    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
    [January 19, 1999]
    [Pages 62-71]
    [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 19, 1999

        Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow
    Americans: Tonight I have the honor of reporting to you on the State of
    the Union.
        Let me begin by saluting the new Speaker of the House and thanking him especially tonight for extending an
    invitation to two guests sitting in the gallery with Mrs.
    Hastert: Lyn Gibson and Wenling Chestnut are
    the widows of the two brave Capitol Hill police officers who gave their
    lives to defend freedom's house.
        Mr. Speaker, at your swearing-in, you
    asked us all to work together in a spirit of civility and
    bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly that.
        Tonight I stand before you to report that America has created the
    longest peacetime economic expansion in our history with nearly 18
    million new jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation,
    the highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare rolls in 30
    years, and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.
        For the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. From a
    deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last
    year. And now we are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25
    years.
        Thanks to the pioneering leadership of all of you, we have the
    lowest violent crime rate in a quarter century and the cleanest
    environment in a quarter century. America is a strong force for peace
    from Northern Ireland to Bosnia to the Middle East.
        Thanks to the leadership of Vice President Gore, we have a Government for the information age, once again,
    a Government that is a progressive instrument of the common good--rooted
    in our oldest values of opportunity, responsibility, and community;
    devoted to fiscal responsibility; determined to give our people the
    tools they need to make the most of their own lives in the 21st
    century--a 21st century Government for 21st century America.
        My fellow Americans, I stand before you tonight to report that the
    state of our Union is strong.
        Now, America is working again. The promise of our future is
    limitless. But we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our
    prosperity to lull us into complacency. How we fare as a nation far into
    the 21st century depends upon what we do as a nation today. So with our
    budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our confidence rising,
    now is the moment for this generation to meet our historic
    responsibility to the 21st century.
        Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed opportunity to address
    a remarkable new challenge, the aging of America. With the number of
    elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the baby boom will become a
    senior boom. So

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    first, and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st century.
        Early in this century, being old meant being poor. When President
    Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote to thank him for
    eliminating what one woman called ``the stark terror of penniless,
    helpless old age.'' Even today, without Social Security, half our
    Nation's elderly would be forced into poverty.
        Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013, payroll taxes will no
    longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments. By 2032, the Trust Fund
    will be exhausted and Social Security will be unable to pay the full
    benefits older Americans have been promised.
        The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not
    to make drastic cuts in benefits, not to raise payroll tax rates, not to
    drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it. Instead,
    I propose that we make the historic decision to invest the surplus to
    save Social Security.
        Specifically, I propose that we commit 60 percent of the budget
    surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small
    portion in the private sector, just as any private or State Government
    pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social
    Security sound for 55 years.
        But we must aim higher. We should put Social Security on a sound
    footing for the next 75 years. We should reduce poverty among elderly
    women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as our other seniors.
    And we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security
    can earn.
        Now, these changes will require difficult but fully achievable
    choices, over and above the dedication of the surplus. They must be made
    on a bipartisan basis. They should be made this year. So let me say to
    you tonight, I reach out my hand to all of you in both Houses, in both
    parties, and ask that we join together in saying to the American people:
    We will save Social Security now.
        Now, last year we wisely reserved all of the surplus until we knew
    what it would take to save Social Security. Again, I say, we shouldn't
    spend any of it, not any of it, until after Social Security is truly
    saved. First things first.
        Second, once we have saved Social Security, we must fulfill our
    obligation to save and improve Medicare. Already, we have extended the
    life of the Medicare Trust Fund by 10 years, but we should extend it for
    at least another decade. Tonight I propose that we use one out of every
    $6 in the surplus for the next 15 years to guarantee the soundness of
    Medicare until the year 2020.
        But again, we should aim higher. We must be willing to work in a
    bipartisan way and look at new ideas, including the upcoming report of
    the bipartisan Medicare Commission. If we work together, we can secure
    Medicare for the next two decades and cover the greatest growing need of
    seniors, affordable prescription drugs.
        Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job,
    to save, to invest, to create wealth. From its beginning, Americans have
    supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings. Yet
    today, millions of people retire with little to live on other than
    Social Security. Americans living longer than ever simply must save more
    than ever.
