    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [August 3, 1996]
    [Pages 1250-1252]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996
    August 3, 1996

        Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here today. I'm
    delighted to see you. I know that a lot of you have come from a very
    long way away, and I know that was an extreme effort. But I think in
    some ways the most extreme effort was made by the Members of Congress
    who are here because they finished an exhaustive and very productive
    week late last night, and I can't believe they're still around in
    Washington, and I want to thank them for staying: Chairman Bliley,
    Chairman Roberts, Congressmen Waxman, Bilirakis, Condit, Dooley, and
    Richardson. And I'd like to say a special word of thanks not only to
    Congressman Dingell but to Congressman Fazio, who is not here, who also
    worked on this bill, and to Senator Heflin and Senator Leahy and Senator
    Lugar and my friend Senator Pryor, who worked on this bill, who is not
    here.
        And I want to thank the Agriculture Department. Deputy Secretary
    Rominger is here and the FDA Commissioner Kessler. And I'd like

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    to thank the members of the administration, especially Carol Browner and
    Katie McGinty. I'd like to thank the Vice President, who told me that he
    held the first hearings on dealing with this issue 15 years ago in the
    Congress. This issue has been around a long time, and it's a great,
    great day. I'd also like to say that the happiest person in the
    administration today is Leon Panetta, because in his other life he is a
    walnut farmer. [Laughter] But I assure you this is not special interest
    legislation. [Laughter] There's nothing in here with a disproportionate
    impact on Italian walnut farmers from northern California--[laughter]--
    that is, to the best of my knowledge there is nothing.
        Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today in celebration, and we
    should be immensely proud of the Food Quality Protection Act that will
    revolutionize the way we protect food from harmful pesticides. It proves
    we don't have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy
    economy. It shows when we come together across party lines and do the
    right thing for the American people, we can get real results. This is
    important not only for what was done but for how it was done, and I want
    to thank everyone here who has been a part of it.
        From the day I took office I have worked hard to meet what I think
    is a fundamental promise that we should make to our people. People
    should know the food they eat and the water they drink will not make
    them sick. We strengthened and expanded the community right-to-know law,
    which requires industries to tell our citizens what substances are being
    released into the world around us. Last year we put in place strong new
    protections to ensure that seafood is safe. Last month we announced
    steps to revamp our meat and poultry inspection system for the first
    time in 90 years.
        Today we add the cornerstone to this solid foundation with the Food
    Quality Protection Act. I like to think of it as the ``peace of mind
    act'', because it'll give parents the peace of mind that comes from
    knowing that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains that they put down
    in front of their children are safe. It's long overdue. The old
    safeguards that protected our food from pesticides were written with the
    best of intentions, but they weren't up to the job. And as you can see
    from the vast array of support here across every specter of American
    life, nobody liked them very much and no one thought that they really
    worked as they were supposed to. Bad pesticides stayed on the market too
    long; good alternatives were kept out. In this new provision we deal
    with the problem of existing law, which is that there are strong
    protections against cancer but not against other health dangers. There
    is simply no uniform standard for what's safe.
        These weaknesses in the present law cause real problems for everyone
    involved in producing and distributing our food and for, most of all,
    the people who consume it, especially our children. According to the
    National Academy of Sciences, infants and young people are especially
    vulnerable to pesticides; chemicals can go a long way in a small body.
    This act puts the safety of our children first. It sets a clear,
    consistent standard for all pesticide use on all foods for all health
    risks. It sets the standard high; if a pesticide poses a danger to our
    children, it won't be in our food, period.
        The act will reform the regulatory process for pesticides so that
    new and safer substitutes will be approved faster, and this is also very
    important. The sooner they get on the markets, the sooner farmers will
    be able to use them to replace older pesticides that may pose greater
    health risks. The pesticides will be reviewed regularly using the best
    science available.
        Third, this legislation will see to it that consumers get the
    information they need. Supermarkets will be required to provide health
    information to shoppers about the pesticides used on food they're
    buying. A family ought to be able to gather for a summer dinner knowing
    that the food before them will provide nothing more than nourishment and
    joy. Americans have enough on their minds without having to worry about
    that. With this legislation, Americans will continue to know that the
    world's most bountiful food supply is also its safest.
        And as I said before, to me, almost as important as what the law
    does is how it was done. This act comes to our desk--to my desk and to
    our administration--with the support of farmers and environmentalists,
    consumer groups and agribusiness, and the medical community. After more
    than a decade of work, these groups have come together to say with this
    bill, ``We do not have to choose between a clean environment and a safe
    food supply and a strong economy. If we do it right, we can have both.''
    It comes with the unanimous backing of every Member of Congress in both
    parties. And I must say, I am gratified to see this, because I see this

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    effort to preserve the environment in a way that will permit us to grow
    the economy as an essential component of our national security in the
    21st century.
        Last year we were fighting about efforts to weaken our most basic
    safeguards for clean air, clean water, safe food. Now we see a
    bipartisan public commitment to the public health. This is an area where
    we stand on common ground. And as a people, we should continue to stand
    on common ground.
        I want to compliment the Congress for the work that was done in this
    last week, moving people from welfare to work, raising the minimum wage,
    helping small businesses, passing health care reform, making this effort
    to safeguard our food. Last night Congress passed strong legislation to
    help keep our drinking water safe. This has been a very good season of
    progress, turning away from extremism toward common ground, around
    opportunity, responsibility, and community. I am very pleased. I thank
    the Members of Congress here for their leadership. And I thank the
    American people, and especially those here represented, for making this
    day happen.
        We're going to do the bill signing now, and I want to invite the
    children who have come from around the country here to come up and the
    Members of Congress to come up for the bill signing.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. H.R. 1627, approved August 3, was assigned Public Law
    No. 104-170.