    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1998, Book I)]
    [January 27, 1998]
    [Pages 112-121]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union
    January 27, 1998

        The President. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice
    President, Members of the 105th Congress,
    distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: Since the last time we met in
    this Chamber, America has lost two patriots and fine public servants.
    Though they sat on opposite sides of the aisle, Representatives Walter
    Capps and Sonny Bono
    shared a deep love for this House and an unshakable commitment to
    improving the lives of all our people. In the past few weeks, they've
    both been eulogized. Tonight I think we should begin by sending a
    message to their families and their friends that we celebrate their
    lives and give thanks for their service to our Nation.
        For 209 years, it has been the President's duty to report to you on
    the state of the Union. Because of the hard work and high purpose of the
    American people, these are good times for America. We have more than 14
    million new jobs, the lowest unemployment in 24 years, the lowest core
    inflation in 30 years; incomes are rising; and we have the highest
    homeownership in history. Crime has dropped for a record 5 years in a
    row, and the welfare rolls are at their lowest levels in 27 years. Our
    leadership in the world is unrivaled. Ladies and gentlemen, the state of
    our Union is strong.
        But with barely 700 days left in the 20th century, this is not a
    time to rest. It is a time to build, to build the America within reach,
    an America where everybody has a chance to get ahead with hard work;
    where every citizen can live in a safe community; where families are
    strong, schools are good, and all our young people can go on to college;
    an America where scientists find cures for diseases from diabetes to
    Alzheimer's to AIDS; an America where every child can stretch a hand
    across a keyboard and reach every book ever written, every painting ever
    painted, every symphony ever composed; where government provides
    opportunity and citizens honor the responsibility to give something back
    to their communities; an America which leads the world to new heights of
    peace and prosperity. This is the America we have begun to build; this
    is the America we can leave to our children if we join together to
    finish the work at hand. Let us strengthen our Nation for the 21st
    century.
        Rarely have Americans lived through so much change in so many ways
    in so short a time. Quietly, but with gathering force, the ground has
    shifted beneath our feet as we have moved into an information age, a
    global economy, a truly new world. For 5 years now, we have met the
    challenge of these changes, as Americans have at every turning point in
    our history, by renewing the very idea of America: widening

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    the circle of opportunity, deepening the meaning of our freedom, forging
    a more perfect Union.
        We shaped a new kind of Government for the information age. I thank
    the Vice President for his leadership and
    the Congress for its support in building a Government that is leaner,
    more flexible, a catalyst for new ideas, and most of all, a Government
    that gives the American people the tools they need to make the most of
    their own lives.
        We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say
    government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer. My
    fellow Americans, we have found a third way. We have the smallest
    Government in 35 years, but a more progressive one. We have a smaller
    Government, but a stronger Nation. We are moving steadily toward an even
    stronger America in the 21st century: an economy that offers
    opportunity, a society rooted in responsibility, and a nation that lives
    as a community.
        First, Americans in this Chamber and across our Nation have pursued
    a new strategy for prosperity: fiscal discipline to cut interest rates
    and spur growth; investments in education and skills, in science and
    technology and transportation, to prepare our people for the new
    economy; new markets for American products and American workers.
        When I took office, the deficit for 1998 was projected to be $357
    billion and heading higher. This year, our deficit is projected to be
    $10 billion and heading lower. For three decades, six Presidents have
    come before you to warn of the damage deficits pose to our Nation.
    Tonight I come before you to announce that the Federal deficit, once so
    incomprehensibly large that it had 11 zeros, will be, simply, zero. I
    will submit to Congress for 1999 the first balanced budget in 30 years.
    And if we hold fast to fiscal discipline, we may balance the budget this
    year--4 years ahead of schedule.
        You can all be proud of that, because turning a sea of red ink into
    black is no miracle. It is the product of hard work by the American
    people and of two visionary actions in Congress: the courageous vote in
    1993 that led to a cut in the deficit of 90 percent, and the truly
    historic bipartisan balanced budget agreement passed by this Congress.
    Here's the really good news: If we maintain our resolve, we will produce
    balanced budgets as far as the eye can see.
