    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
    [December 20, 1996]
    [Pages 2223-2228]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks Announcing the Second Term Domestic Policy Team and an Exchange
    With Reporters
    December 20, 1996

        The President. Thank you very much. Please be seated.
        I thought the era of big Government was over, and then I saw all of
    these people here. [Laughter]
        Let me say as we move into my second term, we have the obligation to
    continue the progress we have made and to build on it to prepare America
    for the 21st century with a Government that is smaller but works hard
    not to abandon people but instead to give them the tools they need to
    make the most of their own lives and to build strong families and strong
    communities and a strong America. Today I want to announce the members
    of my domestic policy team who will make this happen.
        Today the Labor Department is more critical than ever as we work to
    make job training available to all who need it and make sure that
    employee rights are secure and our workplaces are safe. I am very sorry
    to lose the services of my old friend Secretary Reich, who has truly
    made this a Department of the American work force. But I am proud to
    nominate as Secretary of Labor one of my closest advisers, a talented
    leader, Alexis Herman, who got her start as a social worker for Catholic
    Charities on the Mississippi Delta. I first met her in the 1970's when
    she was Director of the Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor,
    pioneering efforts to give women training and economic opportunity. She
    has been a successful businesswoman and a leader in efforts to bring
    minorities into the economic mainstream. And for the past 4 years, as
    Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, she has been my
    eyes and ears, working to connect the American people, business and
    labor, individuals and communities, with their Government.
        I said throughout the campaign that we have to help parents succeed
    at home and at work and give working people the training they need to
    succeed in the new economy. For years now, I have been trying to prevail
    upon the Congress to consolidate training programs and pass the ``GI
    bill'' for America's workers. All these things we must do in the next 4
    years. As Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman will be a true national
    leader in this mission on behalf of working families.
        Let me also say that I considered a number of superbly qualified
    people for this position. I'd like to mention two in particular and
    thank them for their willingness to be considered: first, to Congressman
    Esteban Torres and second, the director of the Corporation for National
    Service, Harris Wofford, who has done a wonderful job in heading
    AmeriCorps, which has now enabled 70,000 young people to serve in their
    communities all across America and which will play a vital role in the
    next 4 years.
        Over the last 4 years Henry Cisneros led a revolution of ideas at
    the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He and his team have
    spent every day questioning old approaches and searching for new
    answers. He is my friend, my adviser, someone who has poured his heart
    into making the American dream of owning a home a reality for all
    people. Today a smaller and smarter HUD brings more hope and greater
    opportunities to American communities than ever before, not only in
    housing but in developing economic opportunities in ways that had not
    before even been imagined. I think it is not too much to say that he is
    clearly the finest HUD Secretary who has ever held the position. I will
    miss him greatly and will continue to rely upon him for his advice and
    counsel.
        I believe that the best person in this country who is today suited
    to lead HUD into the 21st century is Andrew Cuomo. He has lived and
    breathed housing and economic development for more than a decade, first
    at the grassroots as a community housing developer and then as our
    Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development.

    [[Page 2224]]

    [At this point, Housing and Urban Development Secretary-designate Andrew
    Cuomo's baby daughter Cara cried.]

