[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
[June 24, 1993]
[Pages 926-928]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the National Association of Police Organizations and an 
Exchange With Reporters
June 24, 1993

    The President. First, let me welcome you here. And this is our 
replay from the time we got weathered out in March. And I'm glad you 
could all come back. I want to thank you for the work you do and for the 
support that you gave to me last year when I was attempting to become 
President and for the support you have given so many of our initiatives 
in the last 5 months.
    I have been busily at work for the last several days working with 
the United States Senate in our attempt to pass our economic plan, which 
will reduce the national deficit by $500 billion and provide some 
significant incentives to turn this economy around, including keeping 
interest rates down, which is critical to our future. We've had a 
dramatic increase in the number of ordinary Americans, I imagine 
including some people in this room, who have, for example, refinanced 
their homes in the last 5 or 6 months, because we've got interest rates 
at a 20-year low, 130,000 new construction jobs in the economy, 755,000 
jobs overall. It is critical that we pass this. And that's what we're 
primarily involved in today, as I'm sure you understand.
    I also asked the Congress to adopt a modified bill for making a down 
payment on our investment package, which they did, which included, as 
I'm sure you know, some $200 million for communities to hire police 
officers. That is a down payment on the campaign commitment I made to 
empower our communities to hire another 100,000 police officers over the 
next 4 years, to go to more community policing, to provide for safer 
streets, and to support you in the work you're doing.
    I also want to tell you that the Attorney General and I have been 
working hard for the last several weeks with interested Members of 
Congress to bring up a crime bill this year. Sadly, it did not pass last 
year, for all kinds of reasons. That crime bill is still to be finally 
defined, but I can assure you it will include the Brady bill; it will 
include a provision for boot camps as alternative punishment for first-
time nonviolent offenders; it will include a continuing effort to hire 
more police officers on our streets and to expand community policing. I 
welcome the ideas, the expertise, and the advice of all of you in 
putting this bill together and in push-


[[Page 927]]

ing it through the Congress. It will be a high priority for the 
administration, and I expect it to begin soon.
    We can't really revive the whole fabric of our economy until we put 
the society back together in the places where it's broken. One of the 
things that we're attempting to do in this economic bill is to finally 
test the proposition of whether the private sector can revitalize the 
most distressed areas of our big cities or our small towns and rural 
areas with an empowerment zone concept that would offer real big 
incentives for people to go into a lot of the meanest streets in this 
country and invest their money to put people to work, to start 
businesses, to try to make those places come alive again in positive 
ways.
    We also, as all of you know, are committed to doing the things that 
we've been talking about. I think it's worth just closing with the 
thought that there are a lot of people in this country who are genuinely 
insecure today. That shooting at the swimming pool here in Washington, 
DC, that I'm sure all of you read about, is a horrible example of the 
kind of mindless behavior that is ripping at the fabric of society. And 
now I think of how many children are afraid to go back to the pool, a 
place where wholesome recreation will occur, a place where kids can stay 
out of trouble and in water in the summertime; how many of their parents 
might be afraid for them to go back.
    That is the sort of thing that I hope we can keep in the minds of 
our policymakers as we deal with the crime bill and deal with these 
other issues. And I assure you that I welcome your input into all of 
them.
    I think I'd like to close just by saying a special word of 
appreciation to the Justice Department and the FBI, to the United States 
Attorney, and to the New York City Police Department for the work that 
they have done in making the arrests that broke up a terrorist gang in 
New York. It was a very impressive piece of work and a real tribute to 
the local folks and to the cooperation that the Federal Government and 
the local people had. And I thank them for that, and thank you.
    Now, the Attorney General and I are here. We're going to answer your 
questions. But first we're going to answer a few from the press.

Terrorism

    Q. Mr. President, can I follow up----
    Q. To follow up on that, do you support a Federal law for the death 
penalty for terrorists? And can you tell us how and exactly when you 
found out about this plot?
    The President. First of all, I support the crime bill. I supported 
the crime bill last year which expanded the death penalty in many 
different areas. And as you know, I have a longstanding support for 
capital punishment.
    But let me answer the specific thing. I was briefed about this 
operation at about the time it was occurring, a little before. I knew 
that they had been working on it. But all the credit for this goes to 
the FBI and the local people. They did the work. They've been working on 
this for some weeks now, and I don't think I should say more about it. 
The Justice Department will have more to say at an appropriate time.
    Q. Can you say whether you believe that everyone has been arrested 
who was involved in this? And have you had any communication, do you 
plan to have any communication with President Mubarak or any of the 
other possible victims?
    The President. I have not yet had any communications with any of the 
people that were on the list. I think any questions about the nature of 
the conspiracy and the group should be answered by the law enforcement 
officials, not by me.

Economic Program

    Q. Mr. President, do you have the votes yet in the Senate for your 
budget to pass at this time, now?
    The President. I certainly hope so.
    Q. Well, I ask the question because your spokesman said earlier that 
you didn't have them but that you expected to by the end of the day. Do 
you have them now?
    The President. Who did? Who said that earlier?
    Q. Dee Dee said that--that you didn't have them this morning, but 
you expected to have them by the end of the day. Do you have them now?
    The President. Senator Mitchell is my ultimate authority on that. 
We're working our way through these amendments now, and we just had, as 
I understand it, Senators Harkin, Metzenbaum, and Wellstone just 
announced their support for the package, pursuant to an agreement to 
reduce the size of the Medicaid

[[Page 928]]

cuts. There are still about $10 billion Medicaid cuts over and above 
what the House put in, which was about $50 billion.
    So that will help, and that puts us three votes closer. And I just 
don't--I can't say for sure. We're going to have a whole series of 
amendments which go through today. And then at the end of the day we may 
find ourselves in a position where some Members want some things which 
can only come out of the conference, and they may have to just decide 
whether to let the bill go to conference or not. The House Members had 
to make the same sort of decision. But I'm hopeful. That's all I can 
tell you. I'm hopeful. We're working hard, and I'm hopeful.
    Q. Does that bring it under $500 billion, sir?
    The President. No. Not to my knowledge. The last time I saw it, it 
didn't, Andrea [Andrea Mitchell, NBC News]. Now, I haven't seen the 
exact details of the last--the last time I heard about it, about an hour 
and a half ago, it did not.
    Q. What kind of momentum do you want from this vote, and do you see 
this as a real turning point for your Presidency?
    The President. There have been a lot of those lately. [Laughter] The 
vote in the House was, and this will be. We have to go on to conference. 
If it passes today, this will be a very loud statement. It will say that 
both Houses of the Congress are committed to the largest deficit 
reduction program in history, to putting the taxes and the spending cuts 
in a trust fund, to spending cuts equal to and now greater than the tax 
increases, and to an extremely progressive program where those who can, 
best able to pay, are asked to pay. The Senate Finance Committee bill, 
according to the Congressional Budget Office, distributes 78 percent of 
the burden to people with incomes above $200,000 whose taxes were 
lowered in the 1980's while their incomes went up.
    So I think that this is a very, you know, it's a very important 
vote, and I hope we can prevail. But I never count my chickens before 
they're hatched.
    Thank you.
    Q. Are you counting any Republicans? Any Republicans, Hatfield or 
Jeffords?
    The President. I've asked; that's all I know.
    Q. Did you ask in phone calls?
    Q. Mr. President, is the final arrangement on gays in the military 
going to require them to stay in the closet, sir?
    The President. 'Bye, everybody; no more questions. I have to answer 
their questions.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:43 p.m. in the Indian Treaty Room of the 
Old Executive Office Building.