        Therefore, in addition to saving Social Security and Medicare, I
    propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st
    century. I propose that we use a little over 11 percent of the surplus
    to establish universal savings accounts--USA accounts--to give all
    Americans the means to save. With these new accounts, Americans can
    invest as they choose and receive funds to match a portion of their
    savings, with extra help for those least able to save. USA accounts will
    help all Americans to share in our Nation's wealth and to enjoy a more
    secure retirement. I ask you to support them.
        Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. I propose a tax credit of
    $1,000 for the aged, ailing or disabled, and the families who care for
    them. Long-term care will become a bigger and bigger challenge with the
    aging of America, and we must do more to help our families deal with it.
        I was born in 1946, the first year of the baby boom. I can tell you
    that one of the greatest concerns of our generation is our absolute
    determination not to let our growing old place an intolerable burden on
    our children and their ability to raise our grandchildren. Our economic
    success and our fiscal discipline now give us an opportunity to lift
    that burden from their shoulders, and we should take it.
        Saving Social Security, Medicare, creating USA accounts, this is the
    right way to use the surplus. If we do so--if we do so--we will still
    have resources to meet critical needs in education and defense. And I
    want to point out

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    that this proposal is fiscally sound. Listen to this: If we set aside 60
    percent of the surplus for Social Security and 16 percent for Medicare,
    over the next 15 years, that saving will achieve the lowest level of
    publicly held debt since right before World War I, in 1917.
        So with these four measures--saving Social Security, strengthening
    Medicare, establishing the USA accounts, supporting long-term care--we
    can begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to establish
    true security for 21st century seniors.
        Now, there are more children from more diverse backgrounds in our
    public schools than at any time in our history. Their education must
    provide the knowledge and nurture the creativity that will allow our
    entire Nation to thrive in the new economy.
        Today we can say something we couldn't say 6 years ago: With tax
    credits and more affordable student loans, with more work-study grants
    and more Pell grants, with education IRA's and the new HOPE scholarship
    tax cut that more than 5 million Americans will receive this year, we
    have finally opened the doors of college to all Americans.
        With our support, nearly every State has set higher academic
    standards for public schools, and a voluntary national test is being
    developed to measure the progress of our students. With over $1 billion
    in discounts available this year, we are well on our way to our goal of
    connecting every classroom and library to the Internet.
        Last fall, you passed our proposal to start hiring 100,000 new
    teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. Now I ask you to
    finish the job.
        You know, our children are doing better. SAT scores are up; math
    scores have risen in nearly all grades. But there's a problem. While our
    fourth graders outperform their peers in other countries in math and
    science, our eighth graders are around average, and our twelfth graders
    rank near the bottom. We must do better. Now, each year the National
    Government invests more than $15 billion in our public schools. I
    believe we must change the way we invest that money, to support what
    works and to stop supporting what does not work.
        First, later this year, I will send to Congress a plan that, for the
    first time, holds States and school districts accountable for progress
    and rewards them for results. My ``Education Accountability Act'' will
    require every school district receiving Federal help to take the
    following five steps.
        First, all schools must end social promotion. No child should
    graduate from high school with a diploma he or she can't read. We do our
    children no favors when we allow them to pass from grade to grade
    without mastering the material. But we can't just hold students back
    because the system fails them. So my balanced budget triples the funding
    for summer school and after-school programs, to keep a million children
    learning.
        Now, if you doubt this will work, just look at Chicago, which ended
    social promotion and made summer school mandatory for those who don't
    master the basics. Math and reading scores are up 3 years running, with
    some of the biggest gains in some of the poorest neighborhoods. It will
    work, and we should do it.
        Second, all States and school districts must turn around their worst
    performing schools or shut them down. That's the policy established in
    North Carolina by Governor Jim Hunt.
    North Carolina made the biggest gains in test scores in the Nation last
    year. Our budget includes $200 million to help States turn around their
    own failing schools.
        Third, all States and school districts must be held responsible for
    the quality of their teachers. The great majority of our teachers do a
    fine job. But in too many schools, teachers don't have college majors or
    even minors in the subjects they teach. New teachers should be required
    to pass performance exams, and all teachers should know the subjects
    they're teaching. This year's balanced budget contains resources to help
    them reach higher standards.
        And to attract talented young teachers to the toughest assignments,
    I recommend a sixfold increase in our program for college scholarships
    for students who commit to teach in the inner cities and isolated rural
    areas and in Indian communities. Let us bring excellence to every part
    of America.
