    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [September 23, 1994]
    [Pages 1596-1599]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory
    Improvement Act of 1994
    September 23, 1994

        Thank you so much, Reverend Lawson and Dave Lollis, for your
    stories. Thank you, Secretary Bentsen, for your work on this, and thank
    you, Secretary Espy and SBA Administrator Erskine Bowles, for your work
    on this important project.
        Ladies and gentlemen, Secretary Bentsen and I were lamenting when he
    was up here that he didn't have a complete list of all of the Members of
    Congress who were here. I'm going to try to name everyone I saw. And
    then I'm going to ask everybody who is here to stand up so that you can
    pick out who you think should be angry at me for missing. [Laughter] I
    see Senator Riegle, who has been mentioned, and Senator Sarbanes,
    Senator Mathews, Senator Kerry, Senator Bennett, Congressman Bacchus,
    Congressman Fingerhut, Congressman Flake, who had so much to do with
    this legislation, Congressman Kanjorski, Congressman Kennedy,
    Congressman King, Congressman Menendez, Congressman Neal, Congressman
    Orton, Congressman Pickle, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard,
    Congressman Rush, who had a lot to do with this legislation, also. I
    know Congresswoman Velazquez, Congressman Watt. And I doubtless missed
    somebody, but would everybody here from Congress please stand so we can
    acknowledge your presence? Who did I miss? Oh, Congresswoman Waters,
    Congressman Bereuter, Congressman Fields. I missed five; I apologize to
    all of you. [Laughter]

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        Let me also say that this is the only public appearance I will make
    today, and I have an update that I feel I should give to the American
    people about the situation in Haiti. So I'd like to make a couple of
    remarks about that and then return to the subject at hand, which has
    been an important one to me for nearly 10 years now.
        First, let me say that I'm pleased to report that we're making good
    progress in our efforts in Haiti. Our troop contribution to the
    international coalition will soon be up to full strength, about 14,000
    American servicemen and women. But we have already begun to pull back or
    replace units who took part in the initial deployment, consistent with
    our original plan.
        Among our men and women in Haiti are 1,000 military police. They're
    making contact with police precincts, where they'll keep a close watch
    on the police to see that there is professional action there with
    restraint. In the coming weeks, they'll be joined and ultimately
    replaced by hundreds of international police monitors from all around
    the globe, now having over 26 countries participating in this effort.
        The United Nations human rights monitors will be returning to Haiti
    as soon as possible. We're beginning a weapons confiscation and buy-back
    program. Heavy weapons that were in the Haitian military's control are
    being turned over to our Armed Forces. At the same time we'll be working
    with Haitian authorities to buy back light weapons from the militia and
    civilians and to help them to institute a licensing program for gun
    ownership. All these steps should help to reduce the level of violence
    there.
        Already, the situation on the ground has become calmer and more
    peaceful, and as a result the first shipload of Haitian migrants from
    Guantanamo will go home to Cuba on Monday, carrying between 200 and 300
    Haitian citizens. We expect more will return next week.
        I'd also like to announce that it's planned to--the U.S. Agency for
    International Development is increasing the food program so that we will
    be supplying, instead of 1 million, 1.3 million meals per day there. The
    first shipment will arrive on the 26th.
        In short, our mission is going well. Of course, difficulties remain;
    they are part of any military undertaking. But I am very proud of the
    competence and the discipline our troops and their commanders have
    demonstrated. They are executing a complex operation with tremendous
    skill. They deserve our thanks and our admiration and our persistent
    support. Thank you.
        Let me say to all of you that I have dreamed of this day for a long
    time. The possibility to sign this act into law and, more importantly,
    to unleash the energies of millions of Americans too long denied access
    to the mainstream economics of our country, was one of the things that
    drove me into the campaign of 1992. Anyone who ever heard me give a talk
    anywhere probably knows that in almost every speech I talked about the
    South Shore Bank in Chicago, a place that I visited, got to know, and
    got to understand.
        I've long admired the way they steered private investments into
    previously underprivileged neighborhoods, to previously undercapitalized
    and underutilized Americans, proving that a bank can be a remarkable
    source of hope and still make money in the free enterprise system.
        Long before I ran for President, the founders of Shore Bank in
    Chicago helped us to launch the Southern Development Bank Corporation in
    Arkansas. My wife and I and our administration, including Bob Nash, who
    now works with Secretary Espy at the Agriculture Department, worked to
    make an idea that had worked in an urban community in the north take
    roots in rural communities all over the southern part of our State.
        In 1992 I visited an awful lot of places where I thought these same
    things would work. I'll never forget the first time we had people up to
    the Governor's conference room to talk about what it was like when they
    got their first loan, when they thought their lives had ended and that
    they were going to be consigned to public assistance or living off
    welfare, but instead were starting businesses and making money, some of
    them even able to hire other people. It made an impression on me that I
    will carry with me always.
        Today, the $4.8 billion in credit for new businesses and new jobs
    into communities and into people who need it the most is the beginning
    of those stories, countless thousands of them, all across this country.
    It's also good for our economy.
        This bill is an example of what I hope and believe must be the goal
    of Government in the future. Nobody seriously believes that Government
    can be society's savior anymore. But very few people seriously believe
    that Government can sit on the sideline anymore. In the world

