[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 613-619]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



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

  The PRESIDENT. Thank you very much.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored guests, 
my fellow Americans:

[[Page 614]]

  Tonight, I have the honor of reporting to you on the State of the 
Union.
  Let me begin by saluting the new Speaker of the House and thanking 
him especially tonight for extending an invitation to two guests 
sitting in the gallery with Mrs. Hastert. Lyn Gibson and Wei Ling 
Chestnut are the widows of the two brave Capitol Hill Police Officers 
who gave their lives to defend freedom's house.
  Mr. Speaker, at your swearing in, you asked us all to work together 
in a spirit of civility and bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do 
exactly that.
  Tonight 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 amount of 
inflation, the highest home ownership in history, the smallest welfare 
rolls in 30 years and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.
  For the first time in 3 decades, the budget is balanced. From a 
deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last 
year, and now we are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25 
years.
  Thanks to the pioneering leadership of all of you, we have the lowest 
violent crime rate in a quarter of a century. Our environment is the 
cleanest in a quarter of a century.
  America is a strong force for peace from Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, 
to the Middle East.
  Thanks to the 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 of 
opportunity, responsibility and community, devoted to fiscal 
responsibility, determined to give our people the tools they need to 
make the most of their own lives in the 21st century. A 21st century 
government for 21st century America.
  My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight 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 into complacency. How we fare 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.
  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 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; 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 60 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. We should reduce poverty among elderly 
women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as our other seniors, 
and we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security 
can earn.
  Now, these changes will require difficult but fully achievable 
choices over and above the dedication of the surplus. They must be made 
on a bipartisan basis. They should be made this year. So let me say to 
you tonight, I reach out my hand to all of you in both Houses and in 
both parties and ask that we join together in saying to the American 
people, 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, not any of it, until after 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 the Medicare Trust Fund 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 for 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 2 decades, and cover the greatest growing need of 
seniors, 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 simply 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 a little over 11 percent 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 to enjoy a more secure retirement. I ask you to support them.
  Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. I propose a tax credit of 
$1,000 for the aged, ailing or disabled and the families who care for 
them. Long-term care will become a bigger and bigger challenge with the 
aging of America, and we must do more to help our families deal with 
it.
  I was born in 1946, the first year of the Baby Boom. I can tell you 
that one of the greatest concerns of our generation is our absolute 
determination not to let our growing old place an intolerable burden on 
our children and their ability to raise our grandchildren. Our economic 
success and our fiscal discipline now give us an opportunity to lift 
that burden from their shoulders, and we should take it.
  Saving Social Security and Medicare, creating USA Accounts, this is 
the right way to use the surplus. If we do so, if we do so, we will 
still have resources to meet critical needs in education and defense. 
And I want to point out that this proposal is fiscally sound. Listen to 
this: If we set aside 60 percent of the surplus for Social Security and 
16 percent for Medicare, over the next 15 years, that saving will 
achieve the lowest level of publicly held debt since right before World 
War I in 1917.
  So, with these four measures, saving Social Security, strengthening 
Medicare, establishing the USA Accounts, supporting long-term care, we 
can begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to establish 
true security for 21st century seniors.
  Now, 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

[[Page 615]]

