    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [December 19, 1995]
    [Pages 1908-1910]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 1908]]

    Remarks on Vetoing the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the
    Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1996, and an
    Exchange With Reporters
    December 19, 1995

        The President. Good afternoon. I'm delighted to be joined by these
    police officers and by the Attorney General and Secretary Brown and the
    mayors of Chicago and Philadelphia and representatives of law
    enforcement who are here today.
        For yet another day, the Republican Congress continues to keep our
    Government closed. Shortly, I will meet with Senator Dole and Speaker
    Gingrich. I hope we can resolve the situation and give the American
    people their Government back by Christmas.
        We also should give them a balanced budget that reflects our values
    of opportunity for all, respecting our duty to our parents and our
    children, building strong communities and a strong America.
        There is no value more basic than keeping our children safe.
    Unfortunately, the bill that the Congress passed to fund the Justice,
    Commerce, and State Departments failed to fulfill that essential
    obligation.
        Last year, with the support of Members of both parties in Congress,
    I signed a crime bill into law. The key to that crime bill was our
    effort to put 100,000 new police officers on the street because we had
    clear, hard evidence that more police officers in community policing
    would actually lower the crime rate not only by catching more criminals
    but by preventing crime. Today we are awarding 5,500 police officers to
    communities all across America. That brings the grand total in less than
    15 months to 31,000 new police officers for America's streets, almost a
    third of the 5-year total.
        Everywhere I go, mayors and police chiefs and sheriffs tell me that
    community policing is helping them to fight crime and lower the crime
    rate. And the tide is turning. Yesterday, the FBI reported that the
    murder rate has dropped 12 percent in the last year. That's the largest
    decline in the murder rate since the FBI started keeping statistics 35
    years ago. Violent crime is down 5 percent overall from last year's
    rate. We are turning the tide. We are beginning to win the fight against
    crime. This is no time to turn back the clock.
        The crime bill is working because it provides funds for police
    officers directly to police departments. Unfortunately, this bill
    replaces this initiative which is guaranteed to put 100,000 police on
    the street with a block grant that has no guarantees at all. The bill
    that is before me does not guarantee that even one more police officer
    will be put on our streets, not one.
        I gave my word in 1992 that I would work for 100,000 more police
    officers on the street. In 1994, when I signed that bill into law, it
    represented a solemn commitment by the United States Government that we
    would put 100,000 more police officers on the street. I intend to keep
    my word.
        That is not the only reason I am vetoing this bill. Looking out for
    our families and our children is essential, and to do that, we have to
    look out for our future. The dawn of the information age is no time to
    turn out the lights on our research laboratories and our technology
    centers. But the Republican budget could cut nondefense research and
    development by as much as one-third over the next 7 years.
        America thrives because we create opportunities for our children to
    create a better future. In this era of rapid technological change, we
    will only pass opportunity on to our children if we take advantage of
    American ingenuity and innovation. No business in the world today facing
    the pressures of the 21st century would gut its investment in research
    and technology, and no country should either.
        The Japanese are in the midst of a serious recession. Yet their
    government just announced plans to double the Japanese research budget
    over the next 5 years. We have the lowest combined rates of unemployment
    and inflation in 27 years, and I do not intend to preside over a
    decision by Congress to cut our investment in research and technology by
    a third.
        Look at the people who are winning the Nobel Prizes and see how many
    of them got Government-funded research. Look at the research that has
    been funded by our Government agencies over the last several years in
    new technologies, in new developments, and see the con-

    [[Page 1909]]

    tribution that is made here. America has the strongest economy in the
    world in large measure because we are leading the race to the technology
    age. And I don't believe we should drop out of the race on the edge of a
    new century.
        Of course, we have to balance the budget, but we don't need to do it
    by cutting back on police officers and risking our safety. We don't need
    to do it by slashing our research in science and technology and risking
    our future. Remember, balancing the budget is more important to our
    children than anything else. It's lifting the burden of future debt off
    our children. We don't want to impose on our children a restricted
    future by making them less safe today and less secure in terms of
    economic opportunity tomorrow.
        There is one last thing I'd like to say. Eight months ago today,
    terror visited our children in Oklahoma City. The memory of that awful
    tragedy will be with us forever. Just yesterday, law enforcement
    officers found a bomb outside a Federal office building in Reno, Nevada.
    In the weeks after Oklahoma City, I sent to the Congress a bill to give
    law enforcement the tools they need to crack down on terrorism and to
    protect our families--terrorism arising from within the United States,
    terrorism coming from beyond our borders.
        The Senate passed the bill last June with sweeping bipartisan
    support. But a few people with extreme views have prevented the House of
    Representatives from even considering the bill. They have held it up
    long enough. Here in this time of peace for our country, I ask all
    Americans to remember the victims of Oklahoma City, and I ask the
    Congress to give law enforcement the tools they need to be truly peace
    officers.
        When they send me a bill that protects our families by keeping our
    promise to put 100,000 police officers on the street, they should also
    protect our families by keeping their promise to send us a strong
    antiterrorism bill.
        Thank you.

