    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book II)]
    [July 26, 1995]
    [Pages 1144-1149]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks to the White House Community Empowerment Conference
    July 26, 1995

        Thank you very much, Mr. Vice President; to all the mayors and other
    distinguished visitors who are here; to the Members of Congress and all
    those who have worked on the empowerment zone program here in our
    administration. And I'd like to say a special word of thanks to the Vice
    President and all of his staff, and to Secretary Cisneros and Andrew
    Cuomo. They have literally worked themselves to exhaustion to make sure
    that this program is a success.
        We told you when we started this that this would not be some one-
    shot deal and there would be no followup. And I think it's fair to say
    we have kept our word. And from the looks of this crowd, you have kept
    your word. And I thank you for that.
        I also want to say a special word of thanks to Congressman Rangel
    and to the other Members of Congress here who were very active in
    passing the empowerment zone legislation as a part of the budget plan in
    1993.

    [[Page 1145]]

        I can't say how much I appreciate the work the Vice President's done
    on this community empowerment board, because it's one thing to talk
    about all this and quite another to do it. And your presence here proves
    that you also are committed to doing it.
        As I have said many times in many places, I think this country has
    two great challenges. The first is to restore the American dream of
    opportunity for all Americans and the American value of responsibility
    from all Americans. And the second is to rebuild our sense of community,
    our sense that we are working together, not at odds with one another,
    toward the same goals. The more I work at this job the more I become
    convinced that we can't achieve solutions to our economic or our social
    problems unless we do a better job of working together and reaching
    across the divides. That is, by definition, what you all had to do to be
    selected to be part of the empowerment zone program in the first place.
        In the past few weeks, I have tried to talk to the American people
    more about how we can find common ground even in very controversial
    issues. I gave a speech at Georgetown laying it out, and then I went to
    the Vice President and Mrs. Gore's Family Conference and talked about
    how we could find common ground on the controversial issue of the role
    of the media in our family lives and community lives. And as if that
    weren't controversial enough, I then went out to James Madison
    University--James Madison High School here and talked about where I
    thought our common ground was on the issue of religion in public
    education in America. And then, of course, I had the opportunity just a
    few days ago to talk at the National Archives on the important subject
    of affirmative action.
        Today, I want to say to you that I think that the empowerment zone
    concept embodies everything we have to do as Americans, everything. To
    make it work, we have to create economic opportunity, solve social
    problems, and pull people together who have been apart. It is the
    embodiment of what we want to do.
        The second point I want to make at the very beginning is, I think it
    is good for the rest of America and is a good model for the rest of
    America, because if you look at it, one of the things that troubles me
    about the debate we are having now on balancing the budget is that the
    congressional majority wants to balance the budget but admits that if
    their plan is implemented, our economy will have anemic growth for 7
    years in a row. I want to balance the budget because I think it will
    explode economic growth. I think it will lower interest rates and free
    up money and cause more people to borrow money and invest in our
    communities.
        And why do we have slow growth? Why is the cover of Business Week
    magazine, the current issue, about how wages aren't going up? Why does
    survey after survey after survey reveal when we tell the American people
    that we have lowered the deficit and provided 7 million new jobs to this
    economy, voters say, ``I don't believe you. Don't bother me with the
    facts, I don't believe you.'' Why is that? Because people think, ``Well,
    if that had happened, I would somehow feel more secure in my own life.''
        So we have to increase the rate of economic activity in America. And
    how can we do that? Well, we can do it by expanding trade, and I've
    tried to do that. But we also can do it by finding underutilized assets
    in America. That's what the empowerment zones are all about. The
    greatest residual economic asset left in the United States, the new
    economic frontier in America, are old-fashioned Americans who've been
    left behind in the rush to the 21st century. And if we can tap into
    that, then all Americans will benefit. All Americans will see increases
    in their incomes as the economy grows more rapidly.
        So this is not just a program for Baltimore or Philadelphia,
    Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, New York, the Kentucky Highlands, South
    Texas, the Mississippi Delta, you name it--Los Angeles, wherever else I
    left out that's here. I'm sorry. [Laughter] You will help everybody. If
    economic activity rises in the Philadelphia/East Camden, New Jersey
    area, it will be felt in western Pennsylvania. It will also be felt in
    the Western part of the United States. This is a very important issue.
    And if you prove that this strategy works, then other people will do it,
    and it will spread like wildfire throughout the country.
        When I talked the other day about affirmative action, I said that I
    thought we ought to mend it, not end it. I thought that it was important
    but that everybody should realize something. The people who didn't think
    they were for it should understand that if we got rid of it, it wouldn't
    solve the economic problems of America. And the people who were for it
    should