        We must not go back to unwise spending or untargeted tax cuts that
    risk reopening the deficit. Last year, together, we enacted targeted tax
    cuts so that the typical middle class family will now have the lowest
    tax rates in 20 years. My plan to balance the budget next year includes
    both new investments and new tax cuts targeted to the needs of working
    families, for education, for child care, for the environment.
        But whether the issue is tax cuts or spending, I ask all of you to
    meet this test: Approve only those priorities that can actually be
    accomplished without adding a dime to the deficit.
        Now, if we balance the budget for next year, it is projected that
    we'll then have a sizable surplus in the years that immediately follow.
    What should we do with this projected surplus? I have a simple four-word
    answer: Save Social Security first.
        Tonight I propose that we reserve 100 percent of the surplus--that's
    every penny of any surplus--until we have taken all the necessary
    measures to strengthen the Social Security system for the 21st century.
    Let us say to all Americans watching tonight--whether you're 70 or 50 or
    whether you just started paying into the system--Social Security will be
    there when you need it. Let us make this commitment: Social Security
    first. Let's do that together.
        I also want to say that all the American people who are watching us
    tonight should be invited to join in this discussion, in facing these
    issues squarely and forming a true consensus on how we should proceed.
    We'll start by conducting nonpartisan forums in every region of the
    country, and I hope that lawmakers of both parties will participate.
    We'll hold a White House conference on Social Security in December. And
    one year from now, I will convene the leaders of Congress to craft
    historic, bipartisan legislation to achieve a landmark for our
    generation: a Social Security system that is strong in the 21st century.
        In an economy that honors opportunity, all Americans must be able to
    reap the rewards of prosperity. Because these times are good, we can
    afford to take one simple, sensible step to help millions of workers
    struggling to provide for their families: We should raise the minimum
    wage.
        The information age is, first and foremost, an education age, in
    which education must start at birth and continue throughout a lifetime.
    Last year, from this podium, I said that education

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    has to be our highest priority. I laid out a 10-point plan to move us
    forward and urged all of us to let politics stop at the schoolhouse
    door. Since then, this Congress--across party lines--and the American
    people have responded, in the most important year for education in a
    generation, expanding public school choice, opening the way to 3,000 new
    charter schools, working to connect every classroom in the country to
    the information superhighway, committing to expand Head Start to a
    million children, launching America Reads, sending literally thousands
    of college students into our elementary schools to make sure all our 8-
    year-olds can read.
        Last year I proposed and you passed 220,000 new Pell grant
    scholarships for deserving students. Student loans, already less
    expensive and easier to repay--now you get to deduct the interest.
    Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax-free
    education IRA's. And this year, for the first 2 years of college,
    families will get a $1,500 tax credit--a HOPE scholarship that will
    cover the cost of most community college tuition. And for junior and
    senior year, graduate school, and job training, there is a lifetime
    learning credit. You did that, and you should be very proud of it.
        And because of these actions, I have something to say to every
    family listening to us tonight: Your children can go on to college. If
    you know a child from a poor family, tell her not to give up; she can go
    on to college. If you know a young couple struggling with bills, worried
    they won't be able to send their children to college, tell them not to
    give up; their children can go on to college. If you know somebody who's
    caught in a dead-end job and afraid he can't afford the classes
    necessary to get better jobs for the rest of his life, tell him not to
    give up; he can go on to college. Because of the things that have been
    done, we can make college as universal in the 21st century as high
    school is today. And my friends, that will change the face and future of
    America.
        We have opened wide the doors of the world's best system of higher
    education. Now we must make our public elementary and secondary schools
    the world's best, as well, by raising standards, raising expectations,
    and raising accountability. Thanks to the actions of this Congress last
    year, we will soon have, for the very first time, a voluntary national
    test based on national standards in fourth grade reading and eighth
    grade math. Parents have a right to know whether their children are
    mastering the basics. And every parent already knows the key: good
    teachers and small classes.
        Tonight I propose the first ever national effort to reduce class
    size in the early grades. My balanced budget will help to hire 100,000
    new teachers who've passed a State competency test. Now, with these
    teachers--listen--with these teachers, we will actually be able to
    reduce class size in the first, second, and third grades to an average
    of 18 students a class, all across America.
        If I've got the math right, more teachers teaching smaller classes
    requires more classrooms. So I also propose a school construction tax
    cut to help communities modernize or build 5,000 schools.