that will allow our entire Nation to thrive in the new economy.
  Today we can say something we could not say 6 years ago: With tax 
credits and more affordable student loans, with more work study grants 
and more Pell grants, with education IRAs and the new HOPE Scholarship 
tax cut that more than 5 million Americans will receive this year, we 
have finally opened the doors of college to all Americans.
  With our support, 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 $1 billion 
in discounts available this year, we are well 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.
  You know, 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. Now, 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 does not work.
  First, later this year I will send to 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, no child 
should graduate from a 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 because the system fails them, 
so my balanced budget triples the funding for summer school and after-
school programs to keep 1 million children learning.
  If you doubt this will work, just 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 3 years running, with some 
of the biggest gains in some of the poorest neighborhoods. It will 
work, and we should do it.
  Second, all States and school districts must turn around their worst 
performing schools or shut them down. That is the policy established in 
North Carolina by Governor Jim Hunt. North Carolina made the biggest 
gains in test scores in the Nation last year. Our budget includes $200 
million to help States turn around their own failing schools.
  Third, all States and school districts must be held responsible for 
the quality of their teachers. The great majority of our 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, and all teachers should know the 
subjects they are teaching.
  This year's balanced budget contains resources to help them reach 
higher standards, and to attract talented young teachers to the 
toughest assignments, I recommend a six-fold increase in our program 
for college scholarships for students who commit to teach in the inner 
cities and isolated rural areas and in Indian communities. Let us bring 
excellence to 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 local restaurants than on the quality of the local schools. 
Every school district should issue report cards on every school, and 
parents should be given more choices in selecting their public schools.
  When I became President, there was just one independent public 
charter school in all America. With our support, on a bipartisan basis, 
today there are 1,100. My budget assures that early in the next century 
there will be 3,000.
  Fifth, to ensure that our classrooms are truly places of learning and 
to respond to what teachers have been asking us to do for years, we 
should say that all States and school districts must both adopt and 
implement sensible discipline policies.
  Now, let's do one more thing for our children. Today too many schools 
are so old they are falling apart, or so overcrowded students are 
learning 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 5,000 schools.
  Now, if we do these things--end social promotion, turn around failing 
schools, build modern ones, support qualified teachers, promote 
innovation, competition, and discipline--then we will begin to meet our 
generation's historic responsibility to create 21st century schools.
  We also have to do more to support 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. So let's raise the 
minimum wage by $1 an hour over the next 2 years. And let's make sure 
that women and men get equal pay for equal work by strengthening 
enforcement of the equal pay laws.
  That was encouraging, you know. There was more balance on the seesaw. 
I like that. Let's give them a hand. That's great.
  Working parents also need quality child care. So again this year I 
ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for 
working families, for improved safety and quality, for expanded after-
school programs.
  Our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home parents, 
too. They need support, as well. Parents should never have to worry 
about choosing between their children and their work. The Family and 
Medical Leave Act, the very first bill I signed into law, has now, 
since 1993, helped millions and millions of Americans to care for a 
newborn baby or an ailing relative without risking their jobs. I think 
it is time, with all the evidence that it has been so little burdensome 
to employers, to extend family leave to 10 million more Americans 
working for smaller companies. I hope you will support it.
  Finally, on the matter of work, parents should never have to face 
discrimination in the workplace. I want to ask Congress to prohibit 
companies from refusing to hire or promote workers simply because they 
have children. That is not right.
  America's families deserve the world's best medical care. Thanks to 
bipartisan Federal support for medical research, we are now on the 
verge of new treatments to prevent or delay diseases, from Parkinsons 
to Alzheimers, from arthritis to cancer. But as we continue our 
advances in medical science, we can't let our medical system lag 
behind.
  Managed care has literally transformed medicine in America, driving 
down costs, but threatening to drive down quality as well. I think we 
ought to say to every American, you should have the right to know all 
your medical options, not just the cheapest. If you need a specialist, 
you should have a right to see one. You have a right to the nearest 
emergency care, if you are in an accident. These are things that we 
ought to say. I think we ought to say, you should have a right to keep 
your doctor during a period of treatment, whether it is a pregnancy or 
a chemotherapy treatment or anything else. I believe this.
  Now, 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 a Patients' Bill of Rights for all 
Americans. Last year, Congress missed that opportunity. We must not 
miss that opportunity again. For the sake of our families, I ask us to 
join together across party lines and

[[Page 616]]

