[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book II)]
[August 2, 1996]
[Pages 1241-1243]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks Prior to a Meeting With Democratic Congressional Leaders and an 
Exchange With Reporters
August 2, 1996

    The President. I'd like to make some brief remarks and then ask 
Senator Daschle and Congressman Gephardt to speak. And then we'll be 
glad to answer a few questions.
    On this last day before Congress goes home, I wanted to invite the 
Democratic leadership down to the White House to thank them for their 
hard work and eventual successes on behalf of the working families of 
this country. The Congress is going to send me two measures that this 
caucus has worked hard on for a long time, the minimum wage bill, which 
also has

[[Page 1242]]

some important help for small businesses, incentives to invest more in 
the business and to make it easier to take out retirement plans, and of 
course, the Kennedy-Kassebaum health bill, which will help millions of 
Americans have access to health care.
    And I'd like to say a special word of thanks to Senator Kennedy who 
has worked on both these issues for years and years and who was 
absolutely superb in the debates in the Senate and he would not let 
these issues die when--[applause].
    These issues have been very key to our party, our caucus, and to me 
and my administration for a long time now. And I'm very, very happy 
about it. We're in a lot better shape than we were a year ago. We have 
basically, thanks to the American people standing up and standing with 
us, we have been able to do some positive things here, which are very, 
very important. In addition to that, we're going to have two major 
environmental legislative victories, the safe drinking water act and one 
on pesticides, which I think are very, very important.
    And I'm very pleased that we've been able to move away from some of 
the extremism of the last 2 years into a position where we can get some 
things done for the American people. So I think the American people have 
a lot to be proud of. I think the progressive, mainstream achievements 
of this caucus are some things that they can go home and be proud of in 
August. I have to say that this has been, on balance, a very good week 
for the American people.
    I must say I'm deeply disappointed that the antiterrorism package 
which had been agreed to by our caucus and our leadership and the 
leadership of the Republican Party apparently is not going to pass 
because the same folks who opposed the crime bill in '94 and the Brady 
bill are not going to permit it to pass in the House. And I am 
disappointed about that. I'm disappointed that we can't pass anything on 
the taggants yet, the explosives, because that's a big problem in 
domestic terrorist incidents. But I think we have to keep working on it 
because this problem will not go away.
    But in terms of these economic issues that are going to create more 
opportunity for the American people, I think it's a very, very happy 
day.
    And I'd like to ask Senator Daschle and Mr. Gephardt to say few 
words, and then we'll answer your questions.

[At this point, Senator Thomas A. Daschle made brief remarks, followed 
by Representative Richard A. Gephardt, who concluded by stating that the 
legislation passed by Congress was a victory for the American people.]

    The President. You bet it is.

Terrorism Legislation and the Whitewater Trials

    Q. Mr. President, would a failure to pass a terrorism bill now be a 
Democratic--a legitimate Democratic campaign issue? And would you like 
to react to the verdict yesterday in Little Rock?
    The President. Well, I believe that this ought to pass. And you 
know, I have done my best not to make this a partisan issue, this 
terrorism issue. This is a national security issue. Just as much as 
devising a defense in the cold war was a national security issue, that 
we tried to develop a bipartisan position on, dealing with terrorism, 
dealing with the proliferation of weapons, dealing with the consequences 
for freedom-loving people everywhere of all the racial and ethnic and 
religious and tribal and political hatred in the world today, these are 
the national security issues of the 21st century. And so I can tell you 
that I think it is legitimate for those of us who believe more should be 
done to continue to press for more to be done.
    But I am going to do my best to try to fashion a bipartisan majority 
in America for this. This is national security. We've always in the past 
been able to hammer out a bipartisan posture on national security, and I 
hope we can. I know the leadership of the Republican Party must be 
disappointed that they could not deliver the Members here and that their 
caucus is, I believe, out of step with what the American people want. 
But I hope we can make this a bipartisan issue because it's a security 
issue.
    As to the verdict, I'm very pleased, close to home here, that Bruce 
Lindsey was completely exonerated, as I felt certain he would be. And 
I'm happy for the people involved. And I have nothing to add to what has 
been coming out of the stories in Little Rock.

TWA Flight 800 and Terrorism

    Q. [Inaudible]--in East Moriches, New York, for the past week and a 
half--I've talked to a lot of FBI agents who work for you who are 
convinced that terrorists are responsible for that. There's a story in 
the paper today that says the United States has proof that there are

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11 terrorist training camps in Iran right now and that somebody trained 
in one of those camps was probably responsible for what happened in 
Saudi Arabia. What are you able to do without this terrorism bill to 
solve problems like that?
    The President. Well, keep in mind we've been doing quite a lot. We 
just had a meeting in--let me back up and say--let me remind you of what 
our strategy is. The first strategy is to get the other nations of the 
world to take as hard a line on terrorism as we have already taken--and 
is manifest in this Congress which did pass in a bipartisan way a 
tougher sanctions bill, for example, against Iran and Libya--and to get 
other countries to work with us. And we agree on 25 separate things that 
we would do together with the G-7 countries in that regard. And last 
year--or earlier this year, several months ago at the United Nations--
the last time I spoke to the United Nations, I asked them to adopt an 
international compact against terrorism. So we're moving on that.
    The second thing we're trying to do is to increase our capacity to 
deal with terrorist activities here at home. And we have increased our 
capacity in the last 3 years. And this Congress did pass in a bipartisan 
way an antiterrorism bill which helped us to do more. The third thing we 
have to do, because they're targeted, is to dramatically increase 
airport security. Now, in addition to that, we're taking further 
measures to increase the security of our troops overseas, as you know, 
and General Downing is going to make a report to me sometime in the next 
couple of weeks about that. And we have had success in thwarting several 
planned terrorist activities in the United States against America. So 
there are things that we can do.
    As to the TWA flight and the evidence you mentioned, I can tell you 
this. I will do what is appropriate once we know what the evidence is. 
But there are a lot of people who have a lot of opinions now. But as 
President, I have to wait until the FBI investigators and the other team 
members tell me what they believe to have happened and until we have a 
chain of established proof. You can't say, particularly when the 
consequences are as horrible as this, what you think happened in the 
absence of conclusive evidence. So I have to wait until I get that.

Employment Figures

    Q. Mr. President, what's your reaction to the jobs figures this 
morning, and do you see any inflationary consequences to them?
    The President.  Well, you know, I can't comment on the job figures 
officially until 9:30, so I'll have something to say about it later. But 
I can tell you this, there is no--there is now no substantial evidence 
of inflation pressures in this economy. The best thing about the 
recovery of the last 3 years--although a lot of us would like to see the 
growth rate a little higher--but the best thing about it is that we have 
proved that this economy, together--not just our administration--the 
American people have proved that they could create over 10 million jobs 
and that wages could actually start rising again after a decade without 
any inflation in the economy. I believe it's because of the productivity 
of the American workers and the competition of the global market working 
together.
    What I was worried about was that we wouldn't be able to get wages 
going up again even though jobs were being created. Now, wages are 
finally beginning to rise, and there's at this point no evidence that 
there's an inflationary problem. And that's a very good thing for the 
American people in terms of their household budgets and a very good 
thing for the American economy. If we can keep growing and raise wages 
and keep inflation in check, then we will have done something that we've 
not been able to do for 30 years. And that's a very, very good sign for 
the American people.

Note: The President spoke at 9:05 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Gen. Wayne A. Downing, USA (Ret.), 
Director, Downing Assessment Task Force.