        Fourth, we must empower parents with more information and more
    choices. In too many communities, it's easier to get information on the
    quality of the local restaurants than on the quality of the local
    schools. Every school district should issue report cards on every
    school. And parents should be given more choices in selecting their
    public school. When I became President, there was just one independent
    public

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    charter school in all America. With our support, on a bipartisan basis,
    today there are 1,100. My budget assures that early in the next century,
    there will be 3,000.
        Fifth, to assure that our classrooms are truly places of learning
    and to respond to what teachers have been asking us to do for years, we
    should say that all States and school districts must both adopt and
    implement sensible discipline policies.
        Now, let's do one more thing for our children. Today, too many
    schools are so old they're falling apart, or so over-crowded students
    are learning in trailers. Last fall, Congress missed the opportunity to
    change that. This year, with 53 million children in our schools,
    Congress must not miss that opportunity again. I ask you to help our
    communities build or modernize 5,000 schools.
        If we do these things--end social promotion; turn around failing
    schools; build modern ones; support qualified teachers; promote
    innovation, competition and discipline--then we will begin to meet our
    generation's historic responsibility to create 21st century schools.
        Now, we also have to do more to support the millions of parents who
    give their all every day at home and at work. The most basic tool of all
    is a decent income. So let's raise the minimum wage by a dollar an hour
    over the next 2 years. And let's make sure that women and men get equal
    pay for equal work by strengthening enforcement of equal pay laws.
    [Applause] That was encouraging, you know. [Laughter] There was more
    balance on the seesaw. I like that. Let's give them a hand. That's
    great. [Applause]
        Working parents also need quality child care. So again this year, I
    ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for
    working families, for improved safety and quality, for expanded after-
    school programs. And our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-
    at-home parents, too. They need support, as well.
        Parents should never have to worry about choosing between their
    children and their work. Now, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the very
    first bill I signed into law, has now, since 1993, helped millions and
    millions of Americans to care for a newborn baby or an ailing relative
    without risking their jobs. I think it's time, with all the evidence
    that it has been so little burdensome to employers, to extend family
    leave to 10 million more Americans working for smaller companies. And I
    hope you will support it.
        Finally on the matter of work, parents should never have to face
    discrimination in the workplace. So I want to ask Congress to prohibit
    companies from refusing to hire or promote workers simply because they
    have children. That is not right.
        America's families deserve the world's best medical care. Thanks to
    bipartisan Federal support for medical research, we are now on the verge
    of new treatments to prevent or delay diseases, from Parkinson's to
    Alzheimer's to arthritis to cancer. But as we continue our advances in
    medical science, we can't let our medical system lag behind. Managed
    care has literally transformed medicine in America, driving down costs
    but threatening to drive down quality as well.
        I think we ought to say to every American: You should have the right
    to know all your medical options, not just the cheapest. If you need a
    specialist, you should have a right to see one. You have a right to the
    nearest emergency care if you're in an accident. These are things that
    we ought to say. And I think we ought to say: You should have a right to
    keep your doctor during a period of treatment, whether it's a pregnancy
    or a chemotherapy treatment, or anything else. I believe this.
        Now, I've ordered these rights to be extended to the 85 million
    Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid, and other Federal health
    programs. But only Congress can pass a Patients' Bill of Rights for all
    Americans. Now, last year, Congress missed that opportunity, and we must
    not miss that opportunity again. For the sake of our families, I ask us
    to join together across party lines and pass a strong, enforceable
    Patients' Bill of Rights.
        As more of our medical records are stored electronically, the
    threats to all our privacy increase. Because Congress has given me the
    authority to act if it does not do so by August, one way or another, we
    can all say to the American people, ``We will protect the privacy of
    medical records, and we will do it this year.''
        Now 2 years ago, the Congress extended health coverage to up to 5
    million children. Now we should go beyond that. We should make it easier
    for small businesses to offer health insurance. We should give people
    between the ages of 55 and 65 who lose their health insurance the chance
    to buy into Medicare. And we

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    should continue to ensure access to family planning.
        No one should have to choose between keeping health care and taking
    a job. And therefore, I especially ask you tonight to join hands to pass
    the landmark bipartisan legislation proposed by Senators
    Kennedy and Jeffords, Roth, and
    Moynihan to allow people with
    disabilities to keep their health insurance when they go to work.