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 can all say 
to the American people, we will protect the privacy of medical records, 
and we will do it this year.
  Two years ago the Congress extended health coverage to up to 5 
million children. Now we should go beyond that. We should make it 
easier for small businesses to offer health insurance. We should give 
people between the ages of 55 and 65 who lose their health insurance 
the chance to buy into Medicare. We should continue to ensure access to 
family planning.
  No one should have to choose between keeping health care and taking a 
job. Therefore, I especially ask you tonight to join hands to pass the 
landmark bipartisan legislation proposed by Senators Kennedy and 
Jeffords, Roth and Moynihan, to allow people with disabilities to keep 
their health insurance when they go to work.
  We need to enable our public hospitals, our community, our university 
health centers, to provide basic, affordable care for all the millions 
of working families who don't have any insurance. They do a lot of that 
today, but much more can be done, and my balanced budget makes a good 
down payment toward that goal. I hope you will think about them and 
support that provision.
  Let me say, we must step up our efforts to treat and prevent mental 
illness. No American should ever be afraid, ever, to address this 
disease. This year we will host a White House Conference on Mental 
Health. With sensitivity, commitment and passion, Tipper Gore is 
leading our efforts here, and I would like to thank her for what she is 
doing.
  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 our children 
from tobacco, and to hold tobacco companies accountable while 
protecting tobacco farmers.
  Smoking has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars under 
Medicare and other programs. The States have been right about this, 
taxpayers shouldn't pay for the cost of lung cancer, emphysema, and 
other smoking-related illnesses; the tobacco companies should. So 
tonight I announce that the Justice Department is preparing a 
litigation plan to take the tobacco companies to court, and with the 
funds we recover, to strengthen Medicare.
  Now, if we act in these areas--minimum wage, family leave, child 
care, health care, the safety of our children--then we will begin to 
meet our generation's historic responsibilities to strengthen our 
families for the 21st century.
  Today, America is the most dynamic competitive job creating economy 
in history.
  But we can do even better in building a 21st century economy that 
embraces all Americans.
  Today's income gap is largely a skills gap. Last year, the Congress 
passed a law enabling workers to get a skills grant to choose the 
training they need, and I applaud all of you here who were part of 
that. This year, I recommend a five-year commitment to this new system, 
so that we can provide over the next 5 years appropriate training 
opportunities for all Americans who lose their jobs and expand rapid 
response teams to help all towns which have been really hurt when 
businesses close. I hope you will support this.
  Also, I ask your support for a dramatic increase in Federal support 
for adult literacy. We can mount a national campaign, aimed at helping 
the millions and millions of working people who still read at less than 
a fifth grade level. We need to do this.
  Here is some good news. In the past 6 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. Our balanced budget will 
help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and pride of work. I 
hope you will support it.
  We must do more to bring the spark of private enterprise to every 
corner of America, to build a bridge from Wall Street to Appalachia, to 
the Mississippi Delta, to our Native American communities, with more 
support for community development banks, for empowerment zones, for 
100,000 new vouchers for affordable housing, and I ask Congress to 
support our bold new plan to help businesses raise up to $15 billion in 
private sector capital to bring jobs and opportunities to our inner 
cities and rural areas, with tax credits, loan guarantees, including 
the new American Private Investment Companies modeled on our Overseas 
Private Investment Corporation.
  Now, for years and years and years we have had this OPIC, this 
Overseas Private Investment Corporation, because we knew we had 
untapped markets overseas. But our greatest untapped markets are not 
overseas; they are right here at home, and we should go after them.
  Now, we must work hard to help bring prosperity back to the family 
farm. You know, as this Congress knows very well, dropping prices and 
the loss of foreign markets have devastated too many family farms. Last 
year, the Congress provided substantial assistance to help stave off a 
disaster in American agriculture, and I am ready to work with lawmakers 
of both parties to create a farm safety net that will include crop 
insurance reform and farm income assistance. I ask you to join with me 
and do this.
  This should not be a political issue. Everyone knows what an economic 
problem is going on out there in rural America today, and we need an 
appropriate means to address it.
  We must strengthen our lead in technology. It was government 
investment that led to the creation of the Internet. I propose a 28 
percent increase in long-term computing research. We also must be ready 
for the 21st century from its very first moment, by solving the so-
called ``Y2K'' computer problem.
  Now, we had one Member of Congress stand up and applaud, and we may 
have about that ratio out there applauding at home in front of their 
television sets. But, remember, this is a big, big problem and we have 
been working hard on it. Already we have made sure that the Social 
Security checks will come on time, but I want all the folks at home 
listening to know that we need every State and local government, every 
business, large and small, to work with us to make sure that this Y2K 
computer bug will be remembered as the last headache of the 20th 
century, not the first crisis of the 21st.
  Now, for our own prosperity, we must support economic growth abroad. 
Until recently, a 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 half a century. To meet 
it, the United States and other nations have reduced interest rates and 
strengthened the International Monetary Fund, and while the turmoil is 
not over, we have worked very hard with other nations to contain it.
  At the same time, we have to continue to work on the long-term 
project, building a global financial system for the 21st century that 
promotes prosperity and tames the cycle of boom and bust that has 
engulfed so much of Asia.
  This June, I will meet with other world leaders to advance this 
historic purpose, and I ask all of you to support our endeavors. I also 
ask you to support creating a freer and fairer trading system for 21st 
century America.
  I would like to say something really serious to everyone in this 
Chamber and both parties. I think trade has divided us and divided 
Americans outside this Chamber for too long. Somehow we have to find a 
common ground on which business and workers and environmentalists and 
farmers and government can stand together. I believe these are the 
things we ought to all agree on, so let me try.