        We must also demand greater accountability. When we promote a child
    from grade to grade who hasn't mastered the work, we don't do that child
    any favors. It is time to end social promotion in America's schools.
    Last year, in Chicago, they made that decision--not to hold our children
    back but to lift them up. Chicago stopped social promotion and started
    mandatory summer school to help students who are behind to catch up. I
    propose to help other communities follow Chicago's lead. Let's say to
    them: Stop promoting children who don't learn, and we will give you the
    tools to make sure they do.
        I also ask this Congress to support our efforts to enlist colleges
    and universities to reach out to disadvantaged children, starting in the
    sixth grade, so that they can get the guidance and hope they need so
    they can know that they, too, will be able to go on to college.
        As we enter the 21st century, the global economy requires us to seek
    opportunity not just at home but in all the markets of the world. We
    must shape this global economy, not shrink from it. In the last 5 years,
    we have led the way in opening new markets, with 240 trade agreements
    that remove foreign barriers to products bearing the proud stamp ``Made
    in the USA.'' Today, record high exports account for fully one-third of
    our economic growth. I want to keep them going, because that's the way
    to keep America growing and to advance a safer, more stable world.
        All of you know, whatever your views are, that I think this is a
    great opportunity for America. I know there is opposition to more
    comprehensive trade agreements. I have listened

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    carefully, and I believe that the opposition is rooted in two fears:
    first, that our trading partners will have lower environmental and labor
    standards which will give them an unfair advantage in our market and do
    their own people no favors, even if there's more business; and, second,
    that if we have more trade, more of our workers will lose their jobs and
    have to start over. I think we should seek to advance worker and
    environmental standards around the world. I have made it abundantly
    clear that it should be a part of our trade agenda. But we cannot
    influence other countries' decisions if we send them a message that
    we're backing away from trade with them.
        This year I will send legislation to Congress, and ask other nations
    to join us, to fight the most intolerable labor practice of all: abusive
    child labor. We should also offer help and hope to those Americans
    temporarily left behind by the global marketplace or by the march of
    technology, which may have nothing to do with trade. That's why we have
    more than doubled funding for training dislocated workers since 1993.
    And if my new budget is adopted, we will triple funding. That's why we
    must do more, and more quickly, to help workers who lose their jobs for
    whatever reason.
        You know, we help communities in a special way when their military
    base closes; we ought to help them in the same way if their factory
    closes. Again, I ask the Congress to continue its bipartisan work to
    consolidate the tangle of training programs we have today into one
    single ``GI bill'' for workers, a simple skills grant so people can, on
    their own, move quickly to new jobs, to higher incomes, and brighter
    futures.
        We all know, in every way in life, change is not always easy, but we
    have to decide whether we're going to try to hold it back and hide from
    it or reap its benefits. And remember the big picture here: While we've
    been entering into hundreds of new trade agreements, we've been creating
    millions of new jobs.
        So this year we will forge new partnerships with Latin America,
    Asia, and Europe. And we should pass the new ``African Trade Act''; it
    has bipartisan support. I will also renew my request for the fast-track
    negotiating authority necessary to open more new markets, create more
    new jobs, which every President has had for two decades.
        You know, whether we like it or not, in ways that are mostly
    positive, the world's economies are more and more interconnected and
    interdependent. Today, an economic crisis anywhere can affect economies
    everywhere. Recent months have brought serious financial problems to
    Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and beyond.
        Now, why should Americans be concerned about this? First, these
    countries are our customers. If they sink into recession, they won't be
    able to buy the goods we'd like to sell them. Second, they're also our
    competitors. So if their currencies lose their value and go down, then
    the price of their goods will drop, flooding our market and others with
    much cheaper goods, which makes it a lot tougher for our people to
    compete. And finally, they are our strategic partners. Their stability
    bolsters our security.
        The American economy remains sound and strong, and I want to keep it
    that way. But because the turmoil in Asia will have an impact on all the
    world's economies, including ours, making that negative impact as small
    as possible is the right thing to do for America and the right thing to
    do for a safer world.
        Our policy is clear: No nation can recover if it does not reform
    itself. But when nations are willing to undertake serious economic
    reform, we should help them do it. So I call on Congress to renew
    America's commitment to the International Monetary Fund. And I think we
    should say to all the people we're trying to represent here that
    preparing for a far-off storm that may reach our shores is far wiser
    than ignoring the thunder till the clouds are just overhead.
