[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[October 22, 1993]
[Pages 1804-1805]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



[[Page 1804]]


Interview With Stephen Clark of KGTV, San Diego, California
October 22, 1993

Technology Reinvestment Project

    Mr. Clark. UCSD, University of California-San Diego, was the one you 
named today from this area?
    The President. That's right. They have a project that will use 
composite materials that were part of the Stealth aircraft development 
to build and repair bridges. There are others; let me just tell you 
where the others are in southern California. We have one in Redondo 
Beach that Cal State-Fullerton was involved in; one at Newport Beach 
with Hughes Electric, G.M. Hughes; one in Torrance--two in Torrance. So 
if you want to mention any of them, we can.
    Mr. Clark. Joining us now to talk about what is called the first 
wave of the Technology Reinvestment Program grant is the author of the 
plan, more or less, the President of the United States, Mr. Clinton. 
Thanks for joining us today to talk about what we here in San Diego call 
the defense conversion. Can you give us kind of a short definition or 
explanation of what it is you want to accomplish here?
    The President. Yes, we're trying to take the capacities, the skills, 
the technologies that were developed in the big defense build-up of the 
1980's, and instead of just letting those technologies and the abilities 
of those people go to waste, we want to give them a chance to be used in 
the commercial sector in a way that helps both national defense by 
keeping that skill and that technology alive and helps to rebuild the 
domestic economy and to create jobs.
    Today we announced the first of what will be four announcements 
between now and the end of November in the technology research project, 
which involved 41 projects from California to Maine from former defense 
contractors or current defense contractors using technologies in defense 
for domestic purposes.
    In San Diego, the University of San Diego and Muller International 
and a company called Trans-Science Corporation are using the composite 
materials developed for the Stealth aircraft to build and repair 
bridges. And they're working on a bridge in San Diego now. And this is 
just one of, as I said, over 40 projects. California got a large number 
of these projects but so did several other States that have been hurt by 
base closing and defense cutbacks. They were all given out on the 
merits, I assure you, and now what the companies have to do is to 
negotiate with our defense conversion projects to make sure that the 
Government and the companies all put up a fair amount of money. Then 
they'll start hiring people and going to work. We're very excited about 
it.
    Mr. Clark. Mr. President, some claim that if it was a good idea, a 
strong company would run with that idea. Do you run a risk of propping 
up a bad company or a bad idea?
    The President. There may be some risk of that, but it's not much of 
a risk. After all, in terms of the potential expenditure of money, this 
is mostly seed money to get these projects started. A lot of these 
companies are quite well-established, and these technologies have proven 
merit in the defense area. This is the sort of thing that our 
competitors in Germany, Japan, countries with lower unemployment rates 
and higher investment rates than we do, they do these things all the 
time. We know the technology, the skills, the ideas to make the 
conversion, but we aren't organized for it. This simply helps us to 
organize to make this conversion from a defense-based to a domestic 
economy. It will create a lot of jobs. And I think that it will be among 
the most efficient Government programs ever seen because, keep in mind, 
we don't put up all the money; if the other side doesn't put up half the 
money, the project doesn't get done. So, that's a pretty strong 
incentive to make sure whatever is done is a good project.
    Mr. Clark. Mr. President, UCSD's $21 million--granted, nobody wants 
to look a gift horse in the mouth, but it's really a drop in the bucket 
when you consider what San Diego has lost so far in cutbacks in the 
military and defense jobs.
    The President. It is, but that's the point. It starts up a new 
business enterprise for which there must be a market in the private 
sector. We believe there's a huge market. That's why all these things 
are helping to start up a process.
    Keep in mind, too, that San Diego gained 5,200 jobs in the last 
round of base closings and consolidations, so those new jobs will be

[[Page 1805]]

coming into your area over the next couple of years, and that will help 
some also.
    Mr. Clark. Mr. President, thank you very much for joining us today.
    The President. Thank you.

Note: The interview began at 11:50 a.m. The President spoke via 
satellite from Room 459 of the Old Executive Office Building.