    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [June 23, 1998]
    [Pages 1019-1022]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education
    Reform Act of 1998 and an Exchange With Reporters
    June 23, 1998

        The President. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carlson, for your very eloquent and enlightening
    statement and for the work you do every day as a farmer, both with your
    crops and with the bison. When Dan Glickman said you have bison, I saw a
    lot of people's eyebrows go up. We've come a long way since Teddy
    Roosevelt saved the buffalo with the national park. We went from
    millions of head in the West and the high plains down to only 20 known
    head of buffalo when Teddy Roosevelt actually established that national
    preserve. Now we've got enough that we know they'll be there with folks
    like you farming, and we appreciate that.
        Thank you, Secretary Glickman, for the
    truly outstanding job you do as Secretary of Agriculture. I would like
    to thank Senators Lugar and Harkin and Congressmen Smith and
    Stenholm. And I would also like to thank
    Congressman Becerra, the head of the Hispanic
    caucus, for the work he did, and all the other Members of Congress who
    are here.
        We are joined by a number of local officials who had great interest
    in this legislation, including but I'm sure not limited to L.A. County
    Supervisor Gloria Molina, Chicago City
    Treasurer Miriam Santos, Virginia State
    Delegate Karen Darner. I would also like
    to thank all the representatives of our country's farmers and ranchers
    who are here, the religious leaders, our immigrant and antihunger
    advocates.
        This is a very good day for me personally for two reasons. First of
    all, you heard Secretary Glickman give you the official population of
    the town in which I was born. It's about 50 percent larger than it was
    when I was born there, but all my mother's people came from a little
    town called Bodcaw, which still has only 50 people in it. And I have on
    my desk upstairs a picture of my grandfather with his family in 1907.
    Just about all of them were farmers, and when they were forced to leave
    the land and come into the large city of Hope, most of them kept little
    plots of land out in the country for decades where they kept their hand
    in, and they continued to grow their crops and harvest them even when
    they could no longer themselves make a living on the land. And when I
    was a boy, it was part of the ritual of every summer that I would go out
    and help them work the land, when I wasn't in school, and in the fall
    help them to bring in everything from vegetables to watermelon. I don't
    know if watermelon is a fruit or vegetable; I think it's something in
    between.
        Also, when I was Governor, I governed a State which had a lot of
    people who didn't have

    [[Page 1020]]

    enough to eat. And I saw this remarkable coalition of people following
    the moral tradition of virtually every religion which consistently
    admonishes us to take care of the poor and the hungry. So this is a
    remarkable day and something all of you can be proud of. And those of
    you who worked on this bill know that you can be especially proud of it
    because you had some very powerful opponents of what we attempted to do.
        We are carrying on here a long and proud tradition of bipartisan
    commitment, a coalition that was first forged by Hubert Humphrey, Robert
    Dole, and George McGovern a generation ago. By standing together in that
    tradition, we have ensured that America keeps its compact with our
    farmers and ranchers and with people in need.
        We all know that our Nation's core values in many ways have their
    deepest roots in rural America, in its commitment to community and
    mutual responsibility, to strong families and individual initiative.
    Direct, trusting interaction among neighbors, so hard to find in some
    places in our country and throughout the world, still have very strong
    roots in rural towns. Every American has a stake, therefore, in making
    sure that rural America stays strong into the 21st century, not only
    because they feed us but because in many ways they feed our spirit and
    help us to forge our character as a nation.
        This bill, as has already been said, does a lot of very good things
    for America. First, it rights a wrong. When I signed the welfare reform
    bill in 1996, I said the cuts in nutritional programs were too deep and
    had nothing whatever to do with welfare reform. Last year we restored
    Medicaid and SSI benefits to 420,000 legal immigrants. Today we
    reinstate food stamp benefits to 250,000 legal immigrants, including
    seniors, persons with disabilities, and 75,000 children. In addition,
    the Hmong immigrants from Laos, who heroically fought for our Nation
    during the Vietnam war, will again receive their full food benefits,
    overdue--high time--and I appreciate the fact that they were included in
    this bill.
        None of these benefit cuts had the first thing to do with welfare
    reform. Reinstating them is the right thing to do and will have nothing
    to do with the success we've enjoyed which has brought welfare rates in
    America down to a 29-year low now.
        Beyond that, this bill extends opportunity for all Americans,
    especially for farmers and ranchers. Today I think it's worth noting
    again, as I prepare to leave for China, American agriculture is one of
    our most powerful export engines. Products from one of every three acres
    planted in America are sold abroad. As this strong growth continues in
    the new century, our farmers and ranchers will need to feed millions and
    millions of more people around the world. They will need to do their
    work in a more sustainable way to protect our water and fragile soil.
    They will need to continue improving food safety by investing in
    cutting-edge agricultural research, funding rural development, and
    bolstering crop insurance. This bill will help our farmers meet the
    needs of tomorrow's world.
        We are channeling an additional $120 million a year over the next 5
    years to vital investments in food and agriculture genome research, food
    safety and technology, human nutrition, and agricultural biotechnology.
    We're allocating $60 million a year over the next 5 years to give grants
    and loans to underserved rural communities where people must diversify
    their economy on an available, attainable scale in order to preserve the
    fabric of life there. These grants will ensure, I hope and believe, that
    more and more of our rural communities can finally share in this
    remarkable national economic prosperity that we are enjoying.
        We are also providing our farmers with peace of mind because crop
    insurance will be there for them should disaster strike. In certain
    parts of the country, farmers are hurting now. And it is clear that, in
    addition, we need to strengthen the farm safety net for the future. The
    legislation that we sign today is a very good start, but there are some
    more things I believe we should do.
        In addition to strengthening the safety net for farmers, we must
    protect our exports by passing the legislation sponsored by Senators
    Murray and Roberts and
    Representative Pomeroy to allow our farmers to
    continue to export wheat to Pakistan and India. It was never intended, I
    don't believe, to use food as a weapon in foreign policy, even in this
    extreme circumstance. And I strongly support that legislation and
    believe we have big bipartisan support for doing something about it
    immediately. And it's important that it be done immediately because of
    the necessity of getting those contracts out and making sure the
    shipments are there