        The President. Relax, this is a pro-family administration.
    [Laughter]
        He is a passionate believer in doing what's right, and he is a
    determined leader who gets it done. His test is never soft sentiments
    but hard results. The empowerment zones effort he has led so well is a
    perfect example of the new HUD. Instead of big solutions imposed by
    Washington, it creates a partnership between Government, business, and
    private citizens to help communities lift themselves up. This is Andrew
    Cuomo's vision, and it is why I expect him to be a very strong voice for
    America's cities and a great HUD Secretary.
        The Department of Energy has many missions, ranging from producing
    nuclear fuels and managing nuclear wastes to widening the frontiers of
    science at our national laboratories, to promoting energy efficiency and
    environmental technology. Hazel O'Leary has made huge strides with that
    Department and has done this while bringing unprecedented openness to
    the agency. I mention obviously the reports that the Energy Department
    has done on radiation experiments and the groundbreaking work that the
    Energy Department did to lead us to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
        To manage this diverse and sprawling operation, a Secretary of
    Energy must be an experienced leader and manager who understands the
    demands of a large Government agency, who will demand peak performance
    from Government contractors, who knows why we must reinvent Government
    and how to do it. As Secretary of Transportation, Federico Pena has
    proven himself a talented leader of a large and complex Government
    agency. He found ways to encourage new technologies, promote safety,
    protect the environment. I am happy to announce today that I will
    nominate him to be our new Secretary of Energy. He will continue to
    streamline and reinvent the Energy Department. He will build on its
    unprecedented commitment to openness. He will oversee the urgent cleanup
    of our nuclear stockpiles, and he will work with the energy industry to
    create economic opportunity by using energy in a way that does not hurt
    our environment. I am very happy that he has agreed to remain in the
    Cabinet in this new and ever-changing role and very grateful for the
    service he rendered at the Department of Transportation.
        To replace him, I am proud to nominate the Federal Highway
    Administrator, Rodney Slater. First as the chair of the State highway
    commission in our home State and then as Federal Highway Administrator,
    Rodney Slater has managed large programs with skill and high standards.
    He has rebuilt and expanded our Nation's highways and linked isolated
    communities to jobs and opportunities. He has built bridges both of
    steel and of good will to bring people closer together. When the
    Northridge earthquake struck California with such deadly force, Rodney
    led our effort to rebuild vital highways in record time. He is the right
    person to help us meet the many transportation needs and challenges we
    face as we enter the 21st century. He has been my friend and adviser for
    many years. Along with his own family, I have watched with pride as he
    has built his own road to success. I can say that he was recommended by
    more people from more places in more ways for this job than any person
    for any position I have ever seen. [Laughter] And in spite of that--
    [laughter]--I am confident that he will be a superb and successful
    Secretary of Transportation.
        Over the past 4 years, first with Erskine Bowles' leadership and
    then Phil Lader's, we have worked hard to revitalize and broaden the
    mission and increase the impact of the Small Business Administration.
    SBA has doubled the number of loans to small businesses, tripled the
    loans to women-owned businesses, even as its staff has been cut by 25
    percent. Phil Lader told me several months ago that he wanted to return
    to private life after the election. However, I have asked him to serve
    in another senior role in my administration, and he will be considering
    this over the holidays. I hope he and his family agree to accept my
    offer. I can only stand so many of these people leaving. [Laughter]
        To replace Phil Lader, I will nominate Aida Alvarez. She has been an
    award-winning journalist and investment banker. For the past 3\1/2\
    years she has been the Director of the Office of Federal Housing
    Enterprise Oversight, responsible for the safety and soundness of $1.4
    trillion in housing finance institutions. She combines business savvy
    with a dedication to public service. I have known her for many years and
    have been very proud to have her as a part of this administration. I am
    also proud that this

    [[Page 2225]]