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    realize that if we keep it, it won't solve their economic problems
    either, unless we find ways to grow this economy and bring the American
    people together and deal frankly and forthrightly with our challenges.
    That's what this is all about. It's about bringing opportunity back.
        Government has got to become a real meaningful partner again for
    people in urban America and rural America who are trapped in cycles of
    poverty. I know it can be done from my own experience. I was thinking
    today as I was walking over with the Vice President, when I was
    reelected Governor of Arkansas in 1982, we had an unemployment rate that
    was 10 percent or higher in the State. In the Mississippi Delta portion
    of our State, we had several counties with over 20 percent
    unemployment--several, not just one or two.
        The first thing I did as a Governor-elect was go to a town that had
    had a Singer sewing machine plant there since the 1920's and shake hands
    with over 600 people as they walked off the job for the last time. It
    was a very sobering experience. And we tried everything we could to
    restructure our economy and to get it going.
        At length, I noticed something. After working for about 2 years, I
    noticed that in isolated pockets in the poorest part of America, the
    Mississippi Delta, there would be a town here and a town there that for
    reasons no one could explain by economic, social, or racial makeup, had
    lower unemployment rates and higher growth rates, had schools where the
    races went to school together and there was no white flight, no big
    movement toward private schools, had functioning public institutions. No
    one could explain it, so I decided I'd figure out why on my own. And the
    answer wasn't complicated. People found a way to work together in those
    counties. In those communities, people found a way to take advantage of
    the opportunities they had instead of just bellyaching about the
    problems they had.
        One of these little towns was in the middle of a county with an
    astronomical unemployment rate. And they had about a 5 percent
    unemployment rate, because every time a plant closed they sent a team of
    50 people to the State and they used our WATS lines all night long, day-
    in and day-out, until they called hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
    people to come look at their little town and put their people back to
    work.
        That simple experience was the beginning for me of this whole
    empowerment zone idea. And so we set up a process in the 11 poorest
    counties in our State to try to do what we've attempted to do here.
    Today, our State's unemployment rate is just a little above 4 percent.
    It took a long time to turn around, but it happened. And if you have the
    patience and the roots deep enough to make the commitment necessary to
    turn your communities around, you can turn America around by setting an
    example and proving this works. You can do it.
        This sort of locally driven, positive approach was not invented by
    me or anybody else. It came out of the grassroots of America. It was
    endorsed when I was a young man by Robert Kennedy when he went into the
    poorest areas of our country and when he supported what became known as
    the Bedford-Stuyvesant Corporation. Republicans have embraced it, who
    have had experience with it. I applaud Jack Kemp for his remarks in the
    last several days, saying that instead of using issues like affirmative
    action to divide us, we should be searching for ways like empowerment
    zones to fight poverty and create opportunity for all Americans. We need
    more of that kind of talk from people without regard to their political
    parties. And I applaud him for doing it.
        I was interested the other day in a comment that Speaker Gingrich
    made about affirmative action, which was encouraging to me. As you know,
    there are those who say that we should get rid of affirmative action
    because they think there's no need for it or it's inevitably biased. I
    don't agree with that. I think that we have to continue with these
    efforts, even though we have to improve them until there is no more need
    for them. But I also was encouraged, even though I didn't agree with
    what the Speaker said about affirmative action--because he said he
    didn't like it--he also admitted that just getting rid of it was no
    answer. And I thought that was hopeful. He said that he didn't want to
    end affirmative action until they found something to replace it.
        Well, I don't think we should end it until we don't need it anymore.
    But I do think we should do some more things. Discrimination is, as I
    said before, only one of the things that traps people. The general
    conditions of the economy, the terrible social problems we face, they
    take away more American dreams every