[[Page 617]]

  First, we ought to tear down barriers, open markets and expand trade, 
but at the same time we must ensure that ordinary citizens in all 
countries actually benefit from trade, a trade that promotes the 
dignity of work and the rights of workers and protects the environment. 
We must insist that international trade organizations be more open to 
public scrutiny, instead of mysterious secret things subject to wild 
criticism.
  When you come right down to it, now that the world economy is 
becoming more and more integrated, we have to do in the world what we 
spent the better part of this century doing here at home. We have got 
to put a human face on the global economy.
  Now, 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 manufacturers, hit hard by the present crisis, with 
loan guarantees and other incentives to increase American exports by 
nearly $2 billion.
  I would like to believe we can achieve a new consensus on trade based 
on these principles, and I ask the Congress again to join me in this 
common approach and to give the President the trade authority long used 
and now overdue and necessary to advance our prosperity in the 21st 
century.
  Tonight I issue a call to the nations of the world to join the United 
States in a new round of global trade negotiation to expand exports of 
services, manufacturers and farm products.
  Tonight I say, 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, our 
technology and lead in the global economy--then we will begin to meet 
our historic responsibility to build a 21st century prosperity for 
America.
  No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility 
we now have to shape a world that is more peaceful, more secure, more 
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 to 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 last 
December as we watched the Palestinian National Council completely 
renounce its call for the destruction of Israel. Now I ask Congress to 
provide resources so that all parties can implement the Wye Agreement, 
to protect Israel's security, to stimulate the Palestinian economy, to 
support our friends in Jordan. We must not, we dare not, let them down. 
I hope you will help.
  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 
again of the risks faced every day by those who represent America to 
the world. So let us give them the support they need, the safest 
possible workplaces, and the resources they must have so America can 
continue to lead.
  We must work to keep terrorists from disrupting computer networks. We 
must work 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 Korea to India and Pakistan. We must expand 
our work with Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet nations to 
safeguard nuclear materials and technology so they never fall into the 
wrong hands.
  Our 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 
percent from their Cold War height.
  It has been 2 years since I signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. 
If we do not do the right thing, other nations will not either. I ask 
the Senate to take this vital step: Approve the Treaty now to make it 
harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms and to make sure 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 the skill it required. Captain Jeff Taliaferro, 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. I would like to ask 
you to honor him and all the 33,000 men and women of Operation 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 military readiness. My balanced budget calls for a sustained 
increase over the next 6 years for readiness, for modernization and for 
pay and benefits for our troops and their families.
  We are the heirs of a legacy of bravery represented in every 
community in America by millions of our veterans. America's defenders 
today still stand ready at a moment's notice to go where comforts are 
few and dangers are many, to do 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 U.N. I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues 
and our debts.
  We must continue to support security and stability in Europe and 
Asia, expanding NATO and defining its new missions, maintaining our 
alliance with Japan, with Korea, with our other Asian allies, and 
engaging China.
  In China last year, I said to the leaders and the people what I would 
like to say again tonight. Stability can no longer be bought at the 
expense of liberty. But I would also like to 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 place in Nigeria, and passing the African Trade and 
Development Act.
  We must continue to deepen our ties to the Americas and the 
Caribbean, our common work to educate children, fight drugs, strengthen 
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 hearts and their arms to our 
Central American and Caribbean neighbors who have been so devastated by 
the recent hurricanes. Working with Congress, I am committed to help 
them rebuild.
  When the First Lady and Tipper Gore visited the region, they saw 
thousands of our troops and thousands of American volunteers. In the 
Dominican Republic, Hillary helped to rededicate a

