[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992, Book I)]
[June 22, 1992]
[Pages 997-998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 997]]

Remarks on Signing Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Legislation

June 22, 1992
    Welcome to the Rose Garden. I'm very pleased to welcome all of you 
on this short notice to the White House. But may I salute our Secretary 
of Labor, who's been very instrumental in all of this. Senator Seymour, 
Senator Hatch, Senator Stevens, Congressman Joe McDade, welcome, all. 
And all of them, along with some others that weren't able to be with us 
today, have been extraordinarily helpful in this legislation. May I 
salute Mayor Schmoke, Bob Neall.
    It is a very special privilege to have some young Americans from 
right here in our Nation's Capital. They're the reason, kids like these 
are the reason why we produce this legislation. They're the reason we're 
fighting for far-reaching reforms to offer opportunity for a better 
future.
    The supplemental appropriations bill that I am signing here today 
provides emergency funding for the nationwide disaster programs of the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, and for the Small Business 
Administration, SBA. This bill replenishes the resources of both 
Agencies for expenditures they're making to help the victims of this 
lawless violence in Los Angeles and the flood in Chicago. These funds 
are used to help shelter people that are affected by major disasters and 
to offer low-interest loans to individuals in businesses in the disaster 
areas.
    The bill also will help finance more than 400,000 summer jobs 
through a program of the Department of Labor with a special focus on 
helping young people in America's largest urban areas. By providing for 
$1.45 billion in SBA-guaranteed loans, the bill will help small business 
across the country literally create thousands of new jobs.
    I turned aside efforts by some in the Congress to spend more for the 
sake of spending more when the urgent need is for fundamental change to 
provide hope and opportunity for people in the inner cities. We've got 
to recognize these supplemental funds are a beginning, only a beginning, 
and that's the way it is. It's imperative that we make a fundamental 
change, that we put in place the package of reforms that we call the New 
America Plan. There are several points to that plan:
    First, it enhances Government's primary mission to ensure the 
personal safety of our people. Our neighborhoods, our streets must be 
free from crime. To strike a blow for our people's right to live free 
from fear, I am asking Congress now to act on my ``Weed and Seed'' 
program to fight urban crime, as well as enacting a tough new 
comprehensive crime bill.
    People in our cities need more freedom and opportunity to achieve, 
to excel. The second part of this plan calls for enterprise zones to 
offer incentives for innovation and job creation in the greatest 
American tradition. It is high time we put this great idea into action. 
When I was in Los Angeles, support for enterprise zones were across the 
board, across party label, across age group label. It was an amazing 
amount of support. So we've got to get this put into action.
    The third part, our HOPE initiative, will help turn public housing 
tenants into homeowners. There's no overestimating the dignity that that 
brings.
    Fourth, our America 2000 education reforms will help extend to 
parents and kids right there in the inner cities the same choices that 
people in the suburbs already have.
    Fifth, to give people new skills, we propose to reform job training.
    Finally, the long-term well-being of neighborhoods that are now 
dangerous and depressed demands that we break with the culture of 
dependency. My agenda for welfare reform aims to reward work and 
learning, to insist that fathers take responsibility for their children, 
and to make families whole.
    These are the keys to providing hope for this new generation. These 
are the only reliable means for making our cities the safe and 
prosperous places they ought to be. So

[[Page 998]]

again, I am urging the Congress to put an end to the delays and to take 
action on this New America Plan.
    I thank you all for coming. Now I will invite the Senators and 
Congressman McDade to come up, and be glad to sign this important 
legislation.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

    The deed is done. Thank you all very, very much.

                    Note: The President spoke at 2 p.m. in the Rose 
                        Garden at the White House. In his remarks, he 
                        referred to Kurt Schmoke, Mayor of Baltimore, 
                        MD, and Robert R. Neall, county executive of 
                        Anne Arundel County, MD. H.R. 5132, the Dire 
                        Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1992, 
                        for Disaster Assistance To Meet Urgent Needs 
                        Because of Calamities Such as Those Which 
                        Occurred in Los Angeles and Chicago, approved 
                        June 22, was assigned Public Law No. 102-302.