    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
    [April 12, 1997]
    [Pages 433-434]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    The President's Radio Address
    April 12, 1997

        Good morning. Today I want to talk about the toughest job any person
    can have. It's not a job you can quit, show up late for, or do just
    enough to get by. In every way, it's a lifetime commitment: It's being a
    parent.
        In our times, parenting has become an even greater challenge. The
    world moves faster, and parents rightly worry more about how to protect
    their children's health, their safety, and their future. Jobs place more
    demands on mothers and fathers. Finding a balance between home and work
    takes more effort than ever.
        Parents can use some help. And while Government doesn't raise
    children, it can sometimes give parents the tools they need to make
    their jobs easier. That's why we fought for and won the V-chip and a
    ratings system for TV, so parents can better protect their young
    children from unsuitable shows. That's why we fought to keep the tobacco
    industry from advertising their products to children and why we're
    fighting to keep streets safer and to reduce juvenile crime. All these
    help parents to do a better job with their children.
        But there is still work to be done. Parents want to do the right
    thing by their children from the very start. And giving our youngest
    children what they need to thrive from the very first days of life is
    something the First Lady has studied for a long time. In her book, ``It
    Takes a Village,'' Hillary called on our Nation to give its attention to
    new findings about the early years of children's lives that so often are
    overlooked in intellectual, social, and emotional development.
        Our administration has worked hard to better understand these early
    years. Since 1993, we've increased funding for children's research at
    the National Institutes of Health by 25 percent, or

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    $322 million, and my balanced budget plan promotes further increases in
    funding. We've expanded and improved Head Start, and we created an Early
    Head Start program for children age 3 or younger so that they could get
    the stimulation they need at those critical times.
        From our research, we know that from the very first days of life a
    child is developing emotionally and intellectually, and how he or she
    does in those first 3 years of life will help to determine how a child
    does later in school and in life. That's why we need to begin teaching
    and nurturing our children before they go to school.
        We want to sort through our research and get it to parents and to
    caregivers who work with children. So next week Hillary and I will bring
    together researchers, parents, and other experts for the White House
    Conference on Early Childhood Development and Learning: What New
    Research on the Brain Tells Us About Our Youngest Children.
        We will meet for a full day at the White House, with satellite
    hookups to 60 more sites around our Nation. This conference is an
    exciting and an enormous undertaking. It is a call to action to parents,
    to businesses, to caregivers, the media, the faith community, and the
    Government each to do their part to enhance the earliest years of life.
    It grows out of our commitment to find new ways to support parents and
    to help their children reach their God-given potential.
        As part of that commitment, I also want to call today on the Members
    of Congress to do their part to come to the aid of our families. They
    can do that very simply by passing my expansion of the Family and
    Medical Leave Act.
        This bill would allow workers up to 24 hours of unpaid leave each
    year to fulfill certain family obligations. It could allow a worker to
    attend a parent-teacher conference or to take a child to the
    pediatrician or to find quality child care or to care for an elderly
    relative.
        Families occasionally need these small pieces of time to take care
    of their own. More than 12 million American workers have taken leave for
    reasons covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act since it became the
    very first bill I signed into law in 1993. It was needed then, it's
    needed now, and we need to improve on it. So I urge Congress to act soon
    on this legislation. Don't ask people to choose, ever, between being
    good workers and good parents. We can help them to do both. Pass the
    expanded family and medical leave act.
        I believe this bill is so important that today I am asking all
    Federal departments and agencies to make expanded family and medical
    leave available to their workers immediately. Wherever possible, I want
    workers to have access right now to essential time off for family
    obligations.
        I am committed to doing all we can to support families as they
    struggle to do right by their children. We know that the very earliest
    years will decide whether children grow up to become healthy and happy
    people. That's why we're giving parents time off to care for them, why
    we should extend the family leave law so millions more parents can have
    that opportunity, and why we must focus all our science, education, and
    public efforts to give our children the very best start in life.
        Almost a century and a half ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes said a
    child's education should begin at least 100 years before he was born.
    What we do now can benefit generations of Americans to come. We can
    start with the smallest community, the family, and from there we can
    rebuild and renew the best in America by beginning with the best of
    America, our children.
        Thanks for listening.

    Note. The address was recorded at 6:55 p.m. on April 11 in the Roosevelt
    Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on April 12.