        We need to enable our public hospitals, our community, our
    university health centers to provide basic, affordable care for all the
    millions of working families who don't have any insurance. They do a lot
    of that today, but much more can be done. And my balanced budget makes a
    good downpayment toward that goal. I hope you will think about them and
    support that provision.
        Let me say we must step up our efforts to treat and prevent mental
    illness. No American should ever be afraid--ever--to address this
    disease. This year we will host a White House Conference on Mental
    Health. With sensitivity, commitment, and passion, Tipper Gore is leading our efforts here, and I'd like to thank her
    for what she's done. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you.
        As everyone knows, our children are targets of a massive media
    campaign to hook them on cigarettes. Now, I ask this Congress to resist
    the tobacco lobby, to reaffirm the FDA's authority to protect our
    children from tobacco, and to hold tobacco companies accountable while
    protecting tobacco farmers.
        Smoking has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars under
    Medicare and other programs. You know, the States have been right about
    this: Taxpayers shouldn't pay for the cost of lung cancer, emphysema,
    and other smoking-related illnesses; the tobacco companies should. So
    tonight I announce that the Justice Department is preparing a litigation
    plan to take the tobacco companies to court and, with the funds we
    recover, to strengthen Medicare.
        Now, if we act in these areas--minimum wage, family leave, child
    care, health care, the safety of our children--then we will begin to
    meet our generation's historic responsibility to strengthen our families
    for the 21st century.
        Today, America is the most dynamic, competitive, job-creating
    economy in history. But we can do even better in building a 21st century
    economy that embraces all Americans.
        Today's income gap is largely a skills gap. Last year, the Congress
    passed a law enabling workers to get a skills grant to choose the
    training they need. And I applaud all of you here who were part of that.
    This year, I recommend a 5-year commitment to the new system so that we
    can provide, over the next 5 years, appropriate training opportunities
    for all Americans who lose their jobs and expand rapid response teams to
    help all towns which have been really hurt when businesses close. I hope
    you will support this.
        Also, I ask your support for a dramatic increase in Federal support
    for adult literacy, to mount a national campaign aimed at helping the
    millions and millions of working people who still read at less than a
    fifth grade level. We need to do this.
        Here's some good news: In the past 6 years, we have cut the welfare
    rolls nearly in half. You can all be proud of that. Two years ago, from
    this podium, I asked five companies to lead a national effort to hire
    people off welfare. Tonight, our Welfare to Work Partnership includes
    10,000 companies who have hired hundreds of thousands of people. And our
    balanced budget will help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and
    pride of work. I hope you will support it.
        We must do more to bring the spark of private enterprise to every
    corner of America, to build a bridge from Wall Street to Appalachia to
    the Mississippi Delta to our Native American communities, with more
    support for community development banks, for empowerment zones, for
    100,000 more vouchers for affordable housing. And I ask Congress to
    support our bold new plan to help businesses raise up to $15 billion in
    private sector capital to bring jobs and opportunities to our inner
    cities and rural areas with tax credits, loan guarantees, including the
    new ``American Private Investment Company'' modeled on the Overseas
    Private Investment Company. For years and years and years, we've had
    this OPIC, this Overseas Private Investment Corporation, because we knew
    we had untapped markets overseas. But our greatest untapped markets are
    not overseas; they are right here at home. And we should go after them.
        We must work hard to help bring prosperity back to the family farm.
    As this Congress knows very well, dropping prices and the loss of
    foreign markets have devastated too many family farms.

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    Last year, the Congress provided substantial assistance to help stave
    off a disaster in American agriculture. And I am ready to work with
    lawmakers of both parties to create a farm safety net that will include
    crop insurance reform and farm income assistance. I ask you to join with
    me and do this. This should not be a political issue. Everyone knows
    what an economic problem is going on out there in rural America today,
    and we need an appropriate means to address it.
        We must strengthen our lead in technology. It was Government
    investment that led to the creation of the Internet. I propose a 28-
    percent increase in long-term computing research. We also must be ready
    for the 21st century from its very first moment, by solving the so-
    called Y2K computer problem.
        We had one Member of Congress stand up and applaud. [Laughter] And
    we may have about that ratio out there applauding at home, in front of
    their television sets. But remember, this is a big, big problem. And
    we've been working hard on it. Already, we've made sure that the Social
    Security checks will come on time. But I want all the folks at home
    listening to this to know that we need every State and local government,
    every business, large and small, to work with us to make sure that this
    Y2K computer bug will be remembered as the last headache of the 20th
    century, not the first crisis of the 21st.