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    if they're going to be there. I feel that we will be successful.
        Congress must also give the IMF the resources it needs to help to
    stabilize the economies of Asia, in part because they are huge markets
    for United States farm products.
        Finally, we must protect the many advances we're making in the bill
    I'm just about to sign. Believe it or not, the bill I'm just about to
    sign already has some provisions which are in jeopardy. There are some
    in Congress who are working to undo the progress embodied in this bill.
    The appropriations committees have taken steps to cut the funding next
    year for the research and rural development programs I just mentioned,
    limit our food safety efforts, and cut as many as 100,000 women and
    children from the WIC program at a time when our economy is doing well
    and we can clearly afford to continue these things. This bill is the
    example of how we should work together.
        Let me just mention one other issue before I sign the bill, an
    example of how the country does well when we put progress ahead of
    partisanship. In the bipartisan balanced budget agreement I was proud to
    sign into law last year, we gave Medicare patients new choices, enabled
    them to enroll in private health plans, and extended the life of the
    Medicare Trust Fund for a decade. Building on that new bipartisan law, I
    instructed our administration to implement a Patients' Bill of Rights
    for the one-third of Americans who receive Federal health care benefits.
        Beginning this week, we are putting those protections into effect.
    From now on, for example, Medicare patients will have the right to see a
    specialist in a broad range of areas. Women will have a right to see
    women's health specialists. Medicare patients will have a right to
    privacy for their medical records.
        This marks the most significant change in Medicare in three decades.
    It shows what we can do when we put progress over partisanship. That's
    why I also strongly support the bipartisan effort being launched today
    in the House of Representatives by Congressmen Dingell and Ganske to extend a Patients'
    Bill of Rights to all Americans.
        Today we mark another milestone in this kind of bipartisan
    cooperation. We've come a long way from the days when Thomas Jefferson
    thought every American should be a farmer; even the farmers are glad
    that's not true. But what he said then is still true in many ways, and I
    quote, ``The cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens,
    the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous; they are
    tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interest by the most
    lasting bonds.''
        Today we strengthen those bonds. And we strengthen those bonds to
    those whose hold on the American dream is still fragile. In so doing, we
    do our part to do what Mr. Jefferson wanted us to do, to always be about
    the business of forming a more perfect Union.
        Thank you very much.
        I would like to ask all the Members of Congress to come up here
    while we sign the bill. Come on up.

    [At this point, Members of Congress joined the President on the stage,
    and the President signed the bill.]

        The President. Thank you.

    Iraq

        Q. [Inaudible]--VX--[inaudible]--despite reports by U.N. weapons
    inspectors that they found fragments on SCUD missiles. What do you think
    this says about Iraq, and what should you do?
        The President. You asked me about the report about the U.N. weapons
    inspectors in Iraq, that there were traces of VX found in a missile
    head?
        Well, it proves that the United--let me just say, it proves that the
    United States has been accurate and correct in our insistence all along
    that we support the U.N. inspections in Iraq. And it proves that our
    decision to oppose relaxing the sanctions until all the U.N. resolutions
    have been complied with is an accurate one.
        Mr. Butler is doing his job, and we need
    to wait until we hear the report. There is a news report to this effect,
    but it just proves that--you know, our job in the world is to try to
    reduce the danger that our people and others in the world face from
    nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. And sometimes we have to do
    it even when our friends and neighbors don't think it is as important as
    we do. It is very important.
        If this report is true, it will just show that our insistence over
    these last many years on the U.N. inspection system is the right thing
    to do for the safety of America and the safety of the rest of the world.
    And we'll stay with

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    the position we've always had: Let the inspections go forward, and don't
    lift the sanctions until the resolutions are complied with.

    China's Refusal of Radio Free Asia Visas

        Q. Sir, China has refused visas to three Radio Free Asia
    journalists. What would you plan to do about that, sir?
        The President. Well, I am aware of the Chinese refusal. I think it
    is a highly objectionable decision. We will protest it. We hope they'll
    reconsider it. And it is actually rather ironic because this decision to
    deny the visa to the Radio Free Asia journalists is depriving China of
    the credit that it otherwise would have gotten for giving more visas to
    a more diverse group of journalists and allowing more different kinds of
    people in there than they've ever done before.
        And the fact that they denied the visa for the Radio Free Asia
    people will actually undercut the credit which otherwise would have come
    their way because of that.
        Thank you, very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 11 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. In his remarks, he referred to farmer Robert Carlson, president,
    North Dakota Farmers Union, who introduced the President; and Richard
    Butler, executive chairman, United Nations Special Commission. S. 1150,
    approved June 23, was assigned Public Law No. 105-185.