private enterprise to every corner of 
America--building a bridge from Wall Street to Appalachia, to the 
Mississippi Delta, to our Native American communities--with more 
support for community development banks, empowerment zones

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and 100,000 vouchers for affordable housing.
  And I ask Congress to support our bold plan to help businesses raise 
up to $15 billion of private sector capital to bring jobs and 
opportunity to our inner cities and rural areas--with tax credits and 
loan guarantees, including new American Private Investment Companies 
modeled on our Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Our greatest 
untapped markets are not overseas--they are right here at home.
  We must bring prosperity back to the family farm. Dropping prices and 
the loss of foreign markets have devastated too many family farmers. I 
am ready to work with lawmakers of both parties to create a farm safety 
net including crop insurance reform and farm income assistance.
  We must strengthen our lead in technology.
  Government investment led to the creation of the Internet. I propose 
a 28% increase in long-term computing research.
  We must be ready for the 21st Century from its very first moment, by 
solving the ``Y2K'' computer problem. Already, we have made sure that 
Social Security checks will come on time. If we work hard with state 
and local governments and businesses large and small, the ``Y2K 
problem'' can be remembered as the last headache of the 20th Century, 
not the first crisis of the 21st.
  For our own prosperity, we must support economic growth abroad.
  Until recently, one third of our economic growth came from exports. 
But over the past year and a half, financial turmoil overseas has put 
that growth at risk. Today, much of the world is in recession, with 
Asia hit especially hard.
  This is the most serious financial crisis in a half century. To meet 
it, the United States and other nations have reduced interest rates and 
strengthened the International Monetary Fund. While the turmoil is not 
over, we are working with other nations to contain it.
  At the same time, we will continue to work to build a global 
financial system for the 21st Century that promotes prosperity and 
tames the cycles of boom and bust. This June I will meet with other 
world leaders to advance this historic purpose.
  We must also create a freer and fairer trading system for the 21st 
Century. Trade has divided Americans for too long. We must find the 
common ground on which business, workers, environmentalists, farmers 
and government can stand together.
  We must tear down barriers, open markets, and expand trade. At the 
same time, we must ensure that ordinary citizens in all countries 
actually benefit from trade--trade that promotes the dignity of work, 
the rights of workers, the protection of the environment. And we must 
insist that international trade organizations be open to public 
scrutiny. In short, we must put a human face on the global economy.
  We must enforce our trade laws when imports unlawfully flood our 
nation. I have already informed the government of Japan that if that 
nation's sudden surge of steel imports into our country is not 
reversed, America will respond.
  We must help all American manufacturers hit hard at the present 
crisis--with loan guarantees and other incentives to increase U.S. 
exports by nearly $2 billion.
  We can achieve a new consensus on trade, based on these principles. I 
ask Congress to join me in this common approach and to give the 
President the trade authority long used to advance our prosperity.
  And tonight, I also issue a call to the nations of the world to join 
the United States in a new round of global negotiations to expand 
exports of services, of manufactures, and farm products.
  We will work with the International Labor Organization on a new 
initiative to raise labor standards around the world. And this year, we 
will lead the international community to conclude a treaty to ban 
abusive child labor everywhere in the world.
  If we do these things--invest in our people, our communities, and our 
technology, and lead in the global economy--then we will begin to meet 
the historic responsibility of our generation to build a 21st Century 
prosperity for America.