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    day. And that is something Americans share in common.
        When Mr. Gingrich said that he thought we ought to design a program
    to lend a helping hand, I say that's exactly what we're trying to do
    with the empowerment zones, with the Community Development Act, with the
    improvements for the community reinvestment program, with the community
    development financial institutions, with all the other empowerment
    initiatives of this administration. So I say, based on what Jack Kemp
    said and based on what the Speaker said, I want to invite the leaders of
    the Republican Party to join me in a comprehensive approach to solving
    these problems, because every Republican in America will be better off
    if we can revitalize our inner cities and our forgotten rural areas and
    so will every Democrat and so will every independent.
        This should not be a partisan issue. If you look at the problems
    that have plagued us, whatever our race or gender or background, urban
    or rural, north, south, east, or west, if we could address them, this
    country would have about half the problems we've got today. You know it,
    and I know it. So I hope that this conference, this gathering, and these
    hopeful comments that have been made by two different Republicans in the
    last couple of weeks means that we may have a chance to come together
    here and work together at the national level the way I see Republicans
    and Democrats working together at the city level and in the urban areas
    where these empowerment zones have prevailed because of the partnerships
    we've created. I wish we could follow your example here in Washington,
    and I'm going to do my best to get that done.
        Now, let me say that when you look at where we ought to go beyond
    affirmative action and beyond what we're doing with the empowerment
    zones, as a part of our affirmative action review, it occurred to me
    that while we shouldn't replace affirmative action, we should reform it,
    and we should also supplement it, because it was clear that no amount of
    affirmative action could create economic opportunity where there was
    none. We give everybody an equal opportunity at a shrinking pie, that's
    not a nice prospect. What we want is for everybody to have an equal
    opportunity at an expanding pie.
        And that is why I have proposed to set aside Government contracts
    for businesses that lay down roots in poor communities, to locate there
    and hire people there. I think we ought to have contracts that can bring
    money and opportunities to poor neighborhoods every day. Businesses make
    profits; employees get paychecks; workers take their paychecks home to
    their families and lift their children out of poverty, buy groceries
    from local merchants, support their local community organizations and
    stronger community police forces to make the streets safer, to make the
    schools better. Opportunities that can go to people without regard to
    their race or gender if they meet a simple condition: they live in a
    place with genuine need.
        I believe this can make a real difference to America, not to get rid
    of affirmative action but to create real opportunity for all Americans.
    And I hope you will support this. I have asked the Vice President to
    examine this challenge and to take it on, as he has so many others, and
    to come up with what I have to do to get this done, whether I have to
    send a bill to Congress or fashion an Executive order or do a
    combination of both.
        But I think this can make a real difference. And it is utterly
    consistent with the empowerment zone strategy. It emphasizes the three
    things that make the empowerment zone work: the values of family and
    work and responsibility, a sense of investment in our people and our
    opportunities, and a partnership across all the lines that too often
    divide us.
        I am very, very hopeful about that, and I believe it can reinforce
    some of the other things we're doing. If you look at this values issue,
    I think we need some values incentives that are tough. That's why we
    think that people on welfare who can work ought to be required to work.
    That's why we're trying to get the toughest possible child support
    enforcement. That's why the crime bill had tougher penalties.
        But I also think if you want to promote values, empowerment works
    there. People ought to have the incentives. That's what the Family and
    Medical Leave Act was all about. That's what child care and a welfare
    reform program is all about. That's what the crime prevention aspects of
    the crime bill were all about. And I think it's interesting to point
    out, as they're under assault today, that it was the law enforcement
    communities of America, the people in uniform and the prosecutors and
    the former prosecutors, like Mayor Rendell, who told us that we had to
    have crime prevention programs