        A strong nation rests on the rock of responsibility. A society
    rooted in responsibility must first promote the value of work, not
    welfare. We can be proud that after decades of finger-pointing and
    failure, together we ended the old welfare system. And we're now
    replacing welfare checks with paychecks.
        Last year, after a record 4-year decline in welfare rolls, I
    challenged our Nation to move 2 million more Americans off welfare by
    the year 2000. I'm pleased to report we have also met that goal, 2 full
    years ahead of schedule.
        This is a grand achievement, the sum of many acts of individual
    courage, persistence, and hope. For 13 years, Elaine Kinslow of Indianapolis, Indiana, was on and off welfare.
    Today, she's a dispatcher with a van company. She's saved enough money
    to move her family into a good neighborhood, and she's helping other
    welfare

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    recipients go to work. Elaine Kinslow and all those like her are the
    real heroes of the welfare revolution. There are millions like her all
    across America. And I'm happy she could join the First Lady tonight.
    Elaine, we're very proud of you. Please stand up. [Applause]
        We still have a lot more to do, all of us, to make welfare reform a
    success--providing child care, helping families move closer to available
    jobs, challenging more companies to join our welfare-to-work
    partnership, increasing child support collections from deadbeat parents
    who have a duty to support their own children. I also want to thank
    Congress for restoring some of the benefits to immigrants who are here
    legally and working hard, and I hope you will finish that job this year.
        We have to make it possible for all hard-working families to meet
    their most important responsibilities. Two years ago we helped guarantee
    that Americans can keep their health insurance when they change jobs.
    Last year we extended health care to up to 5 million children. This year
    I challenge Congress to take the next historic steps.
        A hundred and sixty million of our fellow citizens are in managed
    care plans. These plans save money, and they can improve care. But
    medical decisions ought to be made by medical doctors, not insurance
    company accountants. I urge this Congress to reach across the aisle and
    write into law a consumer bill of rights that says this: You have the
    right to know all your medical options, not just the cheapest. You have
    the right to choose the doctor you want for the care you need. You have
    the right to emergency room care, wherever and whenever you need it. You
    have the right to keep your medical records confidential. Traditional
    care or managed care, every American deserves quality care.
        Millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have lost their
    health insurance. Some are retired; some are laid off; some lose their
    coverage when their spouses retire. After a lifetime of work, they are
    left with nowhere to turn. So I ask the Congress, let these hard-working
    Americans buy into the Medicare system. It won't add a dime to the
    deficit, but the peace of mind it will provide will be priceless.
        Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest
    health threat that they face: an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by
    multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. I challenge Congress: Let's
    pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will improve public
    health, protect our tobacco farmers, and change the way tobacco
    companies do business forever. Let's do what it takes to bring teen
    smoking down. Let's raise the price of cigarettes by up to a dollar and
    a half a pack over the next 10 years, with penalties on the tobacco
    industry if it keeps marketing to our children. Tomorrow, like every
    day, 3,000 children will start smoking, and 1,000 will die early as a
    result. Let this Congress be remembered as the Congress that saved their
    lives.
        In the new economy, most parents work harder than ever. They face a
    constant struggle to balance their obligations to be good workers and
    their even more important obligations to be good parents. The Family and
    Medical Leave Act was the very first bill I was privileged to sign into
    law as President in 1993. Since then, about 15 million people have taken
    advantage of it, and I've met a lot of them all across this country. I
    ask you to extend that law to cover 10 million more workers and to give
    parents time off when they have to go see their children's teachers or
    take them to the doctor.
        Child care is the next frontier we must face to enable people to
    succeed at home and at work. Last year I cohosted the very first White
    House Conference on Child Care with one of our foremost experts,
    America's First Lady. From all corners of America, we heard the same
    message, without regard to region or income or political affiliation:
    We've got to raise the quality of child care. We've got to make it
    safer. We've got to make it more affordable.
        So here's my plan: Help families to pay for child care for a million
    more children; scholarships and background checks for child care
    workers, and a new emphasis on early learning; tax credits for
    businesses that provide child care for their employees; and a larger
    child care tax credit for working families. Now, if you pass my plan,
    what this means is that a family of four with an income of $35,000 and
    high child care costs will no longer pay a single penny of Federal
    income tax.