                    a strong america in a new world

  No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility 
we now have to shape a world more peaceful, secure and free.
  All Americans can be proud that our leadership helped to bring peace 
in Northern Ireland.
  All Americans can be proud that our leadership has put Bosnia on the 
path to peace. And with our NATO allies, we are pressing the Serbian 
government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo, to bring those 
responsible to justice, and give the people of Kosovo the self-
government they deserve.
  All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for 
lasting peace in the Middle East. Some of you were with me in December 
as we watched the Palestinian National Council completely renounce its 
call for the destruction of Israel. I ask Congress to provide resources 
to implement the Wye Agreement . . . to protect Israel's security, 
stimulate the Palestinian economy, and support our friends in Jordan. 
We must not, we dare not, let them down.
  As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation's 
security--including increased dangers from outlaw nations and 
terrorism. We will defend our security wherever we are threatened--as 
we did this summer when we struck at Osama bin Laden's network of 
terror. The bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania reminds us 
of the risks faced every day by those who represent America to the 
world. Let's give them our support, the safest possible workplaces, and 
the resources they need so America can continue to lead.
  We must work to keep terrorisms from disrupting computer networks, to 
prepare local communities for biological and chemical emergencies, to 
support research into vaccines and treatments.
  We must increase our efforts to restrain the spread of nuclear 
weapons and missiles, from North Korea to India and Pakistan.
  We must expand our work with Russia, Ukraine, and the other former 
Soviet nations to safeguard nuclear materials and technology so they 
never fall into the wrong hands. My balanced budget will increase 
funding for these critical efforts by almost two thirds over the next 5 
years.
  With Russia, we must continue to reduce our nuclear arsenals. The 
START II treaty, and the framework we have already agreed to for START 
III, could cut them by 80% from their Cold War height.
  It has been two years since I signed the Comprehensive Test Ban 
Treaty. If we don't do the right thing, other nations won't either. I 
ask the Senate to take this vital step: Approve the Treaty now, so we 
can make it harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms--and we 
can end nuclear testing forever.
  For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligations to destroy its 
weapons of terror and the missiles to deliver them. America will 
continue to contain Saddam--and we will work for the day when Iraq has 
a government worthy of its people.
  Last month, in our action over Iraq, our troops were superb. Their 
mission was so flawlessly executed that we risk taking for granted the 
bravery and skill it required. Captain Jeff Taliaferro [tolliver], a 
10-year veteran of the Air Force, flew a B-1B bomber over Iraq as we 
attacked Saddam's war machine. He is here with us tonight. Let us honor 
him and all the 33,000 men and women of Desert Fox.
  It is time to reverse the decline in defense spending that began in 
1985. Since April, together we have added nearly $6 billion to maintain 
our readiness. My balanced budget calls for a sustained increase over 
the next six years for readiness and modernization, and pay and 
benefits for our troops.
  We are the heirs of a legacy of bravery represented by millions of 
veterans. America's defenders today stand ready at a moment's notice to 
go where comforts are new and dangers are many, doing what needs to be 
done as no one else can. They always come through for America. We must 
come through for them.
  The new century demands new partnerships for peace and security.
  The United Nations plays a crucial role, with allies sharing burdens 
America might otherwise bear alone. America needs a strong and 
effective UN. I

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want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts.
  We must support security in Europe and Asia--expanding NATO and 
defining its new missions, maintaining our alliance with Japan, Korea, 
and our other Asian allies, and engaging China.
  In China last year, I said to the leaders and people what I say again 
tonight: Stability can no longer be bought at the expense of liberty.
  And I say again to the American people: It is important not to 
isolate China. The more we bring China into the world, the more the 
world will bring change and freedom to China.
  Last spring, with some of you, I traveled to Africa, where I saw 
democracy and reform rising, but still held back by violence and 
disease. We must fortify African democracy and peace, by launching 
Radio Democracy for Africa, supporting the transition to democracy now 
beginning to take hold in Nigeria, and passing the African Trade and 
Development Act.
  We are strengthening our ties to the Americas and the Caribbean--to 
educate children, fight drugs, deepen democracy, and increase trade.
  In this hemisphere, every government but one is freely chosen by its 
people. We are determined that Cuba, too, will know the blessings of 
liberty.
  The American people have opened their arms and their hearts to our 
Central American and Caribbean neighbors devastated by recent 
hurricanes. Working with Congress, we will help them to rebuild. When 
the First Lady and Tipper Gore visited the region, they saw thousands 
of American troops and volunteers. In the Dominican Republic, Hillary 
helped to rededicate a hospital that had been rebuilt by Dominicans and 
Americans, working side by side.
  With her was someone who has been very important to the relief 
efforts.
  Sports records are made, and sooner or later, they are broken. But 
making other people's lives better--and showing our children the true 
meaning of brotherhood--that lasts forever. So for far more than 
baseball, Sammy Sosa, you are a hero to two countries.
  If we do all these things--pursue peace, fight terrorism, increase 
our strength, and renew our alliances--then we will begin to meet our 
generation's historic responsibility to build a stronger 21st Century 
America in a freer, more peaceful world.