    is the first time a person born in Puerto Rico has been appointed to a
    President's Cabinet.
        To complete our economic team, I will nominate Janet Yellen to be
    Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Since it was created by
    President Truman 50 years ago, the CEA has provided objective and
    rigorous economic advice to the President. Under Laura Tyson and then
    Joe Stiglitz, the CEA has been unflinchingly honest, and our economic
    policy has had hard work--hard-won credibility. As we work together to
    balance the budget in a way that reflects our values and will continue
    to grow our economy, the CEA's role will be more important than ever.
    Janet Yellen will provide the leadership and experience to get the job
    done. She is currently a member of the Federal Reserve Board of
    Directors. She had been a professor of economics at the University of
    California-Berkeley and at Harvard, where she taught, among others, the
    Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Larry Summers, who said that his grade
    was sufficiently high for her to be recommended for the job. [Laughter]
    She is an esteemed writer and thinker who will serve our country well.
        The Domestic Policy Council coordinates the work of our domestic
    policy agendas--agencies. It finds innovative ways to use our most
    enduring values to meet our newest challenges. Today I am proud to
    appoint Bruce Reed as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and
    Director of the Domestic Policy Council, replacing Carol Rasco about
    whom I will say more in a moment.
        Bruce is an original thinker, someone who long ago rejected the easy
    answers from any part of the political spectrum, and no one has had a
    greater impact on the thinking of the administration or the President.
    He combines a unique practical knowledge with a real, powerful concern
    for the welfare of ordinary Americans. He has been at my side from the
    day I announced my candidacy for President in 1991. He was an architect
    of welfare reform. He has been a driving force behind our efforts to
    shrink Government, expand educational opportunity, and fight crime. For
    the past year, as Assistant to the President for Policy Planning, he has
    worked to hone our goals for the next 4 years, and now he will have a
    chance to make that agenda happen. He is the intellectual core of the
    vital center. Under his leadership, the Domestic Policy Council will be
    a place where dynamic ideas are turned into actions that will make a
    difference in the lives of our people. He is a person of the highest
    integrity, a good friend, and I am proud that he will be by my side as
    we complete the work of preparing our country for the next century.
        Finally, I have prevailed upon my friend of long standing Mack
    McLarty to stay on for a second term as Counselor to the President,
    remaining as a member of the National Economic Council. In addition,
    Mack will take on new responsibilities as Special Envoy to the President
    and the Secretary of State for Latin America.
        With this new role, I expect him to deepen and broaden his portfolio
    as he helps to coordinate and strengthen our policies toward Latin
    America. He is well suited to carry out this important role because of
    his business experience and his broad understanding of the new global
    economy. His perspective was clear when he served as one of the
    principal architects of our economic strategy and played a key role in
    passing our deficit reduction plan in 1993. Throughout this
    administration he has been central to our efforts to build our
    relationships with our neighbors in our hemisphere. His leadership was
    instrumental in passing NAFTA and he led our efforts, along with Vice
    President Gore, to host the Summit of the Americas in Miami and the 1996
    Atlanta Olympics. The 1994 summit was a historic meeting and will
    require significant followup as we move forward to the second Summit of
    the Americas in Santiago. He will head the United States delegation to
    the signing of the Guatemala peace accords later this month. And this
    new assignment for Mack should underscore the importance that we in this
    administration and I personally place upon Latin America as we move
    forward.
        The other members of my domestic policy team are here with us today.
    Attorney General Reno has led our crusade to put police on our streets
    and take guns off our streets. Donna Shalala has worked tirelessly and
    well to give our people quality health care, to move millions from
    welfare to work, to care for our children and their future. Dick Riley
    has succeeded in reforming the student loan program and lowering its
    costs and making it more available to millions of people. He has
    challenged our schools to reach even higher standards. We have expanded
    educational opportunity, enhanced reform, and we will do much, much more
    of this in the next 4 years. As I said in the campaign

    [[Page 2226]]

    this year, education must now be our highest priority, and I am pleased
    that Secretary Riley will continue to lead our efforts.
        Earlier this week I announced that one of my oldest and closest
    advisers, domestic policy adviser Carol Rasco, will join the Education
    Department as Senior Adviser to the Secretary and Director of the
    America Reads Challenge. The importance of this initiative to me should
    be underscored by my asking someone this close to me to act on my
    behalf. If you will remember in the campaign, I talked a lot about the
    importance of mobilizing one million volunteer tutors all across America
    to work with parents and teachers, to make sure that by the year 2000
    every 8-year-old in this country can read independently. If every third
    grader can read independently, when 40 percent of them are not reading
    at grade level today, it will dramatically alter the future of America's
    landscape for the better.
        Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown has been a strong and
    effective voice for our veterans. He will continue to ensure that they
    have the health care and the services they deserve.
        Federal emergency management administrator James Lee Witt has
    transformed that agency into a model for disaster assistance and helped
    communities all across our country to rebuild. In community after
    community, from the Southeast to the Middle West to the West, he has
    made the term ``Federal bureaucrat'' a positive, not a negative,
    appellation.
        General Barry McCaffrey will stay on as the Director of the Office
    of National Drug Control Policy. We need his vigorous leadership, and he
    is in the process of doing something that Presidents for more than 30
    years have wanted to do but never succeeded in doing, actually
    developing a coordinated, disciplined, long-term approach to dealing
    with the drug problems and reducing drug abuse in America, particularly
    among our youth.
        Secretary Babbitt has been a wise steward for our precious natural
    resources and has helped us to solve some of the thorniest challenges
    facing America in this regard. He sent me a letter right after the
    election saying that in one way or another we have protected over 20
    million acres of America's precious land in the last 4 years, a legacy
    of conservation equaled only in the two Roosevelts' administrations, and
    I thank him for that.
        Secretary Glickman has worked to keep our food the safest and most
    plentiful in the world as we have overhauled our food safety standards
    for the first time in decades and decades. And I thank him also for
    finding ways to promote agriculture and protect the environment.
        As EPA Administrator, Carol Browner has cut redtape and curbed
    pollution. She has brought common sense back to the task of protecting
    our environment, enlisted more allies, and will lead the way in the next
    4 years to making sure we do close those hundreds of toxic waste dumps
    that keep our children from growing up next to parks, not poison.
        All these leaders have done a remarkable job. I am delighted they
    have agreed to stay in their positions. And now I'd like to ask the new
    appointees to come up and make some statements, beginning with the next
    Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman.

