    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [November 3, 1995]
    [Pages 1713-1716]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1713]]

    Remarks to Participants in Project XL
    November 3, 1995

        The President. Thank you very much, Scott, for your introduction and
    also for your very impressive remarks and your even more impressive
    work. Thank you, Mr. Vice President, for the work you have done on this
    project; and Administrator Carol Browner; the Chair of the Council of
    Environmental Quality, Katie McGinty; to Fred Hansen, the EPA Deputy
    Administrator who is in charge of Project XL, thank you. And thank you,
    Andy Lietz. I thought you were going to start trying to sell your
    product up here. [Laughter] I must say I was even more impressed when
    you talked about how you invited us to visit in New Hampshire, New York,
    and California. I thought, there's a man with a strategically placed
    company. [Laughter]
        I want to thank every one of you for being here and for helping us
    to move a little closer to our vision of the 21st century.
        Let me say that I sought the Presidency because I had a vision of
    what I wanted our country to look like in the 21st century. I wanted the
    American dream to be alive for all of our people, and I wanted our
    Nation to be the strongest force in the world for peace and freedom and
    prosperity. And we have a simple, straightforward, but quite
    comprehensive strategy for achieving that. We believe in pro-growth
    economics that rewards entrepreneurs and expands the middle class and
    shrinks the under class. We believe in commonsense Government that is
    smaller, less bureaucratic, more flexible, focusing on partnerships with
    the private sector and empowering communities and citizens. And we
    believe in rooting all this in old-fashioned, mainstream values,
    rewarding opportunity but insisting on responsibility, valuing work but
    recognizing that helping families to be strong and stay together is even
    more important, and what the Vice President referred to--we believe in
    community and common ground, not division in the United States.
        The project we announce today reflects all those strategies. That's
    what Project XL is all about. It will advance our economic agenda. It is
    an example of commonsense Government. And it is rooted in our deepest
    American values. It will help us us to make the American dream available
    to all Americans in the 21st century, and it will certainly help America
    to be the world's strongest nation in the 21st century.
        In March I announced the creation of this project, which gives our
    companies the freedom to meet tough pollution standards in ways that
    make sense to them, instead of following a Government rule book. Today
    we are announcing the first eight pilot projects for this cutting-edge
    initiative: Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Hadco, Intel, Merck, the Minnesota
    Pollution Control Agency, 3M, and the South Coast Air Quality Management
    District. All of them have put together projects which will help us to
    blaze the way to a new era of environmental protection. Two of them are
    represented in the Congress by my friend Senator Robb and Congressman
    Vento. I thank them for coming today and for their support of this from
    an economic and an environmental perspective.
        I want to thank all of the companies here and the other
    organizations for their dedication. And I want you to know that we are
    here to honor your pledge to reduce pollution creatively, effectively,
    and in partnership with your neighbors.
        I want to especially commend the Department of Defense, which is
    committed to undertaking a similar effort at military installations
    throughout our country. And this is very important because of all the
    base closings. And a lot of you are very familiar with our efforts to
    accelerate our ability to turn these closed bases back to communities
    and turn them into community assets. It's a huge issue. And the
    environmental difficulties and challenges have slowed that effort, and I
    thank all the representatives from the Defense Department here for their
    commitment to this endeavor because it will have a major impact on both
    the environment and our ability to spark economic opportunity in
    communities throughout the Nation.
        To industry, Project XL shows that protecting the health and safety
    of our citizens doesn't have to come at the expense of a bottom line.
    And to those in the environmental community, XL shows that strengthening
    the economy doesn't have to come at the expense of the air we breathe,
    the food we eat, the water we drink. I hope to our citizens that this
    will stand

    [[Page 1714]]