    [At this point, the President signed the veto message.]

        Q. Mr. President, are your numbers on Medicare and Medicaid savings
    negotiable?
        The President. You know what I said yesterday; I said--I carry this
    little statement around with me. This is the agreement I made with the
    Congress when we reopened the Government. The agreement says that we
    will enact legislation to balance the budget in 7 years, protecting
    Medicare, Medicaid, education, the environment, and other things, and
    that the agreement we finally make must be scored by the Congressional
    Budget Office as bringing the budget into balance. What is not
    negotiable with me is that we must protect these things. I have proposed
    savings in Medicare and Medicaid that are considerable but that will
    protect both the integrity of the programs and the interest of the
    people who depend upon Medicare and Medicaid.
        So what I said to the Speaker and to Senator Dole yesterday was if
    they wanted me to put down a 7-year budget on the front end, I expected
    them to respond to the second part of this resolution. This is not a
    resolution about just any old 7-year budget. This 7-year budget has all
    these things that we all agreed to to protect, and Medicare and Medicaid
    are at the top of that list.
        Q. Can you protect Medicare and Medicaid with----
        Q. ----seven years protecting all these things, including the things
    the Republicans added to it?
        The President. Well, it depends on a lot of other variables. That's
    why--we were negotiating in good faith at the time they called the
    negotiations off last week, apparently because of the group in the House
    that has been controlling a lot of the decisions here for the last
    several months. We have put forward more than twice as many policy
    changes as they had in a good-faith effort to reach agreement.
        The answer to your question is, yes, we could pass a 7-year budget
    that protects Medicare and Medicaid, education and the environment, and
    that does not--and our research and technology budget--and does not
    raise taxes on working families and that has great credibility in the
    financial markets. We can do that. If that is what the Congress wants to
    do, we can do it.
        If instead the balanced budget is a cover for making war on the
    ability of the National Government to protect our common interest and to
    move us ahead, then I can't go along with that. But of course we can do
    it. And I hope that after this meeting I'm going to have in a few
    minutes, we'll be closer to doing it.
        Q. Do you expect to get an agreement to reopen the Government at
    this meeting?

    [[Page 1910]]

        The President. I don't know. That's up to the Congress. Only the
    Congress can shut the Government down, and only the Congress can reopen
    it. But they can certainly reopen it, and I hope they will, particularly
    this week. It's just wrong for the Federal employees, and even more for
    the American people, to have the Government close the week before
    Christmas. It is a decision they made, and they can undo it and I hope
    they will.
        Q. Do you share the concerns, Mr. President, of the financial
    markets that lack of a budget agreement may keep interest rates locked
    in place or even turn them around and head them back upward?
        The President. Well, let me say this. I think the action of the
    Federal Reserve today--although I don't want to comment on the merits of
    it one way or the other, but there's a general understanding that we
    have a--first of all, back in '93, we made some very tough decisions
    without any bipartisan support to bring the deficit down and to increase
    investment in technology and research and education and the environment,
    things that would grow the economy. Interest rates came down; billions
    of dollars were invested; there was a homebuilding boom; we got the
    economy going again.
        The fundamentals of this economy were sound. There is good growth.
    There is low inflation--I will say again, the lowest combined rates of
    inflation and unemployment in 27 years. And we have to continue on that
    track. I think the message ought to be to people who are concerned about
    that is that this deficit is going to keep coming down, regardless.
    There is too much determination for that. That is not what this debate
    is all about. The deficit will keep coming down, regardless. The
    leadership of both parties favors that.
        But we must have a 7-year balanced budget plan that reflects our
    other values. We are doing well in the world economy because the deficit
    is coming down and because the other things that are being done in the
    private sector are good and because the other things the Government is
    doing are good things. So we have to keep doing all the right things if
    we want to succeed. That's what the debate over the budget plan is
    about.
        If the markets are worried about whether the deficit is going to
    keep coming down, they should forget about that. The deficit is going to
    keep coming down, regardless.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:34 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House.