    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [October 1, 1994]
    [Pages 1676-1678]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    October 1, 1994

        Good morning. As we come to the end of this congressional session in
    1994, it's clearer than ever that Americans still want to change the way
    Washington works, and they should.
        We've worked hard here for 20 months to make sure Government
    responds to ordinary citizens, not to organized pressure groups;
    responds to the national interests, not narrow interests. And we've made
    some good progress, but there's still a lot more work to do.
        Since I became President, we fought to change the culture of our
    Capital City. We first imposed the toughest ethics rules ever on our own
    officials. Then we moved to close the tax loopholes that lets lobbyists
    deduct the costs of their activities. And then our initiative to
    reinvent Government, led by the Vice President, is already making
    progress in making Government work better and cost less. We're cutting
    the size of the Federal Government by 270,000, to its lowest level since
    John Kennedy was President. Already in our 20 months, there are 70,000
    fewer people on the Federal payroll. And we're giving every dime of the
    money we save in reducing the Federal payroll back to local communities
    to fight crime. We've also slashed regulations and bureaucracy, speeded
    up the time Small Business Administration loans get answered. We've
    changed the way Government buys products to make it cheaper and more

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    efficient. We've given 17 States permission to change the rules so they
    can move more folks from welfare to work.
        Despite all these steps forward, our political system is still too
    often an obstacle to change, not an instrument of progress. One big
    reason is that here in Washington there are some 80,000 paid lobbyists
    who work to influence the Government. In the last year, we've certainly
    seen how well-organized, lavishly funded campaigns by people protecting
    their narrow interests work.
        The gun lobby nearly derailed the crime bill strongly supported by
    police and prosecutors, just because it banned 19 assault weapons from
    our streets, weapons designed only to kill people, and in spite of the
    fact that the crime bill protected 650 hunting and sporting weapons from
    any Federal restrictions.
        The foes of health care reform have spent $300 million, by most
    estimates, to oppose change. By all accounts, this was the most intense
    lobbying campaign in history. But rest assured, we're not giving up on
    our fight for health care reform, for universal coverage, cost controls,
    and protecting small businesses and the people who have health insurance
    now from losing it.
        This week we're working to pass a major reform bill that Congress
    still has time to act on, a bill that will go a long way toward taking
    Government out of the hands of the influence industry. The legislation,
    for the first time ever, would require lobbyists to fully disclose who
    they work for, how much they're paid, and what they're seeking to get
    out of Government. That's not all it does. It also prevents lobbyists
    from buying Members of Congress meals, gifts, or vacations. All in all,
    it's very tough, and it will change the way Washington does business.
        Not surprisingly, a lot of Washington's lobbyists don't like this
    bill very much. It takes away their special access and puts ordinary
    people on a more equal footing. And now at the last minute, some are
    trying to defeat lobby reform with bogus arguments.
        Last Thursday, the House of Representatives stood up to intense
    pressure and passed lobby reform by a large margin. This week, it's the
    Senate's turn. The lobbyists and their allies will throw up a lot of
    rhetoric about how this bill hurts ordinary people. Don't you believe
    it. It's bad news for people who use paid professional lobbyists to
    influence legislation and don't want you to know what they're doing.
    That's all it does, and that's why the Senate should pass it
    immediately.
        I've fought for reforms like this my entire public career. When I
    was Governor of Arkansas, after years of trying to pass lobby reform
    through the legislature, I went to the people of my State, and we passed
    a tough bill by a popular vote. I advocated this measure when I ran for
    President, and I've worked for it ever since. I am confident it will
    become law.
        There's another bill Congress should pass before it goes home. This
    would apply the laws Congress passes to govern the rest of America to
    Congress itself. That's just common sense, and it's only fair. But
    believe it or not, it doesn't always hold up today. The people who make
    laws for the private sector should be willing to live under the laws
    they make. That's what this law would require.
        Even these important changes, however, won't complete the task of
    political reform. The way we fund campaigns gives too much power to
    special interests and too often drowns out the voice of the people. We
    had a good chance to change that. But yesterday, once more, a Senate
    filibuster defeated campaign finance reform. I was very disappointed by
    this result. The campaign finance reform bill was a strong bill. It gave
    real reform. It would have limited spending in congressional races,
    curbed the political action committees, opened the airwaves to honest
    debate, and closed the so-called soft money loophole in our Presidential
    election system.
        The fight for campaign reform isn't over, either. We'll return to it
    next year with redoubled determination to get this job done. The
    American people demand it.
        Since I became President, we've made real progress in turning our
    country around, in getting our economic house in order, fighting crime,
    making Government work for ordinary people. Our comprehensive economic
    strategy cut our deficit drastically and for 3 years in a row for the
    first time since Mr. Truman was President. We've expanded trade with
    Mexico, negotiated a worldwide trade agreement, improved the education
    and training of our work force. We've got 4.3 million new jobs in just
    20 months, and our country's rated the most productive in the world for
    the first time in 9 years. We've also enacted a tough crime bill. And
    we've begun with reinventing Government,

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    the effort to make Government work for ordinary people.
        But to finish this work, we need to keep changing the way Government
    does the people's business. Let's keep forward in the fight for
    political reform. We need your help on that.
        Thanks very much.

    Note: The address was recorded at 3:36 p.m. on September 30 in the
    Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October
    1.