        I think this is such a big issue with me because of my own personal
    experience. I have often wondered how my mother, when she was a young
    widow, would have been able to go away to school and get an education
    and come back and support me if my grandparents hadn't been able to take
    care of me. She and I were

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    really very lucky. How many other families have never had that same
    opportunity? The truth is, we don't know the answer to that question.
    But we do know what the answer should be: Not a single American family
    should ever have to choose between the job they need and the child they
    love.
        A society rooted in responsibility must provide safe streets, safe
    schools, and safe neighborhoods. We pursued a strategy of more police,
    tougher punishment, smarter prevention, with crimefighting partnerships
    with local law enforcement and citizen groups, where the rubber hits the
    road. I can report to you tonight that it's working. Violent crime is
    down; robbery is down; assault is down; burglary is down--for 5 years in
    a row, all across America. We need to finish the job of putting 100,000
    more police on our streets.
        Again, I ask Congress to pass a juvenile crime bill that provides
    more prosecutors and probation officers, to crack down on gangs and guns
    and drugs, and bar violent juveniles from buying guns for life. And I
    ask you to dramatically expand our support for after-school programs. I
    think every American should know that most juvenile crime is committed
    between the hours of 3 in the afternoon and 8 at night. We can keep so
    many of our children out of trouble in the first place if we give them
    someplace to go other than the streets, and we ought to do it.
        Drug use is on the decline. I thank General McCaffrey for his leadership, and I thank this Congress for
    passing the largest antidrug budget in history. Now I ask you to join me
    in a groundbreaking effort to hire 1,000 new Border Patrol agents and to
    deploy the most sophisticated available new technologies to help close
    the door on drugs at our borders.
        Police, prosecutors, and prevention programs, as good as they are,
    they can't work if our court system doesn't work. Today, there are large
    numbers of vacancies in our Federal courts. Here is what the Chief
    Justice of the United States wrote:
    ``Judicial vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely
    without eroding the quality of justice.'' I simply ask the United States
    Senate to heed this plea and vote on the highly qualified judicial
    nominees before you, up or down.
        We must exercise responsibility not just at home but around the
    world. On the eve of a new century, we have the power and the duty to
    build a new era of peace and security. But make no mistake about it;
    today's possibilities are not tomorrow's guarantees. America must stand
    against the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism. We must combat an
    unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international criminals, and
    drug traffickers. These 21st century predators feed on technology and
    the free flow of information and ideas and people. And they will be all
    the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall into their hands.
        To meet these challenges, we are helping to write international
    rules of the road for the 21st century, protecting those who join the
    family of nations and isolating those who do not. Within days, I will
    ask the Senate for its advice and consent to make Hungary, Poland, and
    the Czech Republic the newest members of NATO. For 50 years, NATO
    contained communism and kept America and Europe secure. Now, these three
    formerly Communist countries have said yes to democracy. I ask the
    Senate to say yes to them, our new allies. By taking in new members and
    working closely with new partners, including Russia and Ukraine, NATO
    can help to assure that Europe is a stronghold for peace in the 21st
    century.
        Next, I will ask Congress to continue its support of our troops and
    their mission in Bosnia. This Christmas, Hillary and I traveled to
    Sarajevo with Senator and Mrs. Dole and a bipartisan congressional delegation. We saw
    children playing in the streets, where 2 years ago they were hiding from
    snipers and shells. The shops are filled with food; the cafes were alive
    with conversation. The progress there is unmistakable, but it is not yet
    irreversible. To take firm root, Bosnia's fragile peace still needs the
    support of American and allied troops when the current NATO mission ends
    in June. I think Senator Dole actually said it best. He said, ``This is
    like being ahead in the fourth quarter of a football game. Now is not
    the time to walk off the field and forfeit the victory.''
        I wish all of you could have seen our troops in Tuzla. They're very
    proud of what they're doing in Bosnia, and we're all very proud of them.
    One of those brave soldiers is sitting with the First Lady tonight: Army
    Sergeant Michael Tolbert. His father was a
    decorated Vietnam vet. After college in Colorado, he joined the Army.