    [At this point, Secretary of Labor-designate Alexis Herman, Secretary of
    Housing and Urban Development-designate Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of
    Energy-designate Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation-designate
    Rodney Slater, Small Business Administrator-designate Aida Alvarez,
    Council of Economic Advisers Chair Janet Yellen, Assistant to the
    President for Domestic Policy Bruce Reed, and Special Envoy to the
    President and the Secretary of State for Latin America Thomas F. (Mack)
    McLarty each made brief remarks.]

        The President. Thank you.
        Who is first? I'll take a couple of questions. It's almost
    Christmas. [Laughter]

    White House Access

        Q. Mr. President, as you move forward into your new term, questions
    continue to be asked about the first 4 years, especially in the area of
    campaign fundraising. Last February at the request of a friend of yours
    in Little Rock and the Democratic National Committee, an arms dealer
    from China was invited to a private event with you inside your residence
    at the White House. Four months later this man's company was implicated
    in U.S. gun-smuggling. What do you remember about your contact with this
    man at this meeting? Does it concern you that he was perhaps not
    adequately screened in order to gain access to the White House? And do
    you feel in any respect that in situations like this you were taken
    advantage of?

    [[Page 2227]]

        The President. Well, first of all, I'm disappointed that it
    happened. It was clearly inappropriate. And I think what is obviously
    called for and what I have instructed to be done is to establish some
    sort of better screening provisions that are tighter to minimize this.
    Thousands of people come in and out of the larger White House office
    complex all the time, but we have to develop some way of screening them.
    I am disappointed. It was inappropriate. We must have a better screening
    system. We will have.
        I remember literally nothing about it. I'm not sure that the
    gentleman ever said anything at this coffee. I asked my staff to let me
    see the records of it when this story broke, and there were disparate
    people from different walks of life from all over the country there. And
    normally what would happen in one of those conversations is I would talk
    for 5 or 10 minutes and then we would either go around the table and let
    people say whatever they wanted to say--and as I said there were all
    different kinds of people from all different walks of life always. I'm
    not sure that--I have no recollection of meeting him. I'm not sure he
    ever said anything. And I can tell you for sure nothing inappropriate
    came from it in terms of any governmental action on my part.
        But we have to do a better job of screening people who come in and
    out of here.
        Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International], go ahead.