                        21st century communities

  As the world has changed, so have our own communities. We must make 
them safer, more livable, more united.
  This year, we will reach our goal of 100,000 community police 
officers--ahead of schedule and under budget. The Brady Bill has 
stopped a quarter million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying 
handguns. Now, the murder rate is the lowest in 30 years, and the crime 
rate has dropped for six straight years.
  Tonight, I propose a 21st Century Crime Bill to deploy the latest 
technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer.
  My balanced budget will help put up to 50,000 more police on the beat 
in the areas hardest hit by crime, and to equip them with new tools, 
from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.
  We must break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. My budget expands 
support for drug testing and treatment. It says to prisoners: If you 
stay on drugs, you stay behind bars. It says to those on parole: To 
keep your freedom, keep free of drugs.
  Congress should restore the 5-day waiting period for buying a 
handgun--and extend the Brady Bill to prevent juveniles who commit 
violent crimes from buying a gun.
  We must keep our schools the safest places in our communities.
  Last year, we were horrified and heartbroken by the tragic killings 
in Jonesboro, Paducah, Pearl, Edinboro, Springfield. We were deeply 
moved by the courageous parents now working to keep guns out of the 
hands of children--so that other parents don't have to live through 
their loss.
  After she lost her daughter, Suzann Wilson of Jonesboro, Arkansas 
came to the White House with a powerful plea: ``Please, please for the 
sake of your children, lock up your guns. . . . Don't let what happened 
in Jonesboro happen in your town.'' Suzann is here tonight with the 
First Lady, and we thank her for her courage and commitment. In memory 
of all the children who lost their lives to school violence, let's 
strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act . . . let's pass 
legislation to require child trigger locks . . . let's keep our 
children safe.
  A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt defined our ``great, 
central task'' as ``leaving this land even a better land for our 
descendants than it is for us.'' Today, we are restoring the Florida 
Everglades, saving Yellowstone, preserving the red-rock canyons of 
Utah, protecting California's redwoods and our precious coasts.
  But our most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming. 
1998 was the warmest year ever recorded. Last year's heat waves, 
floods, and storms are but a hint of what future generations may endure 
if we don't act now.
  So tonight, I propose a new clean air fund to help communities reduce 
pollution, and tax incentives and investments to spur clean energy 
technologies. I will work with Congress to reward companies that take 
early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases.
  All communities face a preservation challenge, as they grow, and 
green space shrinks. 7,000 acres of farmland and open space are lost 
every day.
  In response, I propose two major initiatives: first, a one billion 
dollar Livability Agenda to help communities save open space, ease 
traffic congestion, and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's 
quality of life; second, a one billion dollar Lands Legacy Initiative 
to preserve places of natural beauty all across America--from the most 
remote wilderness to the nearest city park. I thank Vice President Gore 
for his visionary leadership in helping to develop these landmark 
proposals.
  To get the most out of your community, you have to give something 
back. That's why we created AmeriCorps--our national service program 
that gives today's generation a chance to serve their communities and 
earn money for college.
  So far, in just four years, 100,000 young people have built low-
income homes with Habitat for Humanity . . . helped tutor children . . 
. worked with FEMA to ease the burden of natural disasters . . . and 
performed countless other acts of service that have made America 
better.
  I ask Congress to give more young Americans the chance to follow 
their lead.
  We must work to renew our national community for the 21st Century.
  Last year, the House passed the bipartisan campaign finance reform 
legislation sponsored by Representatives Shays and Meehan and Senators 
McCain and Feingold. But a partisan minority in the Senate blocked 
reform. To the House I say: Pass it again, quickly. And to the Senate: 
Say yes to a strong democracy in the Year 2000.
  Since 1997, our Initiative on Race has sought to bridge the divides 
between our people. In its report last fall, the Initiative's Advisory 
Board found that Americans want to bring our people together across 
racial lines. We are on a journey that in a very real sense began forty 
years ago, when a woman sat down on a bus in Alabama. She is sitting 
here with the First Lady tonight--Rosa Parks.
  We must do more to close the opportunity gaps that remain. The 
economic, health care, and education initiatives I have discussed 
tonight will do a lot to close those gaps.
  But we have more to do.
  Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or 
gender, disability or sexual orientation, is wrong. It should be 
illegal. Therefore I call upon Congress to make the Employment Non-
Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the 
land.
  Since every person in America counts, every American must be counted. 
Let's have a census that uses the most modern scientific methods.
  Our newest immigrants must be part of One America. They are 
revitalizing our cities, energizing our culture, building our new 
economy. We have a responsibility to make immigrants welcome here, and 
they have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American life. 
That means learning English, and learning about our democratic system 
of government. There are now long waiting lines of immigrants seeking 
to do just that. Therefore, my budget expands significantly our efforts 
to help them meet their responsibility.