    Last year he led an infantry unit that stopped a mob of extremists from
    taking over a radio station that is a voice of democracy

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    and tolerance in Bosnia. Thank you very much, Sergeant, for what you
    represent. Please stand up. [Applause]
        In Bosnia and around the world, our men and women in uniform always
    do their mission well. Our mission must be to keep them well-trained and
    ready, to improve their quality of life, and to provide the 21st century
    weapons they need to defeat any enemy.
        I ask Congress to join me in pursuing an ambitious agenda to reduce
    the serious threat of weapons of mass destruction. This year, four
    decades after it was first proposed by President Eisenhower, a
    comprehensive nuclear test ban is within reach. By ending nuclear
    testing, we can help to prevent the development of new and more
    dangerous weapons and make it more difficult for non-nuclear states to
    build them. I'm pleased to announce that four former Chairmen of the
    Joint Chiefs of Staff--Generals John Shalikashvili, Colin Powell, and David
    Jones and Admiral William Crowe--have endorsed this treaty. And I ask the
    Senate to approve it this year.
        Together, we must confront the new hazards of chemical and
    biological weapons and the outlaw states, terrorists, and organized
    criminals seeking to acquire them. Saddam Hussein has spent the better part of this decade and much of
    his nation's wealth not on providing for the Iraqi people but on
    developing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to
    deliver them. The United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly
    remarkable job finding and destroying more of Iraq's arsenal than was
    destroyed during the entire Gulf war. Now Saddam Hussein wants to stop
    them from completing their mission.
        I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and
    Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein,
    ``You cannot defy the will of the world,'' and when I say to him, ``You
    have used weapons of mass destruction before. We are determined to deny
    you the capacity to use them again.''
        Last year the Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention to
    protect our soldiers and citizens from poison gas. Now we must act to
    prevent the use of disease as a weapon of war and terror. The Biological
    Weapons Convention has been in effect for 23 years now. The rules are
    good, but the enforcement is weak. We must strengthen it with a new
    international inspection system to detect and deter cheating.
        In the months ahead, I will pursue our security strategy with old
    allies in Asia and Europe and new partners from Africa to India and
    Pakistan, from South America to China. And from Belfast to Korea to the
    Middle East, America will continue to stand with those who stand for
    peace.
        Finally, it's long past time to make good on our debt to the United
    Nations. More and more, we are working with other nations to achieve
    common goals. If we want America to lead, we've got to set a good
    example. As we see so clearly in Bosnia, allies who share our goals can
    also share our burdens. In this new era, our freedom and independence
    are actually enriched, not weakened, by our increasing interdependence
    with other nations. But we have to do our part.
        Our Founders set America on a permanent course toward a more perfect
    Union. To all of you I say, it is a journey we can only make together,
    living as one community. First, we have to continue to reform our
    Government, the instrument of our national community. Everyone knows
    elections have become too expensive, fueling a fundraising arms race.
    This year, by March 6th, at long last the Senate will actually vote on
    bipartisan campaign finance reform proposed by Senators McCain and Feingold. Let's be
    clear: A vote against McCain-Feingold is a vote for soft money and for
    the status quo. I ask you to strengthen our democracy and pass campaign
    finance reform this year.
        At least equally important, we have to address the real reason for
    the explosion in campaign costs: the high cost of media advertising.

    [At this point, audience members responded.]

        The President. To the folks watching at home, those were the groans
    of pain in the audience. [Laughter] I will formally request that the
    Federal Communications Commission act to provide free or reduced-cost
    television time for candidates who observe spending limits voluntarily.
    The airwaves are a public trust, and broadcasters also have to help us
    in this effort to strengthen our democracy.
        Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, we've reduced the Federal payroll by 300,000 workers, cut
    16,000 pages of regulation, eliminated hundreds of programs, and
    improved the operations of virtually every Government agency. But we can
    do more. Like every taxpayer, I'm outraged by the reports of abuses by
    the IRS.

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    We need some changes there: new citizen advocacy panels, a stronger
    taxpayer advocate, phone lines open 24 hours a day, relief for innocent
    taxpayers. Last year, by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, the House of
    Representatives passed sweeping IRS reforms. This bill must not now
    languish in the Senate. Tonight I ask the Senate: Follow the House; pass
    the bipartisan package as your first order of business.
        I hope to goodness before I finish I can think of something to say
    ``follow the Senate'' on, so I'll be out of trouble. [Laughter]
        A nation that lives as a community must value all its communities.