[[Page 618]]

hospital that had been rebuilt by Dominicans and Americans working side 
by side.
  With her was someone else who has been very important to the relief 
efforts. You know, 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 of two countries.
  So I say to all of you, if we do these things, if we pursue peace, 
fight terrorism, increase our strength, renew our alliances, we will 
begin to meet our Nation's historic responsibility to build a stronger 
21st century America in a freer, more peaceful world.
  As the world has changed, so have our own communities. We must make 
them safer, more livable and 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 6 straight years.
  Tonight I propose a 21st century crime bill to deploy the latest 
technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer. Our 
balanced budget will help to put up to 50,000 more police on the street 
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. Our budget expands 
support for drug testing and treatment, saying to prisoners, if you 
stay on drugs, you have to stay behind bars. And to those on parole, if 
you want to keep your freedom, you must stay free of drugs.
  I ask Congress to 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 do more to keep our schools the safest places in our 
communities. Last year, every American was horrified and heartbroken by 
the tragic killings in Jonesboro, Paducah, Pearl, Edinboro, and 
Springfield.
  We were deeply moved by the courageous parents now working to keep 
guns out of the hands of children and making efforts so that other 
parents do not have to live through their loss.
  After she lost her daughter, Suzann Wilson of Jonesboro, Arkansas, 
came here to the White House with a powerful plea. She said, ``Please, 
please for the sake of your children, lock up your guns. Don't let what 
happened in Jonesboro happen in your town.'' It is a message she is 
passionately advocating every day.
  Suzann is here with us tonight with the First Lady. I would like to 
thank her for her courage and her commitment. Thank you.
  In memory of all the children who lost their lives to school 
violence, I ask you to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act, to 
pass legislation to require child trigger locks, to do everything 
possible to 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 do not act now.
  Tonight, I propose a new Clean Air Fund to help communities reduce 
greenhouse and other pollution, and tax incentives and investment to 
spur clean energy technology, and I want to work with Members of 
Congress in both parties to reward companies who take early, voluntary 
action to reduce greenhouse gases.
  Now, all our communities face a preservation challenge as they grow, 
and green space shrinks. Seven thousand acres of farmland and open 
space are lost every day.
  In response, I propose two major initiatives: first, a $1 billion 
Livability Agenda to help communities save open space, ease traffic 
congestion and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's quality of 
life; and, second, a $1 billion Lands Legacy Initiative to preserve 
places of natural beauty all across America, from the most remote 
wilderness to the nearest city park.
  These are truly landmark initiatives, which could not have been 
developed without the visionary leadership of the Vice President, and I 
want to thank him very much for his commitment here. Thank you.
  Now, to get the most out of your community, you have to give 
something back. That is 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 4 years, 
100,000 young Americans have built low-income homes with Habitat for 
Humanity, helped to tutor children, with churches, 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 and serve America 
in AmeriCorps.
  Now, we must work to renew our national community as well 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. So I would like to say to the House, pass it 
again, quickly; and I would like to say to the Senate, I hope you will 
say yes to a stronger American democracy in the year 2000.
  Since 1997, our Initiative on Race has sought to bridge the divides 
between and among our people. In its report last fall, the Initiative's 
Advisory Board found that Americans really do want to bring our people 
together across racial lines. We know it has been a long journey. For 
some it goes back to before the beginning of our Republic; for others, 
back since the Civil War; for others, throughout the 20th century. But 
for most of us alive today, in a very real sense, this journey began 43 
years ago, when a woman named Rosa Parks sat down on a bus in Alabama 
and wouldn't get up. She is sitting down with the First Lady tonight, 
and she may get up or not as she chooses. We thank her.
  We know that our continuing racial problems are aggravated, as the 
Presidential Initiative said, by opportunity gaps. The initiative I 
have outlined tonight will help to close them. But we know that the 
discrimination gap has not been fully closed either. Discrimination or 
violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or 
sexual orientation, is wrong, and it ought to be illegal. Therefore, I 
ask Congress to make the Employment Nondiscrimination Act and the Hate 
Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.
  You know, since every person in America counts, every American ought 
to be counted. We need a census that uses modern scientific methods to 
do that.
  Our new immigrants must be part of our One America. After all, they 
are revitalizing our cities, they are energizing our culture, they are 
building up our economy. We have a responsibility to make them 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 that are trying to do 
just that. Therefore, our budget significantly expands our efforts to 
help them meet their responsibility. I hope you will support it.
  Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower or on slave ships, 
whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they 
came yesterday or walked this land 1,000 years ago, our great challenge 
for