    as an example of what we can do when we work together and when we look
    out for one another, when we recognize that our obligations to one
    another, when properly fulfilled, actually help us to improve our own
    lot in life.
        I guess there was a time not so long ago that if I said there was a
    Government program named XL, everybody would have thought it stood for
    extra large and was well-named. [Laughter] I want to say again, that not
    withstanding my own size, this does stand for excellence and leadership.
    [Laughter] We want to back our words up by action, and we intend to do
    so.
        Much of our effort in developing commonsense Government has been
    devoted simply to reducing the sheer size of Government. Our Government
    was organized for a much more sort of top-down, bureaucratic industrial
    age than the one in which we are living.
        Thanks to the Vice President, our reinventing Government task force,
    and the support we have received in the past from the Congress, there
    are now 163,000 fewer people working for the Federal Government than
    there were the day I was sworn in as President. With next year's already
    planned downsizing, the Government next year will be the smallest it's
    been since Mr. Kennedy was President. And as a percentage of the
    Federal--the civilian work force of the United States, next year the
    Federal Government will be the smallest it has been since 1933. That is
    an astonishing change in a short period of time.
        And I want to say, I think we've done it in the right way. Like I
    say, that if you want to read about it, the Vice President's got a
    little book out here. [Laughter] He made me write a foreword to it.
    [Laughter]
        The Vice President. It's available in New York, California--
    [laughter].
        The President. Philip Howard, the author of the wonderful book ``The
    Death of Common Sense,'' also wrote an introduction. And the Vice
    President gets no money out of the book. That's part of reinventing
    Government--[laughter]--work harder, be poorer. [Laughter] But this book
    reflects what it is we're trying to do. The reason I bring it up is that
    most Americans don't know that the Government is 163,000 smaller, don't
    know how much smaller it is. But there are maybe some bad reasons for
    that, but I think there are two good reasons I'd like to mention.
        One reason is that the Federal employees were treated properly in
    the downsizing. They weren't just put on the street. There were generous
    early retirement packages approved by the Congress. There were generous
    separation packages. They were treated with the dignity and respect to
    which they were entitled. So we didn't just have a slash-and-burn
    policy. The other reason is that the Federal employees who stayed were
    able to dramatically increase their productivity so that people didn't
    notice it in diminished services.
        And so I think what I'd like to do is to say I'm very proud of the
    fact that we have downsized the Government more rapidly and to a greater
    extent than at, as far as I know, any time in history. But the real
    credit goes to the Federal employees who have continued to do the work
    of America with good humor and increased creativity. And I'm very proud
    of that. And so the first thing we did was to try to shrink the
    Government.
        The second thing we're doing is getting rid of 16,000 of the 86,000
    pages of Government regulations. I think the most successful talk I've
    given since I've been President was at the White House Conference on
    Small Business where all I did was simply read them the Federal
    regulation on grits. [Laughter] Some of you not from the South don't
    even know what grits are, probably. [Laughter] But all of us who do
    found it amazing that there had to be a Federal regulation to define it
    and that it was two pages long. [Laughter] And there wasn't a dry eye in
    the place when I got done reading it. [Laughter] Most of them were
    laughing and crying; some of them were actually crying to think their
    Government had done such a thing. [Laughter] So every department has got
    a quota, a target, and we are in the process of getting rid of, just
    purely getting rid of 16,000 of the 86,000 pages of Federal regulations.
        But that is only part of the vision because commonsense Government
    recognizes that there is still a public interest in America that has to
    be advanced, that can only be advanced when the elected representatives
    of the American people use the power given to them under the
    Constitution of the United States to deal with the problems of the
    moment in a public way, and to do it in the way that is the most
    efficient, the most effective for the moment. That is what we are
    celebrating today.

    [[Page 1715]]

