[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George H. W. Bush (1992-1993, Book II)]
[September 9, 1992]
[Pages 1509-1510]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Republican Congressional Leaders
September 9, 1992

    The President. I've invited our leadership, 
Republican leadership, here this morning to talk about what can get done 
in this very short session of the Congress. I want the Congress to pass 
12 signable appropriations bills. There's 4 weeks available. There's no 
reason why Congress cannot produce these spending bills individually 
without resorting

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to a lot of pork-laden additions to the bills. And I will sign them only 
if they comply with my budget request.
    I also want to see action on some of the things that we've been 
talking to the American people about over the weekend. We should take a 
first bold step on legal reform. The civil justice reform legislation 
designed to change our current inefficient, costly legal system has been 
pending in Congress for over 7 months without even a hearing. And before 
adjourning, the Congress should at least seize the immediate 
opportunity, starting in the Senate this week, and pass the product 
liability reform bill.
    And they can and should take a step, a first step, a needed first 
step on enacting a health care reform bill by passing portions of my 
plan, including the small business reform and the medical malpractice 
reform. These are key ingredients. Time is short. Both can be passed. By 
acting on these areas, we'll help to provide affordable, quality health 
care for millions who do not have it now and be a down payment, frankly, 
to the American people who deserve comprehensive health care reform 
without higher taxes and without cutting into the quality of United 
States medicine, which is the best in the entire world. Get the 
Government further in, and it's going to go down. So we've got to 
protect the quality as well as making insurance available to all who 
need it.
    And there are other pieces of legislation. I met yesterday with the 
leaders in the Senate and House. I think we can pass our energy 
proposal. We need to get a national energy strategy out and approved, 
and that can be done. There are some others we might get done. But these 
that I've outlined here are priority. And I now want to talk to our 
Members about how we can achieve these ends and hear from them if 
there's other key objectives to get to that can be accomplished here.
    Thank you all very much.

Family Leave Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, Democrats are ready to pass a family leave bill. 
Will you veto it in its present form?
    The President. Well, I've got to look at what comes down here, of 
course, as I always do. But I've expressed my reservations about some of 
the things that are pending. So let's wait and see what happens. We 
don't need mandates; we need family leave without loading up small 
business with a lot more mandates. The concept of family leave I've 
strongly endorsed. But getting the Government further into it and 
throwing small businesses over the edge I'm not sure is the way to do 
it. But let's see what they say.
    Q. Do you think the Democrats are playing politics with this issue?
    The President. Almost everything, yes. [Laughter] No, I do. I 
believe it. I think the American people believe it. And now I have my 
chance to take the case to the American people. I've tried to stimulate 
this economy and been rebuffed. And I think the American people will see 
that clearly. I don't think they see it yet. But they will when we get 
through. Of course there's a lot of politics in this.

                    Note: The President spoke at 8:35 a.m. in the 
                        Cabinet Room at the White House.