[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