    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
    [December 20, 1993]
    [Pages 2192-2193]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the National Child Protection Act of 1993
    December 20, 1993

        I'm delighted to see all of you here. And I want to especially
    recognize Secretary Shalala and my good friend Marian Wright Edelman.
    Senator Biden, thank you for being here, sir; Congresswoman Schroeder;
    Congressman Edwards; and my former colleague and longtime friend
    Governor Jim Thompson from Illinois; Oprah Winfrey; Lynn Swann; and
    Andrew Vachss. Thank you all very much for helping this day to come to
    pass.
        The holiday season is a time for sharing the warmth of human contact
    with families and friends. And making this a joyous and safe time for
    children everywhere is important. That makes this legislation, the
    National Child Protection Act, especially significant. With it we can
    give a great gift, a much improved system for protecting our children
    from being abused or harmed by those to whom we have entrusted them.
        Not unlike the Brady bill, this law creates a national data base
    network. This one can be used by any child care provider in America to
    conduct a background check to determine if a job applicant can be
    trusted with our children, and if not, to prevent that person from ever
    working with children.
        For the first time, we'll have a system in place to protect the many
    millions of American children who receive care and supervision in formal
    day care and in other settings from other organizations. This law will
    give us the tools we need to safeguard children from those who have
    perpetrated crimes of child abuse or sex abuse or drug use or those who
    have been convicted of felonies. It's very important that we give
    working parents peace of mind about child care.
        A majority of mothers with young children now work outside the home.
    Six million children are placed in formal day care settings every day.
    Balancing work and family is hard, and parents

    [[Page 2193]]

    are worried about their personal security and the security of their
    children in an increasingly violent world.
        Like the Brady bill and the crime bill, which I hope and believe
    will pass soon, this act will help us to take our streets, our
    neighborhoods, the institutions we rely on, back for American values and
    American children. There is nothing more important that our Government
    could be doing now.
        Like all change, passing this important law has not been easy. And
    there are many to thank. First of all, I thank you, Oprah, for a
    lifetime of being committed to the well-being of our children and for
    giving child abuse issues such wonderful coverage on your show. You
    wrote the original blueprint for this law, and we're grateful, becoming
    a tireless advocate for its passage, lobbying Members of Congress of
    both parties for more than 2 years, and lobbying the President--people
    occasionally do that, too. All of us, but especially our children, owe
    you their gratitude.
        Now we can help to prevent child abuse with this measure, not just
    to catch people who do it. It's a great cause and a remarkable
    achievement, and I want to thank all the rest of you who were involved
    in it.
        Finally, let me say, especially for the benefit of the Members of
    Congress here, this is the last piece of legislation I will sign from
    this session of Congress. It wraps up a very productive session, a
    session that dealt with family leave and motor voter and a new economic
    plan that brought low interest rates and recovery, with the national
    service bill that I think will galvanize the imagination of a whole
    generation of young people, with new trade legislation, and with the
    Brady bill. But this is a good bill to end on, a bill that ends where
    all of us should begin, by putting our children first.
        Thank you very much. I'd like to invite you all to come up here for
    the signing.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:54 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Marian Wright Edelman,
    president and executive director, Children's Defense Fund; Oprah Winfrey
    and Lynn Swann, television hosts; and Andrew Vachss, originator of the
    concept of the legislation. H.R. 1237, approved December 20, was
    assigned Public Law No. 103-209.