    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [April 29, 1993]
    [Pages 534-536]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 534]]

    Remarks to Justice Department Employees
    April 29, 1993

        Thank you very much. When Janet Reno was confirmed, she said she
    never wanted to be called General, but only Janet. But somehow I feel I
    should call her General. She certainly seemed in command to me yesterday
    up on the Hill.
        I want to say to all of you what an incredible honor it has been for
    me as a citizen of this country, as well as President, to be in the
    Justice Department for the first time, to walk down the halls and to see
    the wonderful work that was done more than 50 years ago now in building
    this great building during the Great Depression, when President
    Roosevelt was trying to lift the spirits of the country by putting the
    people to work--that's still a pretty good idea, I think; to walk into
    the Attorney General's office and see the magnificent portrait of Robert
    Kennedy, who was my favorite Attorney General from my childhood; and
    mostly just to shake hands with all the employees here. I think it is so
    easy for us to forget, in the ebb and flow of events when we were so
    focused on the moment, and easy for the American people to forget that
    every day there are so many Americans who could have chosen a different
    life, who get up every day and come to work in this building because
    they believe in simple justice and fairness and in doing right by the
    American people. And I want you to know that I appreciate that very,
    very much, and I thank you for your service.
        After years of taking a different course, I am doing my best to turn
    this Government around, to change the way things operate here, to
    convince the American people that we are serious about the economy,
    serious about reducing the deficit, serious about investing in the real
    needs of our people, serious about providing fairness to the middle
    class and to others who are willing to work hard and play by the rules
    in America, and serious about trying to bring all the people of this
    country together again in a great national community in which we all
    recognize that we are in this together.
        The changes we are making go well beyond policy and particular bills
    and, I hope, beyond politics to a whole new idea of hope in this country
    as we move toward the 21st century, the idea that we can keep the
    American dream alive, preserve our basic values, and make the new future
    that all of you and your children deserve.
        I thought about this a lot when I was attorney general, that when
    you work to ensure the full protection of the law for every citizen, you
    help to sustain the most fundamental values of democracy and, indeed, to
    provide for the freedom of all. I know most of you came here with
    similar feelings for the law. I have enormous respect for your motives.
    I come from a generation that revered the law because we believed it
    gave us the tools to help people and, in my part of the country, that it
    was the only instrument that would ever enable us all, black and white
    together, to live as equals.
        I still believe those things. Today before I came over here, I had a
    whole string of people into my office who I had known for years and
    years and years, and they were laughing about how sometimes I may seem
    almost naive because I genuinely feel more idealism and hope today than
    I did in the first day I entered public life, than I did on the first
    day I cast a vote as a young man. I still believe that we can make a
    difference, that we can live up to the ideals enshrined in the
    Constitution, and that we have the obligation to do so. And I asked
    Janet Reno to become the Attorney General of the United States because I
    knew she believed that, too.
        Since I became President I have spent a good deal of time trying to
    focus on law enforcement issues, because I saw all across this land in
    the last year and a half when I ran for President the enormous amount of
    insecurity and fear that so many Americans felt, living in their homes,
    walking on their streets. Many of you may have heard me tell this story,
    at least in the media, before, but one of the most gripping things that
    ever happened to me in the race for President occurred in a hotel in New
    York.
        It was about a week before the New Hampshire primary. I looked like
    I was yesterday's news, to say the least. I was walking through this
    corridor to go to a big fundraiser full of people who wondered why they
    had bought tickets. I was feeling sorry for myself. And a man

    [[Page 535]]