[[Page S335]]

  Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower or on slave ships, 
whether they landed on Ellis Island or at Los Angeles Airport, whether 
they arrived yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago--we can 
be, and we must be One America. We can only meet our generation's 
historic responsibility to the 21st Century if we go forward as that 
One America.


                             the millennium

  Barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross that bridge into 
the new millennium. This is a moment, as the First Lady has said, to 
honor the past and imagine the future.
  I honor her--for leading our Millennium Project--for all she has done 
for our children--and for her historic role in serving our nation and 
advancing our ideals at home and abroad.
  Last year, I called on Congress and every citizen to mark the 
millennium by saving America's treasures. Hillary has traveled across 
the country to inspire recognition and support for saving places like 
Thomas Edison's Invention Factory and Harriet Tubman's Home.
  We must preserve our treasures in every community. I invite every 
American town, city, and county to become a nationally recognized 
``Millennium Community'' by launching projects that save our history, 
promote our arts and humanities, and prepare our children for the 
future.
  Already, the response has been remarkable, and I thank Congress and 
our private sector partners for their support. Because of you, the Star 
Spangled Banner will be preserved for the ages.
  In ways large and small, we are keeping alive what George Washington 
called ``the sacred fire of liberty.''
  Six years ago, I came to office in a time of doubt for America, with 
our economy troubled, our deficit high, our people divided. Some even 
wondered whether our best days were behind us. But across this nation, 
in a thousand neighborhoods, I had seen, even amid the pain and 
uncertainty of recession, the heart and character of America.
  I knew then that we Americans could renew our country.
  Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union message of the 20th 
Century, no one can doubt the enduring resolve and boundless capacity 
of Americans to work toward that ``more perfect union'' of our 
founders' dreams.
  We near the end of a century when generation after generation of 
Americans answered the call to greatness, overcoming Depression, 
lifting up the dispossessed, bringing down barriers of racial 
prejudice, building the largest middle class in history, winning two 
world wars and the ``long twilight struggle'' of the Cold War.
  We are profoundly grateful for the magnificent achievement of our 
forbears.
  Yet perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of 
controversy, we do not see our own time for what it truly is--a new 
dawn for America.
  A hundred years from tonight, an American President will stand in 
this place to report on the State of the Union. He--or she--will look 
back on a 21st Century shaped in so many ways by the decisions we make 
here and now.
  Let it be said of us then that we were thinking not only of our time, 
but of their time; that we reached as high as our ideals; that we put 
aside our divisions and found a new hour of healing and hopefulness; 
that we joined together to serve and strengthen the land we love.
  My fellow Americans, this is our moment. Let us lift our eyes as one 
nation, and from the mountaintop of this American century, look ahead 
to the next one--asking God's blessing on our endeavors and our beloved 
country.

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