        For our own prosperity, we must support economic growth abroad. You
    know, until recently, a third of our economic growth came from exports.
    But over the past year and a half, financial turmoil overseas has put
    that growth at risk. Today, much of the world is in recession, with Asia
    hit especially hard. This is the most serious financial crisis in half a
    century. To meet it, the United States and other nations have reduced
    interest rates and strengthened the International Monetary Fund. And
    while the turmoil is not over, we have worked very hard with other
    nations to contain it.
        At the same time, we have to continue to work on the long-term
    project, building a global financial system for the 21st century that
    promotes prosperity and tames the cycle of boom and bust that has
    engulfed so much of Asia. This June I will meet with other world leaders
    to advance this historic purpose, and I ask all of you to support our
    endeavors.
        I also ask you to support creating a freer and fairer trading system
    for 21st century America. I'd like to say something really serious to
    everyone in this Chamber in both parties. I think trade has divided us,
    and divided Americans outside this Chamber, for too long. Somehow we
    have to find a common ground on which business and workers and
    environmentalists and farmers and Government can stand together. I
    believe these are the things we ought to all agree on. So let me try.
        First, we ought to tear down barriers, open markets, and expand
    trade. But at the same time, we must ensure that ordinary citizens in
    all countries actually benefit from trade, a trade that promotes the
    dignity of work and the rights of workers and protects the environment.
    We must insist that international trade organizations be more open to
    public scrutiny, instead of mysterious, secret things subject to wild
    criticism. When you come right down to it, now that the world economy is
    becoming more and more integrated, we have to do in the world what we
    spent the better part of this century doing here at home. We have got to
    put a human face on the global economy.
        We must enforce our trade laws when imports unlawfully flood our
    Nation. I have already informed the Government of Japan that if that
    nation's sudden surge of steel imports into our country is not reversed,
    America will respond.
        We must help all manufacturers hit hard by the present crisis with
    loan guarantees and other incentives to increase American exports by
    nearly $2 billion.
        I'd like to believe we can achieve a new consensus on trade, based
    on these principles. And I ask the Congress again to join me in this
    common approach and to give the President the trade authority long used
    and now overdue and necessary to advance our prosperity in the 21st
    century.
        Tonight I issue a call to the nations of the world to join the
    United States in a new round of global trade negotiations to expand
    exports of services, manufactures, and farm products. Tonight I say we
    will work with the International Labor Organization on a new initiative
    to raise labor standards around the world. And this year, we will lead
    the international community to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child
    labor everywhere in the world.
        If we do these things--invest in our people, our communities, our
    technology, and lead in

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    the global economy--then we will begin to meet our historic
    responsibility to build a 21st century prosperity for America.
        You know, no nation in history has had the opportunity and the
    responsibility we now have to shape a world that is more peaceful, more
    secure, more free. All Americans can be proud that our leadership helped
    to bring peace in Northern Ireland. All Americans can be proud that our
    leadership has put Bosnia on the path to peace. And with our NATO
    allies, we are pressing the Serbian Government to stop its brutal
    repression in Kosovo, to bring those responsible to justice, and to give
    the people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve.
        All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for
    lasting peace in the Middle East. Some of you were with me last December
    as we watched the Palestinian National Council completely renounce its
    call for the destruction of Israel. Now I ask Congress to provide
    resources so that all parties can implement the Wye agreement to protect
    Israel's security, to stimulate the Palestinian economy, to support our
    friends in Jordan. We must not--we dare not--let them down. I hope you
    will help.
        As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our Nation's
    security, including increased dangers from outlaw nations and terrorism.
    We will defend our security wherever we are threatened, as we did this
    summer when we struck at Usama bin Ladin's
    network of terror. The bombing of our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
    reminds us again of the risks faced every day by those who represent
    America to the world. So let's give them the support they need, the
    safest possible workplaces, and the resources they must have so America
    can continue to lead.
        We must work to keep terrorists from disrupting computer networks.
    We must work to prepare local communities for biological and chemical
    emergencies, to support research into vaccines and treatments.
        We must increase our efforts to restrain the spread of nuclear
    weapons and missiles, from Korea to India and Pakistan. We must expand
    our work with Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet nations to
    safeguard nuclear materials and technology so they never fall into the
    wrong hands. Our balanced budget will increase funding for these
    critical efforts by almost two-thirds over the next 5 years.
