    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [June 18, 1998]
    [Pages 981-984]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Nominations of Bill Richardson To Be Secretary of
    Energy and Richard C. Holbrooke To Be United Nations Ambassador
    and an Exchange With Reporters
    June 18, 1998

        The President. Senator Bingaman and
    Congressman Becerra, ladies and gentlemen, I
    welcome you all here today as I announce my intent to nominate
    Ambassador Bill Richardson to become our Secretary of Energy, Ambassador
    Richard Holbrooke to assume the portfolio of America's Representative to
    the United Nations. I'm especially pleased that their families could
    join me and the Vice President and, as you can see, our entire national
    security team.
        Over the last 2 years, Bill Richardson's experience, energy, and
    tenacity have made a real difference in advancing our interests in the
    United Nations and around the world. With diplomatic skills honed in one
    of the most diverse congressional districts in our country, negotiating
    ability tested in some of the toughest hot spots on our planet, and a
    personal touch evidenced from his first day on the job, Bill Richardson
    has brought creativity and drive to our leadership at the U.N.
        He has served the Secretary of State and me by tackling some of the
    toughest negotiating challenges from the Congo to Zaire to Afghanistan.
    He helped to rally the international community to speak and act as one
    in the crisis in Iraq. Today, the international inspectors are back on
    the job, working to end Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons
    threat, thanks in no small measure to his efforts. He has been a
    vigorous and articulate proponent of our engagement around the world and
    the importance of leveraging that engagement by living up to our United
    Nations obligations.
        In short, if there's one word that comes to mind when I think of
    Bill Richardson, it really is ``energy.'' But that is hardly the only
    reason I am appointing him to this job. [Laughter] For 14 years
    representing New Mexico, an energy-rich State that is home to two of our
    national Department of Energy labs, and his long service as an active
    member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he has gotten
    extensive, firsthand experience in issues ranging from deregulating the
    oil and gas industries, to promoting alternative sources of energy, to
    ensuring that energy development meets tough standards of environmental
    safety. I thank him for his willingness to serve.
        Let me also say that Secretary Pena has
    left a very impressive legacy upon which to build. I appreciate his 5
    years of service to our Nation as both Secretary of Transportation and
    Secretary of Energy, where he surprised, I might say, even his greatest
    admirers with the speed with which he mastered the incredible complex
    issues of the Department and the leadership he demonstrated in
    supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, in coming out with an
    electricity deregulation plan that will save consumers $20 billion a
    year, in helping to open all kinds of opportunities for energy
    conservation

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    and a clean energy future for America. Let me also thank him as
    Secretary of Transportation for his service there in advancing mass
    transit more than at any point in recent history and for opening up our
    air commerce with 40 other nations.
        With Congress' support, Bill Richardson will do his part now to
    secure our energy future, at a time when that is inextricably bound up
    with our obligation as Americans to do our part to deal with the problem
    of climate change and our obligations as Americans to build a secure
    future for our country that allows economic growth and protection of the
    planet.
        I believe that this challenge will require the greatest energy from
    our labs, from our scientists and technology, from an Energy Department
    that can work clearly with the private sector on what plainly will be
    one of America's most important priorities for years and years to come.
        Ambassador Holbrooke, my new United Nations designate, is already a
    familiar face all around the globe. His remarkable diplomacy in Bosnia
    helped to stop the bloodshed, and at the talks in Dayton, the force of
    his determination was a key to securing peace, restoring hope, and
    saving lives. His ongoing service in the Balkan region has helped to
    keep Bosnia's peace on track through some difficult moments.
        He has helped to advance our efforts to break the stalemate in
    Cyprus, and he's worked to defuse the alarming tensions and violence
    still brewing in Kosovo. His expertise rests on an outstanding career of
    diplomatic service, from his early days as one of the youngest ever
    Assistant Secretaries of State for Asia, an area where he has continued
    to be actively involved and which is very important today. Then he
    worked as my Ambassador to Germany and as Assistant Secretary of State
    for Europe.
        His long experience in the private sector has given him a keen eye
    for the bottom line, economically and politically. He will help us to
    shape a U.N. that is leaner, more efficient, better equipped, that
    fulfills the best ideals of its founders and meets the challenges of the
    21st century.
        Ambassador Holbrooke understands, as do all the members of our
    national security team, the important role the United Nations can play
    in supporting our goals around the world, pursuing peace and security,
    promoting human rights, fighting drugs and crime, helping people lift
    themselves from poverty to dignity and prosperity. Our Nation will
    always be prepared to act alone if necessary, but joining our strength
    with our U.N. partners, we maximize our reach and magnify our
    effectiveness while sharing costs and risks.
        In a world where developments beyond our borders have dramatic
    implications within them, from rogue states seeking nuclear weapons and
    chemical and biological weapons to pollution corroding the atmosphere,
    international cooperation is clearly more important than ever. I urge
    Congress to send me legislation, therefore, without unrelated issues, to
    live up to our legacy of leadership and pay our debt to the United
    Nations.
        In closing, let me say that the Vice President and I feel very
    fortunate every day to have such a strong national security team, men
    and women of vision, of judgment, of commitment. We have worked closely
    together to make sure that our Nation remains the world's leading force
    for peace and freedom, for prosperity and security.
        The line-up I announce today maintains that exceptional standard. I
    thank all of them for their willingness to serve. I especially thank
    Ambassador Holbrooke and Ambassador Richardson for their willingness to
    take on these important new tasks.
        And now, I'd like to turn the floor over to them.

