    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [January 19, 1995]
    [Pages 62-63]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Retirement Protection Act of 1994
    January 19, 1995

        Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. After that kind introduction I'm
    loath to say what I was about to say, which is I'm afraid the headline
    on this story will be ``Reich comes out for playing hard.'' [Laughter]
    But I think people who work hard should also be able to play hard.
    [Laughter]
        I want to thank Paul Wood for his story and Marvin Clarke for his
    testimony in his long battle to make sure the country did something to
    help people so that there wouldn't be other people in the situation he
    finds himself in. I want to thank the steelworkers and the senior
    citizens groups and all the others who were mentioned by Secretary
    Reich. I'd like to especially thank someone who is not here, my longtime
    friend J.J. Pickle, who retired from the Congress and who left this as
    his last legacy in a long career of helping people with their own lives.
    I'd like to thank another longtime friend of mine who is still here--
    that's maybe a disability in this town, but Marty Slate has done a
    wonderful job at the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. I'll never
    forget the first time Hillary told me about Marty Slate. She said,
    ``That's the smartest guy I ever met in my life. He'll find a way to
    solve any kind of problem.'' And you have done a fine job, and we're
    grateful to you.
        And I'd like to thank someone whose name I don't know and I've been
    trying to find out before this moment. I'd like to thank the person in
    the Richmond debate in 1992 who asked President Bush and Ross Perot and
    Bill Clinton about the problems of underfunded pensions and first got my
    attention on this issue. I wish--I don't know who that person was, but I
    am deeply indebted, and now so are several million other Americans, to
    that person for bringing this issue personally to me in a very direct
    way.
        Two years ago from tomorrow, I became President, with a commitment
    to try to restore the American dream for all Americans and to make sure
    that we enter the next century as the strongest country in the world, a
    force for peace and freedom and democracy, but most important of all, as
    one which in a very different world would keep the American dream alive
    for all of our people.
        When I signed the Retirement Protection Act into law last month, it
    was almost completely unnoticed because at the end of the year it had to
    go through in the comprehensive legislation that involved the passage of
    the GATT trade agreement. And we wanted to do this today because this
    act was so profoundly important to so many millions of Americans and it
    says a lot about what we are trying to do here in Washington.
        This is part of a new economic policy designed to help the American
    people stay ahead in a world economy that is changing so rapidly that,
    while it offers vast new benefits to people, it also is very frightening
    to a lot of people and causes too much insecurity and unsettling for
    people who have worked hard and done the right things all their lives.
    It gives the American taxpayers a more effective, more efficient, and
    more disciplined Government. And this bill furthers what I have called
    my own contract with America, the New Covenant. It says that people who
    act responsibly should be rewarded.
        The Retirement Protection Act says that people deserve a pension
    system that they rely on. They deserve employers who take actions to be
    worthy of their own trust and the labor that they give them, year-in and
    year-out. They deserve a Government that will protect them and stand by
    them, a Government that is their partner.

    [[Page 63]]

        It says to employers that they can no longer gamble with the
    retirement savings of their own employees, allowing pension plans to
    become dangerously underfunded, expecting taxpayers to bail them out. It
    means that responsible businesses with well-funded plans will no longer
    have to carry an unfair share of the burden of the insurance costs for
    businesses who do not do the same.
        As a result of the new law, the funding level of large, underfunded
    pension plans will be increased dramatically so that the benefits can be
    paid as they were promised. The National Pension Insurance System will
    remain secure. Employees will get better information warning them when
    their plans could be at risk.
        In stabilizing the Federal insurance system, we used the power of
    Government to avert a potential crisis, protecting millions of retirees,
    corporate pension plans, and the taxpayers from huge potential losses.
        Today we can be grateful that the security of our pensions are
    strong and growing stronger, thanks to the Retirement Protection Act and
    the work of all of you in this room who did so much to make it happen.
        Thank you very, very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:34 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Marvin D. Clarke of
    Moundsville, WV, who lost one-third of his pension, and Paul E. Wood of
    Griffin, GA, who feared losing his pension. The Retirement Protection
    Act of 1994 appears in title VII of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of
    1994, approved December 8, 1994 (Public Law No. 103-465).