    Investigations

        Q. Mr. President, do you have a sense of deja vu all over again--4
    years of Whitewater, now new investigations----
        The President. No.
        Q. ----on the Hill, Justice Department?
        The President. No.
        Q. What does this bode for the next administration and how do you
    cope?
        The President. I show up for work every day. The American people
    ought to feel good about me. They spent $30 million or something, and
    there has been not a single solitary shred of evidence of any wrongdoing
    on my part. I feel good about it. I think it's unfortunate for
    democracy, and I think, as I said, this special counsel thing ought to
    be reviewed in light of what Archibald Cox and others have said, because
    the costs outweigh the benefits.
        But on the other issue, any questions that are raised about
    contributions ought to be answered and any records that are needed ought
    to be provided. That's no different than what happened in Senator Dole's
    campaign when one of his officials was charged with money laundering and
    had to plead guilty and pay the biggest fine in FEC history. That didn't
    reflect on everybody else in the campaign. Those things happen. If
    there's any question about what happened, the evidence, the information
    should be provided, and we ought to determine whether anyone did
    anything wrong.
        Q. Well, how are you coping?
        The President. That's not a--how am I coping? [Laughter] It's not a
    problem. If you haven't done anything wrong and a problem comes up, you
    fix it and you go on. I cope by thinking about the 11 million jobs we
    created and the millions more we have to create. I think about the
    millions of people that have a better deal going to college and the
    millions of more that will have. I cope by thinking about what the
    American people hired me to do and the questions they ask me when I see
    them.
        Yes, Gwen [Gwen Ifill, NBC News].

    Second Term Transition and Diversity

        Q. Mr. President, your spokesman said earlier today that you've been
    very displeased with these events of the last couple days. I wonder if
    you could characterize your displeasure? And also, 4 years ago when you
    appointed your first Cabinet, you said very much up front that you
    wanted a Cabinet that looked like America. It took some juggling and you
    weren't as public about it this time, but it looks like you've assembled
    that. Did you feel like you were under any special pressure from special
    interest groups?
        The President. No, the pressure was pressure I put on myself. I
    believe that one of my jobs at this moment in history is to demonstrate
    by the team I put together that no group of people should be excluded
    from service to our country and that all people are capable of serving.
    So I have striven to achieve both excellence and diversity. The same
    thing is true about the Federal judges I've appointed. It's the most
    diverse Federal bench of appointees in history. It also has the highest
    rating from the American Bar Association since the bar started rating
    judges.
        So I'm very proud of the first Cabinet that I appointed. I am very
    proud of this Cabinet.

    [[Page 2228]]

    I am proud that they are diverse, but I would not have appointed a
    single one of them because of their gender or their racial or ethnic
    background had I not thought that they could succeed. And if you look at
    the comparative record in department after department after department
    of the people who served in the first 4 years and compare the results
    they achieved, the work they did, I think that the evidence will
    indicate that.
        And it goes back to something you asked me. You know, what we do, we
    all show up for work every day, and we create a team and work like crazy
    for the American people. We have goals, we have objectives, we hold
    ourselves to timetables, and we keep score about what we're doing for
    other people. And if that is your focus, which is what people hire us to
    do, that's what you worry about, and that's what you do. So I feel good
    about it.
        Now, this is----

    Campaign Financing and White House Access

        Q. [Inaudible]--feel pressure----
        The President. Well, my feelings are that, in the areas where we had
    more direct control--our campaign and the legal defense fund--as far as
    I know, the proper decisions were made because the proper scrutiny was
    applied. The Democratic Party officials have already admitted that they
    did not apply the proper review, and I am very displeased about it
    because 99 percent-plus of all the contributors did not do anything
    wrong, and over 98 percent of the money appears to be perfectly in
    order, and the other 1 percent got all the publicity and, thereby,
    disserving the Democrats around the country, the people who gave, and
    everything else. That is wrong.
        And all they have to do is to institute a simple review system. Now,
    from time to time, mistakes may be made. If you have over a million
    contributors, as both parties do now, that may happen from time to time,
    but common sense and strict review are the order of the day.
        I feel the same way about this. I realize that the Secret Service
    and others are reluctant to be too burdensome with all the thousands and
    tens of thousands of people that come in the White House complex every
    year, but I'm confident that if they put their minds to it they can come
    up with a better screening procedure so that things like this don't
    happen.
        It's not a press conference. We've been here a long time. We'll have
    another press conference early next year.
        Merry Christmas. I'll see you early next year.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:32 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive
    Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Chinese businessman Wang
    Jun, chairman, Poly Technologies; and Archibald Cox, former Watergate
    special prosecutor. A portion of these remarks could not be verified
    because the tape was incomplete.