        With Russia, we must continue to reduce our nuclear arsenals. The
    START II treaty and the framework we have already agreed to for START
    III could cut them by 80 percent from their cold war height.
        It's been 2 years since I signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
    If we don't do the right thing, other nations won't either. I ask the
    Senate to take this vital step: Approve the treaty now, to make it
    harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms, and to make sure we
    can end nuclear testing forever.
        For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligations to destroy its
    weapons of terror and the missiles to deliver them. America will
    continue to contain Saddam, and we will work
    for the day when Iraq has a Government worthy of its people.
        Now, last month in our action over Iraq, our troops were superb.
    Their mission was so flawlessly executed that we risk taking for granted
    the bravery and the skill it required. Captain Jeff
    Taliaferro, a 10-year veteran of the
    Air Force, flew a B-1B bomber over Iraq as we attacked Saddam's war
    machine. He's here with us tonight. I'd like to ask you to honor him and
    all the 33,000 men and women of Operation Desert Fox.
        Captain Taliaferro. [Applause]
        It is time to reverse the decline in defense spending that began in
    1985. Since April, together we have added nearly $6 billion to maintain
    our military readiness. My balanced budget calls for a sustained
    increase over the next 6 years for readiness, for modernization, and for
    pay and benefits for our troops and their families. We are the heirs of
    a legacy of bravery represented in every community in America by
    millions of our veterans. America's defenders today still stand ready at
    a moment's notice to go where comforts are few and dangers are many, to
    do what needs to be done as no one else can. They always come through
    for America. We must come through for them.
        The new century demands new partnerships for peace and security. The
    United Nations plays a crucial role, with allies sharing burdens America
    might otherwise bear alone. America needs a strong and effective U.N. I
    want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts.
        We must continue to support security and stability in Europe and
    Asia, expanding NATO and defining its new missions, maintaining our

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    alliance with Japan, with Korea, with our other Asian allies, and
    engaging China.
        In China, last year, I said to the leaders and the people what I'd
    like to say again tonight: Stability can no longer be bought at the
    expense of liberty. But I'd also like to say again to the American
    people: It's important not to isolate China. The more we bring China
    into the world, the more the world will bring change and freedom to
    China.
        Last spring, with some of you, I traveled to Africa, where I saw
    democracy and reform rising but still held back by violence and disease.
    We must fortify African democracy and peace by launching Radio Democracy
    for Africa, supporting the transition to democracy now beginning to take
    place in Nigeria, and passing the ``African Trade and Development Act.''
        We must continue to deepen our ties to the Americas and the
    Caribbean, our common work to educate children, fight drugs, strengthen
    democracy and increase trade. In this hemisphere, every government but
    one is freely chosen by its people. We are determined that Cuba, too,
    will know the blessings of liberty.
        The American people have opened their hearts and their arms to our
    Central American and Caribbean neighbors who have been so devastated by
    the recent hurricanes. Working with Congress, I am committed to help
    them rebuild. When the First Lady and
    Tipper Gore visited the region, they saw
    thousands of our troops and thousands of American volunteers.
        In the Dominican Republic, Hillary helped to rededicate a hospital
    that had been rebuilt by Dominicans and Americans working side by side.
    With her was someone else who has been very important to the relief
    efforts. You know, sports records are made, and sooner or later they're
    broken. But making other people's lives better and showing our children
    the true meaning of brotherhood, that lasts forever. So, for far more
    than baseball, Sammy Sosa, you're a hero in two
    countries tonight. [Applause] Thank you.
        So I say to all of you, if we do these things--if we pursue peace,
    fight terrorism, increase our strength, renew our alliances--we will
    begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to build a
    stronger 21st century America in a freer, more peaceful world.
        As the world has changed, so have our own communities. We must make
    them safer, more livable, and more united. This year, we will reach our
    goal of 100,000 community police officers ahead of schedule and under
    budget. The Brady bill has stopped a quarter million felons, fugitives,
    and stalkers from buying handguns. And now, the murder rate is the
    lowest in 30 years and the crime rate has dropped for 6 straight years.
        Tonight I propose a 21st century crime bill to deploy the latest
    technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer. Our
    balanced budget will help put up to 50,000 more police on the street in
    the areas hardest hit by crime and then to equip them with new tools,
    from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.