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    of the 21st century, what Government will have to do is to be a more
    effective partner and to find ways to clear away barriers so that people
    can be empowered to live up to the fullest of their own capacities.
        This bill is not about bureaucracies, and it's certainly not about
    distributing handouts. It's about new opportunity for people to assume
    responsibility to make good lives for themselves by making the private
    sector work in places where it had not gone before. That is what this
    bill is about.
        This is a campaign commitment I am especially glad to be able to
    keep today because of what it says about what Americans will be able to
    do for themselves and what other Americans in the private sector will do
    for them and still make money.
        Secretary Bentsen and I have worked hard, along with everybody else
    in this administration, to change the way Government works, to bring the
    deficit down, to shift our budget priorities from consumption to
    investment, to expand trade and to open markets. Secretary Espy has been
    especially active in the effort to change the way Government functions
    here by increasing our ability to help the agricultural sector and
    redevelop rural America while drastically reducing the size of the
    Agriculture Department.
        Ninety-three percent of the over 4 million new jobs which have been
    created since I became President have been in the private sector. I am
    very proud of that. That's a higher percentage of jobs coming in the
    private sector than had been the rule in the previous decade. We need to
    do more of that, and if we do our jobs well in Government, we'll
    continue to be able to do more with fewer of us to create more of you in
    the private sector.
        But our national economy clearly is not so much a national economy
    as a large number of regional and local economies. I was talking with a
    friend of mine last night who is an economist who said, ``You know, it's
    even become more difficult to talk about the inflation rate. In 93
    percent of the industries in America, there is no inflation. The overall
    inflation rate sometimes obscures the fact that there is serious
    inflation in one or two sectors and none anywhere else.''
        The overall unemployment rate similarly obscures the fact that the
    unemployment rate may be under 3 percent in some States in our country
    and still be very high in some isolated rural areas and inner cities
    where capital has not flown, where enterprise has not worked. But I
    believe that every American who is willing to work hard and learn can
    succeed in the free enterprise system. I do not believe that it is
    necessary to have 20 percent unemployment rate in inner cities and rural
    areas to keep this economy from overheating. I do not believe that.
        And just as I have strongly supported our efforts to develop
    economic opportunity in our trading partners because I believe, for
    example, a wealthier Mexico, a wealthier Caribbean is good for America
    and builds our strength and builds jobs here, surely it must be even
    more true that if there were no American willing to work without a job,
    if there were no American willing to start a small business and able to
    start a small business, who cannot do so--if none of those people
    existed, our economy would be stronger. We would have more growth with
    less inflation, less social tension, fewer crime problems, fewer
    problems with broken families and broken homes. We have got to find ways
    to reach into the isolated areas of America to bring the promise of
    America. Ultimately, that is what this whole idea of community
    development financial institutions are all about. And I know that we can
    do that.
        I want to say again, too, especially in view of the people who are
    here today from the Congress, I am very proud of the fact that this was
    an all-American effort, that this had broad bipartisan support in the
    Congress, this had broad support in the country, from traditional
    banking institutions, traditional business institutions, and community
    organizers who for years felt that no one noticed the efforts they were
    making. Since this issue was put on the Nation's agenda, more and more
    communities have become organized.
        And let me close with just giving you a few examples. Reggie White,
    the all-time NFL defensive leader in sacks, has now gone on the
    offensive, investing his earnings in community development banks.
    Richard Dent, the all-pro defensive player for the Bears--I think
    Richard is here today, but he's injured, so he can't stand up. Can you?
    Good to see you. Richard is now with the 49'ers. But if he hadn't
    sustained his injury, he couldn't be here today; so I'm not glad he's
    injured, but I am glad he's here. He is joining in, too. Private sector
    involvement in these institutions is up almost a third, even be-

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    fore a single public penny has been spent, in anticipation of the impact
    of this bill.
        Today I'm proud to announce commitments from two of the Nation's
    leading banks to help us in this effort: $25 million from NationsBank
    and $50 million from the Bank of America over the next 4 years. Their
    representatives are here. Would they please stand and receive our
    thanks, wherever they are? Thank you so much. [Applause]
        I hope very much that in the days ahead we can find other ways to
    bring new ideas into a spirit of partnership and empowerment with
    Government. That, after all, was the idea behind reducing the size of
    the Federal Government and giving the money to the communities to hire
    police and to build prisons and to start prevention programs in the
    crime bill. It was the idea behind AmeriCorps. It was the idea behind
    reorganizing the student loan program so that it actually costs less
    than it used to and still provides lower interest loans that 20 million
    young Americans are already eligible to refinance their present
    obligations to achieve, the idea behind the empowerment zones that we
    will announce this fall.
        This is the sort of thing we ought to be doing up here, helping
    people out of the grassroots to chart their course into a brighter
    future. I am proud to sign this bill, and I want, again, to say my
    profound thanks to all the Members of Congress who are here and those
    who are not, in both parties, for making this such an all-American
    effort. Thank you very much.
        I'd like to invite the Members of Congress who are here to come up
    and be here at the signing. After all, you did it.

    [At this point, the President signed the bill.]

        The President. Thank you. Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:29 a.m. at the U.S. Department of
    Agriculture. In his remarks, he referred to Rev. Philip Lawson,
    president, Northern California Ecumenical Council, and founder and
    director, Community Bank of the Bay; and David Lollis, director,
    Appalbanc. H.R. 3474, approved September 23, was assigned Public Law No.
    103-325.