    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [August 2, 1994]
    [Pages 1407-1409]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing United States Shipbuilding Industry Initiatives
    August 2, 1994

        Thank you. Secretary Pena, Secretary Brown, Ambassador Kantor,
    Admiral Herberger, John Dane, and Doug Ballis. Thanks for saving the
    sign.
        I'd like to introduce the Members of the House who are here who
    supported this initiative and who have made a major contribution to what
    we're doing and obviously will be needed in the months and years ahead
    and whose districts will be affected by the announcements we make today:
    Congressman Gene Taylor from Mississippi, Congressman Billy Tauzin from
    Louisiana, Congressman Bobby Scott from Virginia, and Congresswoman Lynn
    Schenk and Congressman Bob Filner from California. Thank you for your
    help. Would you stand? [Applause]
        I'd like to begin by thanking Doug and Richard Vortman, NASSCO's
    CEO, who is also here, because they gave me one of those seminal
    experiences you have once in a while in life that takes an idea from
    your head to your heart. When you know something and you know you ought
    to do it, that's one thing. But when you feel it, it's another thing
    altogether.
        They stopped work one day in May of 1992, before I was even the
    nominee of my party for President, so that I could speak to nearly 4,000
    of their people and so that I could listen to them. I could see them
    working together, struggling together, trying to compete in the global
    economy, building the only commercial ship then being built anywhere in
    the United States of America. They made me feel welcome, but they also
    made sure I was aware of what the stakes were and what the issue was and
    how this was yet one more example of how we could compete and win in an
    area critical to our future if only we had the policies, the tools, and
    the drive to do it.
        I wish all the people that I met that day could be in this room
    today. I'm afraid the fire marshal would evict us all if I had tried to
    achieve that. But they are the people who really taught me about this
    issue, and they are the people, they and the millions like them, for
    whom I fought both before I got here and for whom I try to fight every
    day in this office.
        This is a great day for our American jobs, for our economy, for our
    shipbuilding industry. It's a great day for the idea that if we all work
    together we can figure out how to solve our problems even in difficult
    budgetary times.
        Two years ago, every ship in America under construction except one
    was destined for defense, every one. And now we know that while our
    United States naval power is still unsurpassed in the world and must
    remain so, we cannot allow that one commercial vessel I saw under
    construction in San Diego become a symbol of the past.
        We know that one of the things that we needed most in 1992 and one
    of the things we're trying most to do today is to have a strategy for
    restructuring our defense industries so that they can fulfill a dual
    purpose, let me say, not so they can get out of defense work, because we
    will continue to need major investments in defense technologies for the
    foreseeable future, but so that with defense being scaled back, those
    kinds of folks can stay in business by being successful commercially as
    well.
        When I ran for this job, when the economy was going down and the
    deficit was going up, it was obvious to me that there were many reasons
    for that, but one of them was that the Government had no strategy. What
    was our strategy to preserve aerospace, our biggest export? What was our
    strategy when it came to the shipbuilding industry? What was our
    strategy to help support our automakers when they had made radical
    changes all through the 1980's so

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    that they could be more competitive again? What was our strategy?
        And the truth is, we didn't have one. Well, now we do have one. We
    have strategies for those industries and for others and for our economy.
    We've concluded trade agreements that expanded the barriers of world
    trade and enabled us to do more: NAFTA, the GATT we're trying to pass in
    Congress now, all designed to help hard-working middle class Americans
    get ahead because they'll have the economic opportunities to do it.
        I've said this many times, but I want to repeat it again: The
    mission of the United States at the close of the 20th century must be to
    keep the American dream alive in the 21st century. And to do it, we have
    to restore the economy, rebuild our communities at home, empower
    individuals to take responsibilities for themselves, put Government back
    on the side of ordinary people, create a world of greater peace and
    prosperity. That is what we must do.
        And that is exactly what we are celebrating here today, not just
    four projects for four worthy companies with several thousand worthy
    American workers. In the last 19 months, we have dramatically reduced
    the deficit. We're on the verge of getting 3 years of deficit reduction
    in a row for the first time since Truman was President. We have seen 3.8
    million new jobs come into this economy, even as we are scaling back the
    Federal work force so that by the end of this budget cycle it will be
    the smallest it's been since President Kennedy was here in the White
    House. The unemployment rate has gone down by 1\1/2\ percent, and we are
    making real progress in bringing manufacturing back. Between 1989 and
    1992, we lost 1.4 million manufacturing jobs. Now we have 104,000 more
    than we had on the day I was inaugurated.
        I am proud of these accomplishments of the American people, getting
    the American economy in order by getting our economic house in order, by
    instituting lifetime education and training programs that will have to
    embrace all of our people from the first day of preschool to the last
    day they work.
        Two years ago, Doug and a lot of other people in NASSCO said, ``This
    has been a great day, but don't forget us if you're elected.'' And we
    haven't forgotten them, but we've got to keep following through. And we
    have to think of this as a permanent partnership. I believe that if you
    look at the America that we're moving toward, the Government will adopt
    a less regulatory role, the Government will become a smaller percentage
    of our gross national product in the amount of money we spend. But the
    Government will have to be there in the competition in the global
    economy of the 21st century in partnership with the private sector to
    make sure that our people, when they're doing the right things, have a
    chance to compete and win and have a chance to seize the technologies of
    the 21st century.
        Let me just make a couple of other remarks about that. Secretary
    Perry could not be here today with our other Cabinet members. But I do
    want to say that the Defense Department, I think, has done an exemplary
    job in promoting defense conversion. Secretary Perry has recently
    awarded the first $30 million in matching grants out of a total of $220
    million we'll invest over the next 5 years to apply advanced
    technologies to make our shipbuilding industry even more competitive.
    We're spending hundreds of millions of dollars more in other areas to
    promote defense conversion as well.
        I also want to join Secretary Pena in complimenting our Trade
    Representative, our Ambassador, Mickey Kantor, for the work he did in
    the OECD negotiations with the European countries on shipbuilding
    subsidies. They dragged on for 5 years, and his work will bring an end
    to unfair foreign shipbuilding subsidies that has kept us out of world
    markets too long. He did a good job with that; he did a good job with
    the GATT; he did a superb job with NAFTA. And we're selling rice to
    Japan for the first time--[laughter]--which makes my people happy back
    home in Arkansas. And I thank you, sir.
        I also want to say a special word of thanks to the Secretary of
    Commerce. He was here not very long ago when we announced $6 billion in
    aircraft exports. We had an announcement the other day of $4 billion in
    telecommunications exports, and there are more in other high-wage
    manufacturing industries.
        The next step, as Secretary Pena said, in our comprehensive maritime
    reform is to sustain the U.S. flag merchant fleet. And this week, as the
    House considers that maritime and security and trade act, I hope that
    you all will help us see that the Congress passes a bill similar to the
    one the administration has proposed.
        Let me say again, this is a partnership, and this is a good
    beginning. And we're going in

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    the right direction with the economy as a whole and with shipbuilding in
    particular, with Government and business and workers walking hand in
    hand into the 21st century. But we have to make this a part of the
    permanent process of doing business for America. I ask all of you to
    support that, to rededicate yourself to these objectives. This is a good
    day. As my daughter says, this is a big deal. [Laughter] But it is just
    a beginning. Let's keep it going.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:36 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Adm. Albert Herberger,
    Administrator, Maritime Administration; John Dane III, president,
    Trinity Shipyards; and Doug Ballis, National Steel and Shipbuilding Co.
    (NASSCO) employee.