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    and something for our children to say yes to as well as to say no to. I
    have walked the streets of Baltimore with Mayor Schmoke, who was a
    former prosecutor, and seen examples of that.
        So if we're going to promote values, let's think of empowerment as
    well as restraint. We need to do both. When we think of investment, we
    ought to think of empowerment. Head Start is an empowerment program. The
    college loan program is an empowerment program. The national service
    program is an empowerment program. The Goals 2000 program, no matter
    what the attacks on it, is the biggest piece of local incentive, local
    reform legislation for public schools passed by the Federal Congress in
    the 30 years we've been acting in the education area.
        We need to think of these things as empowerment, not Federal
    prescriptions. If you think about our community investments, the crime
    bill was about community empowerment. That's what 100,000 police
    officers does. That's what the whole community policing program is
    about.
        So I hope that you can help us to develop a language and an attitude
    and a frame of mind for discussing our common problems as a country so
    that Americans, even Americans who don't live within your jurisdiction
    and have the particular benefits of the empowerment zone, will see this
    as a way of not only solving our economic problems, dealing with our
    social problems, but empowering people and bringing them together. That
    is the issue for America at this point in our history. That is the
    issue.
        We cannot maintain the American dream if we go another 20 years when
    we are very successful by some measures. I mean, consider the last 2\1/
    2\ years. I came to this job committed to restoring the middle class,
    and I did everything I knew to do. We lowered the deficit. We increased
    investment in education, in technology, in research and development. We
    expanded trade frontiers. We have 7 million more jobs. We have a record
    number of millionaires. We have an all-time high stock market. We have
    more new businesses than ever before in the history of the country in
    each of the last 2 years. And most people are still working harder for
    lower pay than they were making the day I was sworn in as President.
        We have to change that. And the only way we can change it is if we
    realize that we have to get beyond these big ideological debates and
    roll up our sleeves and reach out to each other and create opportunity
    for everybody just like you're trying to do. And we should talk about
    all of these initiatives in terms of what it does to enable people and
    families and communities to solve their own problems and make the most
    of their own lives.
        That could be the enduring legacy of this administration and very
    much worth all the efforts that the Vice President and Secretary
    Cisneros and others have put into this and very much worth the very
    heated fight that these Members of Congress here present waged for this
    program over 2 years ago.
        So I ask you to think about all that. I want this to work in your
    community. I know you do, too. I know you will evaluate these
    empowerment zones based on whether they do bring people together and
    they create jobs and opportunity for your people. But I want you never
    to forget that you may be creating the way that we do business as
    Americans in the 21st century. And if you can do it, if you can bring
    people together across all the lines that divide them around the concept
    of commitment to opportunity for everybody, we'll be a long way down the
    road toward ensuring the viability of the American dream in the 21st
    century.
        So I ask you to think about that. And when we have these debates up
    here in Washington about what to fund and what to cut, about how to
    balance the budget--not whether to balance the budget--you ask yourself:
    Are they funding the empowerment programs where there's very little
    bureaucracy in Washington and a whole lot of things happening out in the
    country? Don't we need some more of the community development banks like
    we established in Los Angeles? Don't we need to protect a sensible
    community reinvestment act when we know that credit still does not go
    evenhandedly to all who are qualified? Don't we need to keep the Small
    Business Administration functioning when they proved they could double
    the loan output and lower their budget and increase dramatically loans
    to women and minorities without lowering their quality standards? Don't
    we need, in short, to continue on the empowerment agenda when we make
    our decisions about what to cut and what to fund?
        We need to be in a position to help you not just now, but next year
    and the year after that and the year after that, long into the future.
    So I ask you to think about that as well.

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        And again, I say this need not be a partisan issue. You have to ask
    yourself--we've been pretty successful as a country in identifying the
    things on which our security hinged and building a consensus for them. I
    mean, for 50 years we maintained a remarkable--almost 50 years--a
    remarkable bipartisan consensus that we would spend more than any other
    country in the world on maintaining a strong national defense, not only
    for ourselves but for others, so that communism would not prevail and
    there would never be an incentive to launch a nuclear war. And we fought
    like crazy about other things, but we created this umbrella that
    permitted us to grow and go forward as a country. We had a general
    national consensus created almost 50 years ago that we would be an
    engine of expanding opportunity throughout the world because that would
    help us to grow here at home and it would stabilize people throughout
    the world, to give them hope and help them promote democracy.
        So what is it that threatens our security as Americans today? The
    kids that are being lost every day on our street, the schools that
    aren't functioning, the number of the people who work hard and are never
    rewarded, rising levels of anxiety among our families. We ought to be
    able to find ways to have the kind of consensus on that reflected by the
    process that brought you here.
        So I tell you, you want to do something for your country? Make your
    empowerment zone work. And make sure everybody in America knows it and
    knows that's the way we ought to do America's business, not just where
    you live but here where the American people all have a stake in the
    future.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:23 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Edward Rendell of
    Philadelphia, PA, and Mayor Kurt Schmoke of Baltimore, MD.