[[Page 619]]

the 21st century is to find a way to be One America. We can meet all 
the other challenges, if we can go forward as One America.
  You know, 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 would like to take 
just a minute to honor her for leading our Millennium Project, for all 
she has done for our children, for all she has done in her historic 
role to serve our Nation and our best ideals at home and abroad. I 
honor her.
  Last year, I called on Congress and every citizen to mark the 
millennium by saving America's treasures. Hillary has traveled all 
across the country to inspire recognition and support for saving places 
like Thomas Edison's invention factory and Harriet Tubman's home.
  Now we have to preserve our treasures in every community, and 
tonight, before I close, I want to invite every town, every city, every 
community, to become a nationally recognized millennium community, by 
launching projects that save our history, promote our arts and 
humanities, prepare our children for the 21st century.
  Already the response has been remarkable, and I want to say a special 
word of thanks to our private sector partners and to Members in 
Congress of both parties for their support. Just one example: Because 
of you, the Star Spangled Banner will be preserved for the ages.
  In ways large and small, as we look to the millennium, 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 country, in 1,000 neighborhoods, I had seen, even 
amidst the pain and uncertainty of recession, the real heart and 
character of America. I knew then that we Americans could renew this 
country.
  Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union address of the 20th 
century, no one anywhere in the world can doubt the enduring resolve 
and boundless capacity of the American people to work toward that 
``more perfect union'' of our founders' dream.
  We are now at 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 to racial 
prejudice, building the largest middle class in history, winning two 
World Wars in the ``long twilight struggle'' of the Cold War. We must 
all be profoundly grateful for the magnificent achievements of our 
forebears in this century.
  Yet perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of 
controversy, we don't see our own time for what it truly is, a new dawn 
for America. Ten years from tonight, another American President will 
stand in this place and 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.
  So 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 mountain top of this American century, look ahead 
to the next one, asking God's blessing on our endeavors and on our 
beloved country.
  Thank you, and good evening.
  (Applause, the Members rising.)
  At 10 o'clock and 27 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 Deputy Sergeant at Arms escorted the invited guests from the 
Chamber in the following order:
  The members of the President's Cabinet;
  The Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States;
  The Acting Dean of the Diplomatic Corps.

                          ____________________