    who worked in the hotel as a waiter stuck his hand out and grabbed my
    hand, and he said, ``My 10-year-old boy studies the Presidential race in
    school, and he says you should be President, so I will be for you. I'm
    an immigrant from Greece.'' And he said, ``I will be for you because my
    boy wants me to be.'' But he said, ``You know, where I came from we were
    so much poorer, but at least we were free.'' And he said, ``Now when my
    boy walks outside from our apartment, he cannot go across the street and
    play in the park unless I am with him because he won't be safe. We live
    only two blocks from the school, and he cannot walk to his school unless
    I am with him because he won't be safe. So if I do what my boy wants me
    to do and I vote for you, will you make my boy free?''
        And all of a sudden I couldn't remember what I was feeling sorry for
    myself about. But I did remember one of the reasons that I wanted to be
    President and one of the solemn duties of the Government of the United
    States and every other law enforcement jurisdiction in this country. And
    I think it's time that we move from the incredible gulf between rhetoric
    and reality to doing some very specific things that will make the
    American people safer. We ought to pass and sign the Brady bill.
        I will propose a major new safe schools program so that children at
    least can be drug free and safe in their schools. I have just appointed
    Lee Brown, who was the police chief of Atlanta, Houston, and New York
    City, to be the Director of the Drug Control Office, the first police
    officer ever to hold that position, a person who pioneered community
    policing and actually can show how the crime rate went down in
    communities where there were enough police officers on the street to
    walk the beat and know their neighbors and work to prevent crime, not
    just to catch criminals after crimes had occurred. I have asked for more
    resources for drug education programs and treatment programs. And I want
    to increase police presence in our communities, so I've asked for
    substantial new funding to eventually add up to 100,000 more police
    officers on our streets.
        Some of them will come, I hope, through the crime bill that I hope
    we can pass this year that was filibustered last year. That's a thing,
    institution, I've learned to have less and less respect for as we go
    along. [Laughter] Some of them will come from incentives we give, from
    people coming out of the service as we build down our armed services and
    give people incentives to move into police or teaching. Some of them
    will come from the national service corps, which we will announce
    tomorrow in New Orleans, as people who will pay off their college loans
    by working as police officers. I had hoped that some would come from the
    jobs program, which contained $200 million for more police officers. But
    we are going to work together to do this. When I sat in the Attorney
    General's office just a few moments ago, it's the second issue she
    brought up. She said, we've still got to deliver for the American
    people. We have to give them the police officers they need and the
    security they need. And we're going to do it.
        I also want our Government to set an example. I want us to have a
    tougher child support enforcement program. I've asked my appointees to
    adhere to the strictest ethics law ever applied to executive branch
    appointees. I have cut my own White House staff and begun a
    Governmentwide review of every program we operate, so that we can show
    the American people we are trying to be accountable and responsible and
    effective and that we're trying to make sure that when we do something
    in Washington, it's for the good of the people out there who pay the
    bills and not just for ourselves.
        Our country is great because we have succeeded over 200 years in
    providing opportunity to all, freedom of speech and worship and
    association to all, providing equal justice to all. We have become the
    custodian of freedom's dream for the entire world because people like
    you have decided to give your lives to this great call.
        My goals for this Justice Department are simple. I want it to be
    free of political controversy and political abuse. I want it to be an
    innovator in crime reduction and in law enforcement. I want it to create
    a genuine partnership with those who work with us in State and local
    systems of justice. I want it to set an example in the practice of law
    and in the protection of civil rights that will make all Americans
    proud. And I want the American people to believe that you are their
    partners in making our communities, our children, and our families safe
    again.
        In closing, let me say how very, very proud I am to name these seven
    Attorneys General, Assistant Attorneys General, to your Justice De-

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    partment team. Some of them are new to me; some I have known and admired
    a very long time. At least one of them once sued me; shows you how
    broadminded I am. [Laughter] And I can tell you, I am very pleased that
    each of them has agreed to join our administration.
        This may surprise you if you've been reading the press reports, but
    with these appointments, our administration has in 100 days nominated
    172 people for consideration by the Senate. At the same point in their
    administrations, President Reagan had named 152 people, and President
    Bush had named 99. By any measure, we're doing a fairly good job in
    staffing up this administration with high-quality folks. And I might
    add, since I look across here I can't resist saying, a third of them are
    women, for a change.
        Today when I walked through these halls and I went to the Attorney
    General's office, I couldn't help but remember that it was 25 years ago
    in this springtime when Robert Kennedy, by then a Senator from New York,
    was running for President and was subsequently killed, just 2 days
    before I graduated from college, with one of my roommates working in his
    office. It's impossible for me still, especially now as I think back
    across those 25 years, not to be moved by his memory and his work and
    the power of the example he set for all Americans, regardless of their
    gender or color or station in life.
        I hope 25 years from now, another daughter or son of America will
    walk in here and remember what you have accomplished here and be moved.
    I believe the tradition of greatness here is still very much alive. I
    believe that Janet Reno and the team that she is assembling can bring it
    to life for all Americans. The American people want you to succeed in
    your work; I do, too. Working together, we can be proud to honor the
    tradition of the Justice Department by ensuring its great future.
        Thank you all, and God bless you.

    Note: The President spoke at 1:12 p.m. in the Courtyard at the
    Department of Justice.

      The President named the following Assistant Attorneys General:

        Walter Dellinger, Office of Legal Counsel
        Lani Guinier, Civil Rights Division
        Frank W. Hunger, Civil Division
        Anne K. Bingaman, Antitrust Division
        Eleanor Dean Acheson, Office of Policy Development
        Sheila Foster Anthony, Office of Legislative Affairs
        Gerald Torres, Environment and Natural Resources Division

      Biographies of the nominees were made available by the Office of the
    Press Secretary.