    For the past 5 years, we have worked to bring the spark of private
    enterprise to inner city and poor rural areas, with community
    development banks, more commercial loans in the poor neighborhoods,
    cleanup of polluted sites for development. Under the continued
    leadership of the Vice President, we
    propose to triple the number of empowerment zones to give business
    incentives to invest in those areas. We should also give poor families
    more help to move into homes of their own, and we should use tax cuts to
    spur the construction of more low-income housing.
        Last year, this Congress took strong action to help the District of
    Columbia. Let us renew our resolve to make our Capital City a great city
    for all who live and visit here. Our cities are the vibrant hubs of
    great metropolitan areas. They are still the gateways for new immigrants
    from every continent, who come here to work for their own American
    dreams. Let's keep our cities going strong into the 21st century;
    they're a very important part of our future.
        Our communities are only as healthy as the air our children breathe,
    the water they drink, the Earth they will inherit. Last year we put in
    place the toughest-ever controls on smog and soot. We moved to protect
    Yellowstone, the Everglades, Lake Tahoe. We expanded every community's
    right to know about the toxins that threaten their children. Just
    yesterday, our food safety plan took effect, using new science to
    protect consumers from dangers like E. coli and salmonella.
        Tonight I ask you to join me in launching a new clean water
    initiative, a far-reaching effort to clean our rivers, our lakes, and
    our coastal waters for our children.
        Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide
    problem of climate change, global warming, the gathering crisis that
    requires worldwide action. The vast majority of scientists have
    concluded unequivocally that if we don't reduce the emission of
    greenhouse gases, at some point in the next century, we'll disrupt our
    climate and put our children and grandchildren at risk. This past
    December, America led the world to reach a historic agreement committing
    our Nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through market forces, new
    technologies, energy efficiency. We have it in our power to act right
    here, right now. I propose $6 billion in tax cuts and research and
    development to encourage innovation, renewable energy, fuel-efficient
    cars, energy-efficient homes.
        Every time we have acted to heal our environment, pessimists have
    told us it would hurt the economy. Well, today, our economy is the
    strongest in a generation, and our environment is the cleanest in a
    generation. We have always found a way to clean the environment and grow
    the economy at the same time. And when it comes to global warming, we'll
    do it again.
        Finally, community means living by the defining American value, the
    ideal heard 'round the world, that we are all created equal. Throughout
    our history, we haven't always honored that ideal and we've never fully
    lived up to it. Often it's easier to believe that our differences matter
    more than what we have in common. It may be easier, but it's wrong.
        What we have to do in our day and generation to make sure that
    America becomes truly one nation--what do we have to do? We're becoming
    more and more and more diverse. Do you believe we can become one nation?
    The answer cannot be to dwell on our differences but to build on our
    shared values. We all cherish family and faith, freedom and
    responsibility. We all want our children to grow up in a world where
    their talents are matched by their opportunities.
        I've launched this national initiative on race to help us recognize
    our common interests and to bridge the opportunity gaps that are keeping
    us from becoming one America. Let us begin by recognizing what we still
    must overcome. Discrimination against any American is un-American. We
    must vigorously enforce the laws that make it illegal. I ask your help
    to end the backlog at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sixty
    thousand of our fellow citizens are waiting in line for justice, and we
    should act now to end their wait.
        We also should recognize that the greatest progress we can make
    toward building one

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    America lies in the progress we make for all Americans, without regard
    to race. When we open the doors of college to all Americans, when we rid
    all our streets of crime, when there are jobs available to people from
    all our neighborhoods, when we make sure all parents have the child care
    they need, we're helping to build one nation.
        We, in this Chamber and in this Government, must do all we can to
    address the continuing American challenge to build one America. But
    we'll only move forward if all our fellow citizens, including every one
    of you at home watching tonight, is also committed to this cause. We
    must work together, learn together, live together, serve together. On
    the forge of common enterprise, Americans of all backgrounds can hammer
    out a common identity. We see it today in the United States military, in
    the Peace Corps, in AmeriCorps. Wherever people of all races and
    backgrounds come together in a shared endeavor and get a fair chance, we
    do just fine. With shared values and meaningful opportunities and honest
    communication and citizen service, we can unite a diverse people in
    freedom and mutual respect. We are many; we must be one.