    [At this point, Secretary-designate Richardson and Ambassador Holbrooke
    thanked the President and made brief remarks.]

    Rapprochement With Iran

        Q. Mr. President, are you softening your policy toward Iran? Are you
    softening your policy toward Iran? Did you find a new rapprochement?
        The President. I agree with the remarks made yesterday by Secretary
    Albright. We talked about them
    extensively before she made her speech. What we want is a genuine
    reconciliation with Iran based on mutuality and reciprocity and a sense
    that the Iranians are prepared to move away from support of terrorism
    and distribution of dangerous weapons, opposition to the peace process.
        We appreciate the comments that were made by the President several months ago, and we are exploring what the
    future might hold. We have not changed our principles, our ideas, or

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    our objectives. We believe Iran is changing in a positive way, and we
    want to support that.
        Q. Are you contemplating a gesture, sir?
        The President. I think Secretary Albright's words should stand for themselves right now. I thought it
    was a fine speech and an important one.

    Tobacco Legislation

        Q. Mr. President, do you have any plans to resurrect tobacco,
    perhaps in the House? And how?
        The President. Well, yesterday many of the Republicans Senators whom
    I called--and I talked to 10 of them yesterday--said that they had been
    approached by Senator Lott about the prospect of
    putting some sort of special group together of 4 Republicans and 4
    Democrats and maybe having them try just in a matter of a few days to
    come up with a bill they thought would actually not only pass the Senate
    but could be written into law. And if that's a good-faith effort they're
    willing to make, that's certainly one option that I would consider.
        But I don't intend to continue--to stop fighting for this. I think
    it's obvious to everybody in the world what happened. This bill was
    voted out of the committee 19 to 1. Some of the people who voted for it
    in the Republican caucus then did not vote for it on the floor, even
    though every major amendment which was adopted to the bill was sponsored
    by a Republican Senator. And I think it's pretty clear what happened.
        They may believe that the $40 million in advertising by the tobacco
    companies changed public opinion irrevocably and permanently and
    therefore it's safe to walk away from the biggest public health
    obligation that this country has today. I don't believe that.
        But even if the politics have changed, the merits haven't. One more
    day will pass today when 3,000 more children will start to smoke even
    though it's illegal to sell them cigarettes, and 1,000 of them will have
    their lives shortened because of it. And for us to sit here and do
    nothing in the face of evidence which has been mounting during this
    debate, even in the Minnesota case, during this debate, gave the
    freshest and in some cases the most vivid documentary evidence of all
    from the tobacco companies themselves that they've known about the
    addictive qualities of nicotine for years and that they have
    deliberately marketed cigarettes to children for years, even though they
    knew it was against the law to do it, because they needed what they call
    ``replacement smokers.''
        Now, the bill is simple in its outline and clear in its objectives.
    And in terms of the complications of it, many of those were added by the
    people who now are criticizing it.
        So, on balance, I think the case is still so overwhelming that we
    ought to keep working on it, and I'm prepared--you know, I've been
    working on this for years. When we started, most people didn't think
    we'd get as far as we have, and I don't think that we intend to stop
    until we prevail. And sooner or later we will, because it's the right
    thing to do.
        Q. Sir, how will you finance this child care initiative and other
    things that were contained in that bill without ruining the budget?
        The President. We can only finance--we can finance that part of it
    which is within our own budget, and that part of it which was dedicated
    to--which would had to have been financed by the States and which was
    within a menu of things that we supported that the States could spend it
    on won't be financed unless the States get the money some other way. And
    I think that's unfortunate, because I think that would be a good
    expenditure of some of the money.
        Keep in mind, most of the Federal money was designed to be spent
    on--directly on health care--on medical research, on smoking cessation
    programs, on programs designed to deal with the consequences of the
    health problems that are directly related to smoking in this country.
    And that was, of course, a part of the Senate's decision in killing it.
        I think it's important to point out also that there were--that this
    bill is temporarily dead because of the unusual rule of the Senate that
    requires 60 percent, not 51 percent, of the Senate to pass on any bill
    other than the budget if somebody objects to it. So for all the $40
    million in spending--and as reported in the paper today, all the
    commitment to run the same ads all over again in November to protect the
    Republican Members who voted with them--they still could only muster 43
    votes. And two of those votes were people who wanted a better provision
    for the tobacco farmers and essentially supported the bill.
        So, essentially, what you've got is 41 people denying the American
    people and denying the huge majority of the United States Senate,
    including a number of Republicans, the right to

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    pass a tobacco bill and ask the House to do the same to protect our
    children. That's not a long way from success. And that means that each
    and every one of the members of the Republican caucus who voted for that
    was in a way personally responsible for the death of the bill.
        It's not all--it's dead today. It may not be dead tomorrow. And it's
    not dead over the long run because the public health need is great. I've
    never quit on anything this important in my life, and I don't intend to
    stop now. There are too many futures riding on it, and I think in the
    end we will prevail.
        Thank you.

    Note: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to President Mohammad Khatami of
    Iran.