[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

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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.