        The environmental regulations that we are reforming today were
    designed for a time when the environmental problems were different, when
    there were in some places dark clouds of pollution literally blocking
    the sun, a time when the bald eagle was on the edge of extinction, a
    time when we had a river in America that actually caught fire. And for
    people who think it's been a bad thing, this environmental effort, I'll
    ask you to remember that all happened in the lifetime of everybody in
    this room.
        These laws and regulations have served us well. Though we've got a
    lot more work to do, we've made a lot of progress as a people. Our
    environment is the envy of the world compared to other industrial
    countries. But what worked yesterday is not adequate for today, and we
    now know it certainly won't work tomorrow. And going through Washington
    is plainly not the only road to ensuring a cleaner or a safer world.
    That's why we have challenged our businesses and our communities to work
    together to achieve better results where they live and work at lower
    cost.
        At the core of this whole approach are the values I mentioned
    earlier. We are saying the Government should enhance opportunity but
    should insist on responsibility. The people who are in Project XL are
    saying we want the opportunity to do this in a better, more sensible,
    less bureaucratic, more hassle-free way. But we recognize that before
    opportunity comes responsibility. And our commitment is to maintain high
    standards.
        To understand what we're trying to do, the Vice President used a
    see-saw analogy, which I thought was pretty good, by the way. I may
    steal it from him tomorrow. [Laughter] Think of a high-jump competition.
    In this case, the Government would set the bar in the high-jump
    competition and set it high, as high as it takes to ensure that our
    people have the essential security of knowing that the world that we
    live in will be vibrant, healthy, and clean. But we wouldn't tell the
    Government how to jump over the bar. If you've ever watched a high-jump
    competition, people jump in different ways. The way it works today is
    the Government gives you a rule book, and if you can't jump over in the
    prescribed way you just never get over the bar. What we want to say is,
    ``Here is the bar. If you can figure out how to jump over it any old
    way--the old way, the new way, a different way, forward or backward--all
    you have to do is jump over the bar. Then you make the grade.''
        Project XL is built on the simple premise that in many cases
    companies know their business a whole lot better than the Government
    does; that they understand how best to reduce their own pollution; that
    we will all benefit if private enterprise brings its energy, its
    innovation, its creativity to the task of reducing pollution; and that
    cost-effective ways that are found to clear certain specific goals by
    certain companies and certain industries will certainly be adopted by
    others, and it will help us to create whole new sectors of economic
    opportunity by promoting a whole new round of entrepreneurialism in
    environmental cleanup. We also recognize that if companies have the
    freedom to devise their own strategies, they will have the obligation to
    work with and consult with their neighbors.
        This project marks the end of one-size-fits-all Government
    regulations. We know what works for one community and one company simply
    doesn't necessarily work for others. This is real reform. It eases the
    burden of regulation. It helps to achieve superior environmental
    performance. It gives each company the chance to find its own way while
    always, always reaffirming the responsibilities that all companies have
    to their communities.
        You know, I look at Project XL and I have a hard time understanding
    those who are still fighting yesterday's regulatory battles today, those
    who still think we're only faced with two choices: no regulation at all
    or more regulation. Under the banner of regulatory reform, some of these
    would weaken or even abolish previous environmental safeguards. The
    Republican majority in Congress would deny citizens the right to know
    what's in the air they breathe and the water they drink. They'd rob our
    agencies of the ability to enforce environmental laws at all. They'd
    slow the cleanup of toxic waste in our communities.
        I tell you today that I do not intend to let this happen. As you
    know, I have been very clear about the 17 special interest provisions
    the congressional majority put in its EPA budget. These riders would
    seriously jeopardize the enforcement of our vital environmental laws.
    And I was very, very pleased yesterday to see what I hope is only the
    beginning of a trend that will sweep this Congress when a bipartisan
    majority in the House stood up for our basic

    [[Page 1716]]

    values, for commonsense Government, and voted against these 17 riders. I
    hope there will be more of this in the future.
        Project XL is proof that we can find a better way. We don't have
    to--it's also about common ground. Why should we have a fight about this
    when we all will be better served if we work together to protect our
    environment and to promote our economic interests? There is clearly a
    wrong way and a right way to change the regulatory environment of
    America and to get rid of outdated regulations. The wrong way is to toss
    away our essential health and environmental concerns just because we
    don't have the patience to sit down and fix them.
        The right way is to roll up our sleeves, make regulations work,
    demand responsibility, but give opportunity. It may take a little
    longer. It may be a little harder, but it is the right way to meet the
    challenges of the next century. And I want to say again--the most
    important thing I want to say is I honor these eight projects and the
    people who are committed to doing it in this way. I honor the commitment
    the Defense Department has made to do this in its sites.
        If we can prove that this works, we can literally change the way
    Americans look with fear either on environmental threats or on the
    Government or on some new economic enterprise. We can literally give the
    future back to the American people at the grassroots level and have the
    Government doing what it ought to do: be in the business of defining the
    public interest, making it clear, making sure it's advanced, but not
    prescribing every little jot-and-tittle detail about how people pursue
    it in every business, in every community, in every enterprise all across
    the land. That is our goal.
        Project XL is designed to put the focus back where it should be, on
    progress, not process, on families and businesses, not government. We
    have a model here that I think will be good not only for protecting the
    environment, not only as an example of effective regulatory reform--I
    think it's a blueprint for the future. I think it's a way we can deal
    with a whole range of our other economic and social problems.
        A lot is riding on those of you who have agreed to participate in
    this project. I think we can really change the way people look at our
    common problems if we can prove, as I believe you will, that this works.
        I am deeply indebted to the Vice President and to Carol Browner and
    to Katie McGinty, to all those in our administration who have done this.
    But as I said, we really respect more than anything the companies and
    the people from the Department of Defense that are prepared to engage in
    this great endeavor. We have to make this work. This is the only way to
    take our country into the 21st century with a growing economy, being
    steadfast to our values, with a commonsense Government that keeps the
    American dream alive for all. Let's prove the cynics wrong.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:28 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Scott Bernstein,
    president, Center for Neighborhood Technology, and Andy Lietz, chief
    executive officer, Hadco Company.