[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book II)]
[October 22, 1993]
[Pages 1806-1807]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Interview With John Culea of KFMB-TV, San Diego
October 22, 1993

Technology Reinvestment Project

    Mr. Culea. All right. Well, we'll see if we can put you on the hot 
seat here. [Laughter] How do you balance a cash award in this 
announcement today to one company with its potential negative job impact 
on a competitor? Wouldn't  tax  incentives  be  more equitable?
    The President. No, I disagree with that. For one thing, these awards 
are designed to develop defense technologies for commercial purposes. 
And they were the result of a competitive process. For those who were 
not picked, let me say we're coming back next year with over $500 
million in new funds for these kinds of projects, and we will be doing 
more.
    But the reason it's important to do it this way is that we have all 
these defense technologies that need to be put to work in the commercial 
sector. And in terms of the award in San Diego, let me remind you that 
there are literally thousands of bridges in this country, thousands, 
that need repair and a lot of new ones that need to be built. So if this 
technology can be put to work in doing that, they shouldn't be able to 
push anybody else with a genuinely competitive product out of the 
market, because there are so many thousands of bridges that need 
repair--and cities and local governments and States are just beginning 
to face up to those responsibilities--and because in the 1980's this 
country walked away from its infrastructure needs. So, I don't see that 
as a problem, particularly in this sector of the economy.
    Mr. Culea. You mentioned awards to Redondo Beach, Fullerton, I 
believe two others. Most of the awards, though, were out of State. We 
have 250,000 defense jobs that were lost here. What do you say to those 
people who need help?
    The President. Most of the awards were out of State, but California 
got the lion's share of the awards, ran away with the contest, as well 
you would expect, because there are so many defense workers out of work 
and because there's so much technology capacity. So the State did very 
well on this first round, and I would expect

[[Page 1807]]

that there will be more in the second, third, and fourth rounds.
    Keep in mind, this was just the first of four rounds between now and 
November, and then next year we'll have another $500 million-plus to put 
in a whole new round of these projects. So I would say to them, I'm 
going to fund as many of these projects as possible; I'm working as hard 
as possible.
    I also would point out that in the San Diego area, two other things 
have been done which will help in the base closing and reorganization. 
There will be a net gain of 5,200 jobs in the San Diego area, and we 
just released from export controls $37 billion worth of computer, 
supercomputer, and telecommunications equipment, which will open new 
markets and create many thousands of jobs in California; many of them 
will be in southern California.
    So I'm moving as quickly as I can on this, and I hope that the 
Members of the Congress will all be as supportive as Congresswoman Lynn 
Schenk has been of this project, because if we had more folks like her 
who were willing to fund this project at higher levels, we can move even 
more quickly and help even more California working people.
    Mr. Culea. This being a Navy-Marine town, there is concern that our 
military be prepared for anything in the future. What can you say to 
that as far as defense conversion and our ability to be prepared for 
future contingencies?
    The President. The head of naval research was here today with me, 
Admiral Pelaez. He made the point that in a very profound way, this 
program we announced will help to keep our defense strong, because we 
know that the defense budget's going to be reduced. This program will 
help to use the commercial research and development sector to keep the 
defense technology strong, even as we're using defense technologies to 
create jobs in the commercial sector. That is, by putting the two 
together, we'll be able to get a bigger bang for our defense dollar. So 
that even though there will be some reduction in defense spending, we'll 
be able to keep ahead of all of the other countries in the world and as 
far as we need to be on technology.
    Mr. Culea. Could you give us an idea of the control of this money in 
some defense contractors? Jobs have been cut, profits go up, and then 
bonuses are given to top executives. What about the control of the money 
going to these firms?
    The President. Well, first of all, let me explain what happens now. 
We have announced the projects that were worthy and that won the right 
to participate in this project. Now, what will happen is the group of 
people from our Government's side who work in this area will negotiate 
with each and every company to make sure that they put up their share of 
the money and to determine how they will spend this money.
    This money, in almost every case, is not an overwhelming amount of 
money for these companies. What this money will be necessary for is to 
actually invest in developing this new product and marketing it 
commercially. So there won't be much of an opportunity for a rake-off 
here, otherwise the whole thing will collapse. And they have to agree in 
advance not only on a contribution schedule from their point of view but 
on what the money's going to be spent on. And I think we'll avoid those 
abuses.
    Mr. Culea. All right. Mr. President, thank you so much for sharing 
your thoughts, and I hope you get a better seat next time.
    The President. Thank you very much.

Note: The interview began at 12:02 p.m. The President spoke via 
satellite from Room 459 of the Old Executive Office Building.