        We must break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. Our budget
    expands support for drug testing and treatment, saying to prisoners: If
    you stay on drugs, you have to stay behind bars; and to those on parole:
    If you want to keep your freedom, you must stay free of drugs.
        I ask Congress to restore the 5-day waiting period for buying a
    handgun and extend the Brady bill to prevent juveniles who commit
    violent crimes from buying a gun.
        We must do more to keep our schools the safest places in our
    communities. Last year, every American was horrified and heartbroken by
    the tragic killings in Jonesboro, Paducah, Pearl, Edinboro, Springfield.
    We were deeply moved by the courageous parents now working to keep guns
    out of the hands of children and to make other efforts so that other
    parents don't have to live through their loss.
        After she lost her daughter, Suzann Wilson
    of Jonesboro, Arkansas, came here to the White House with a powerful
    plea. She said, ``Please, please, for the sake of your children, lock up
    your guns. Don't let what happened in Jonesboro happen in your town.''
    It's a message she is passionately advocating every day. Suzann is here
    with us tonight, with the First Lady. I'd like to thank her for her
    courage and her commitment. [Applause] Thank you.
        In memory of all the children who lost their lives to school
    violence, I ask you to strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act, to
    pass legislation to require child trigger locks, to do everything
    possible to keep our children safe.
        A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt defined our ``great,
    central task'' as ``leaving this land even a better land for our
    descendants than it is for us.'' Today, we're restoring the Florida
    Everglades, saving Yellowstone, preserving the red rock canyons of Utah,
    protecting

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    California's redwoods and our precious coasts. But our most fateful new
    challenge is the threat of global warming; 1998 was the warmest year
    ever recorded. Last year's heat waves, floods, and storms are but a hint
    of what future generations may endure if we do not act now.
        Tonight I propose a new clean air fund to help communities reduce
    greenhouse and other pollution, and tax incentives and investments to
    spur clean energy technology. And I want to work with Members of
    Congress in both parties to reward companies that take early, voluntary
    action to reduce greenhouse gases.
        All our communities face a preservation challenge, as they grow and
    green space shrinks. Seven thousand acres of farmland and open space are
    lost every day. In response, I propose two major initiatives: First, a
    $1-billion livability agenda to help communities save open space, ease
    traffic congestion, and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's
    quality of life; and second, a $1-billion lands legacy initiative to
    preserve places of natural beauty all across America, from the most
    remote wilderness to the nearest city park.
        These are truly landmark initiatives, which could not have been
    developed without the visionary leadership of the Vice President, and I
    want to thank him very much for his commitment here.
        Now, to get the most out of your community, you have to give
    something back. That's why we created AmeriCorps, our national service
    program that gives today's generation a chance to serve their
    communities and earn money for college.
        So far, in just 4 years, 100,000 young Americans have built low-
    income homes with Habitat for Humanity, helped to tutor children with
    churches, worked with FEMA to ease the burden of natural disasters, and
    performed countless other acts of service that have made America better.
    I ask Congress to give more young Americans the chance to follow their
    lead and serve America in AmeriCorps.
        Now, we must work to renew our national community as well for the
    21st century. Last year the House passed the bipartisan campaign finance
    reform legislation sponsored by Representatives Shays and Meehan and
    Senators McCain and Feingold. But a partisan minority in the Senate blocked reform. So
    I'd like to say to the House: Pass it again, quickly. And I'd like to
    say to the Senate: I hope you will say yes to a stronger American
    democracy in the year 2000.
        Since 1997, our initiative on race has sought to bridge the divides
    between and among our people. In its report last fall, the initiative's
    advisory board found that Americans really do want to bring our people
    together across racial lines.
        We know it's been a long journey. For some, it goes back to before
    the beginning of our Republic; for others, back since the Civil War; for
    others, throughout the 20th century. But for most of us alive today, in
    a very real sense, this journey began 43 years ago, when a woman named
    Rosa Parks sat down on a bus in Alabama and
    wouldn't get up. She's sitting down with the First Lady tonight, and she
    may get up or not, as she chooses. We thank her. [Applause] Thank you,
    Rosa.
        We know that our continuing racial problems are aggravated, as the
    Presidential initiative said, by opportunity gaps. The initiative I've
    outlined tonight will help to close them. But we know that the
    discrimination gap has not been fully closed either. Discrimination or
    violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or
    sexual orientation, is wrong, and it ought to be illegal. Therefore, I
    ask Congress to make the ``Employment Non-Discrimination Act'' and the
    ``Hate Crimes Prevention Act'' the law of the land.
