[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]

[[Page 1597]]

    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-


[[Page 1599]]

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.