[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 206 (Wednesday, October 26, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 53925-53926]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-26744]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: October 26, 1994]


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Part VI





The President





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Proclamation 6748--National Consumer Week


                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 206
Wednesday, October 26, 1994

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Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6748 of October 24, 1994

 

National Consumers Week, 1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The American marketplace is the great engine of our 
                free enterprise system. Ever-expanding as it evolves in 
                response to consumer needs and desires, it inspires 
                technological innovation and the development of new 
                products and services, and it rewards efficiency and 
                productivity. The framers of our Constitution sought to 
                establish a free market in which competition, 
                ingenuity, and productivity would flourish. Today, it 
                is more apparent than ever that their intent has been 
                realized--Americans can choose from the greatest 
                variety of goods and services in the history of the 
                world.

                This extraordinary economic machine works most 
                efficiently when we as consumers are at the controls: 
                when our choices and decisions, our requirements and 
                collective will determine the direction and the 
                workings of the marketplace. But individuals and the 
                Nation's economy suffer when products and services are 
                ineffective, inferior, or unsafe; when prices are 
                unfair; and when consumer needs for reliable 
                information and protection are unmet. If such abuses 
                were to become common, the consequent loss of faith in 
                our free market system would jeopardize our American 
                way of life.

                On March 15, 1962, President John F. Kennedy 
                acknowledged the centrality of consumers in our 
                marketplace in his Special Message to Congress on 
                Protecting the Consumer Interest.

                The Federal Government--by nature the highest spokesman 
                for all the people--has a special obligation to be 
                alert to the consumer's needs and to advance the 
                consumer's interests.

                Since then, what has come to be called the Consumer 
                Bill of Rights has evolved as our marketplace has 
                evolved. At present, it includes:

                    (1) The Right to Safety--the right to expect that 
                the consumer's health, safety, and financial security 
                will be protected effectively in the marketplace;
                    (2) The Right to Information--the right to have 
                full and accurate information upon which to make free 
                and considered decisions and to be protected against 
                false or misleading claims;
                    (3) The Right to Choice--the right to make an 
                informed choice among products and services in a free 
                market at fair and competitive prices;
                    (4) The Right to Be Heard--the right to a full and 
                fair hearing and equitable resolution of consumer 
                problems; and,
                    (5) The Right to Consumer Education, added by 
                President Gerald R. Ford in 1975--the right to 
                continuing consumer education without which the 
                consumer cannot enjoy the full benefit of the other 
                enumerated rights.

                In the 3 decades since President Kennedy's message, our 
                marketplace has changed. Innovations in such vital 
                areas as materials and electronics, telecommunications 
                technology, health care, food processing and packaging, 
                and financial services; the increasingly fast-paced 
                global economy; and the urgent need to preserve our 
                environment have altered what we buy as well as how we 
                buy. The technological complexity of much of what we 
                buy and, frequently, the distance between buyer and 
                maker or seller have expanded the importance of 
                service. Americans understand that service means the 
                commitment to consumers that their experiences in the 
                marketplace will meet all reasonable expectations of 
                civility, responsiveness, convenience, performance, and 
                fairness.

                I propose that for National Consumers Week, 1994, we, 
                as a Nation, declare an additional consumer right:

                (6) The Right to Service--the right to convenience, 
                courtesy, and responsiveness to consumer problems and 
                needs and all steps necessary to ensure that products 
                and services meet the quality and performance levels 
                claimed for them.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim the week beginning October 
                23, 1994, as ``National Consumers Week.'' I urge all 
                business persons, educators, members of the 
                professions, public officials, consumer leaders, and 
                the media to observe this week by emphasizing and 
                promoting the fundamental importance of consumer rights 
                in our marketplace.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and nineteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-26744
Filed 10-25-94; 11:50 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P