        In that spirit, let us lift our eyes to the new millennium. How will
    we mark that passage? It just happens once every 1,000 years. This year
    Hillary and I launched the White House Millennium Program to promote
    America's creativity and innovation, and to preserve our heritage and
    culture into the 21st century. Our culture lives in every community, and
    every community has places of historic value that tell our stories as
    Americans. We should protect them. I am proposing a public-private
    partnership to advance our arts and humanities and to celebrate the
    millennium by saving American's treasures, great and small.
        And while we honor the past, let us imagine the future. Now, think
    about this: The entire store of human knowledge now doubles every 5
    years. In the 1980's, scientists identified the gene causing cystic
    fibrosis; it took 9 years. Last year scientists located the gene that
    causes Parkinson's disease in only 9 days. Within a decade, ``gene
    chips'' will offer a roadmap for prevention of illnesses throughout a
    lifetime. Soon we'll be able to carry all the phone calls on Mother's
    Day on a single strand of fiber the width of a human hair. A child born
    in 1998 may well live to see the 22d century.
        Tonight, as part of our gift to the millennium, I propose a 21st
    century research fund for path-breaking scientific inquiry, the largest
    funding increase in history for the National Institutes of Health, the
    National Science Foundation, the National Cancer Institute. We have
    already discovered genes for breast cancer and diabetes. I ask you to
    support this initiative so ours will be the generation that finally wins
    the war against cancer and begins a revolution in our fight against all
    deadly diseases.
        As important as all this scientific progress is, we must continue to
    see that science serves humanity, not the other way around. We must
    prevent the misuse of genetic tests to discriminate against any
    American. And we must ratify the ethical consensus of the scientific and
    religious communities and ban the cloning of human beings.
        We should enable all the world's people to explore the far reaches
    of cyberspace. Think of this: The first time I made a State of the Union
    speech to you, only a handful of physicists used the World Wide Web--
    literally, just a handful of people. Now, in schools, in libraries,
    homes, and businesses, millions and millions of Americans surf the Net
    every day. We must give parents the tools they need to help protect
    their children from inappropriate material on the Internet, but we also
    must make sure that we protect the exploding global commercial potential
    of the Internet. We can do the kinds of things that we need to do and
    still protect our kids. For one thing, I ask Congress to step up support
    for building the next generation Internet. It's getting kind of clogged,
    you know, and the next generation Internet will operate at speeds up to
    1,000 times faster than today.
        Even as we explore this inner space in the new millennium, we're
    going to open new frontiers in outer space. Throughout all history,
    humankind has had only one place to call home, our planet, Earth.
    Beginning this year, 1998, men and women from 16 countries will build a
    foothold in the heavens, the international space station. With its vast
    expanses, scientists and engineers will actually set sail on an
    uncharted sea of limitless mystery and unlimited potential.
        And this October, a true American hero, a veteran pilot of 149
    combat missions and one 5-hour space flight that changed the world, will
    return to the heavens. Godspeed, John Glenn.

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    [Applause] John, you will carry with you America's hopes. And on your
    uniform, once again, you will carry America's flag, marking the unbroken
    connection between the deeds of America's past and the daring of
    America's future.
        Nearly 200 years ago, a tattered flag, its broad stripes and bright
    stars still gleaming through the smoke of a fierce battle, moved Francis
    Scott Key to scribble a few words on the back of an envelope, the words
    that became our national anthem. Today, that Star-Spangled Banner, along
    with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of
    Rights, are on display just a short walk from here. They are America's
    treasures, and we must also save them for the ages.
        I ask all Americans to support our project to restore all our
    treasures so that the generations of the 21st century can see for
    themselves the images and the words that are the old and continuing
    glory of America, an America that has continued to rise through every
    age, against every challenge, a people of great works and greater
    possibilities, who have always, always found the wisdom and strength to
    come together as one nation to widen the circle of opportunity, to
    deepen the meaning of our freedom, to form that more perfect Union. Let
    that be our gift to the 21st century.
        God bless you, and God bless the United States.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:12 p.m. in the House Chamber of the
    Capitol. In his remarks, he referred to former Senator Bob Dole and his
    wife, Elizabeth; and President Saddam Hussein of Iraq.