        Now, since every person in America counts, every American ought to
    be counted. We need a census that uses modern scientific methods to do
    that.
        Our new immigrants must be part of our One America. After all,
    they're revitalizing our cities; they're energizing our culture; they're
    building up our economy. We have a responsibility to make them welcome
    here, and they have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American
    life. That means learning English and learning about our democratic
    system of government. There are now long waiting lines of immigrants
    that are trying to do just that. Therefore, our budget significantly
    expands our efforts to help them meet their responsibility. I hope you
    will support it.
        Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower, on slave ships,
    whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they
    came yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago, our great
    challenge for the 21st century is to find a way to be one America.

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    We can meet all the other challenges if we can go forward as one
    America.
        You know, barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross that
    bridge into the new millennium. This is a moment, as the First Lady has
    said, ``to honor the past and imagine the future.''
        I'd like to take just a minute to honor her. For leading our Millennium Project, for all she's done
    for our children, for all she has done in her historic role to serve our
    Nation and our best ideals at home and abroad, I honor her. [Applause]
        Last year, I called on Congress and every citizen to mark the
    millennium by saving America's treasures. Hillary has traveled all across the country to inspire
    recognition and support for saving places like Thomas Edison's invention
    factory or Harriet Tubman's home. Now we have to preserve our treasures
    in every community. And tonight, before I close, I want to invite every
    town, every city, every community to become a nationally recognized
    ``millennium community'' by launching projects that save our history,
    promote our arts and humanities, prepare our children for the 21st
    century.
        Already, the response has been remarkable. And I want to say a
    special word of thanks to our private sector partners and to Members in
    Congress of both parties for their support. Just one example: Because of
    you, the Star-Spangled Banner will be preserved for the ages. In ways
    large and small, as we look to the millennium we are keeping alive what
    George Washington called ``the sacred fire of liberty.''
        Six years ago, I came to office in a time of doubt for America, with
    our economy troubled, our deficit high, our people divided. Some even
    wondered whether our best days were behind us. But across this country,
    in a thousand neighborhoods, I have seen, even amidst the pain and
    uncertainty of recession, the real heart and character of America. I
    knew then that we Americans could renew this country.
        Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union Address of the
    20th century, no one anywhere in the world can doubt the enduring
    resolve and boundless capacity of the American people to work toward
    that ``more perfect Union'' of our Founders' dream.
        We're now at the end of a century when generation after generation
    of Americans answered the call to greatness, overcoming depression,
    lifting up the disposed, bringing down barriers to racial prejudice,
    building the largest middle class in history, winning two World Wars and
    the long twilight struggle of the cold war. We must all be profoundly
    grateful for the magnificent achievement of our forebears in this
    century. Yet perhaps, in the daily press of events, in the clash of
    controversy, we don't see our own time for what it truly is, a new dawn
    for America.
        A hundred years from tonight, another American President will stand
    in this place and report on the state of the Union. He--or she--he or
    she will look back on a 21st century shaped in so many ways by the
    decisions we make here and now. So let it be said of us then that we
    were thinking not only of our time but of their time, that we reached as
    high as our ideals, that we put aside our divisions and found a new hour
    of healing and hopefulness, that we joined together to serve and
    strengthen the land we love.
        My fellow Americans, this is our moment. Let us lift our eyes as one
    Nation, and from the mountaintop of this American Century, look ahead to
    the next one, asking God's blessing on our endeavors and on our beloved
    country.
        Thank you, and good evening.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:10 p.m. in the House Chamber of the
    Capitol. In his remarks, he referred to Jean Hastert, wife of Speaker J.
    Dennis Hastert; Evelyn M. (Lyn) Gibson, widow of Detective John M.
    Gibson, and Wenling Chestnut, widow of Officer Jacob J. Chestnut, whose
    husbands died as a result of gunshot wounds suffered during an attack at
    the Capitol on July 24, 1998; terrorist Usama bin Ladin, who allegedly
    sponsored bombing attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on
    August 7, 1998; President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Capt. Jeffrey B.
    Taliaferro, USAF, Chief, Wing Weapons, 28th Operations Support Squadron,
    28th Bomb Wing; and Sammy Sosa, National League Most Valuable Player in
    1998.