[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1999, Book I)]
[February 5, 1999]
[Pages 171-175]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Awards for Excellence in 
Microenterprise Development
February 5, 1999

    The President. Thank you. Carol, you'd 
better watch it; before you know it you'll be running for office. 
[Laughter] What a remarkable statement; thank you so much.
    I'd like to take a little--a few moments more than I normally would 
by way of introduction today. Hillary and I and Bob Rubin are real happy 
today, because this is one of the things that I ran for President to do, 
to see these stories, to see the spirit, and to see the potential.
    I want to thank Secretary Rubin. You 
know, I used to tell a joke about Bob Rubin. He's been here a long time 
now, and he left this fabulous career on Wall Street. And I used to tell 
everybody that I asked Bob Rubin to come to Washington in 1993 to help 
me save the middle class, and by the time he leaves he'll be one of 
them. [Laughter]
    Secretary Rubin. That always seems a lot 
funnier to you, Mr. President. [Laughter]
    The President. Yes. I don't know how much it's cost him to stay here these 6 years, but one of the reasons 
that I really wanted him to come is that when we--even in the beginning, 
when we began talking about these matters in '92, he always said, ``You 
know, I'd like to get the economy going again and working again, and 
then we could maybe really do something for poor people in this country. 
Maybe we could really bring the spirit of enterprise to all these places 
that have been left behind.''
    I don't know how many Secretaries of the Treasury in our country's 
history have ever had that sort of driving passion. But I know we had 
one, and he's done a magnificent job. And 
I'm very grateful to him.
    I want to thank Senator Harkin, Senator 
Kennedy, Senator Wellstone, Congressman Oberstar, 
Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton 
for supporting this economic vision so strongly. I thank former Senator 
Riegle, who is here, who was the 
committee chairman who helped us to make this a critical part, this 
whole microenterprise, a critical part of our economic strategy way back 
in 1993.
    I welcome Lieutenant Governor Sally Pederson from Iowa; we're delighted to have her here with her 
honorees. I want to thank our former OMB Director Frank Raines; Mary Ellen Withrow, our Treasurer; Ellen Lazar and others who have 
supported our efforts here. A special word of thanks to Aida 
Alvarez and Betsy Myers 
and all the other members of her team from SBA who are here. And to 
Brian Atwood and Hattie Babbitt and the others from AID. I believe that under our 
administration we funded 2 million of these small microenterprise loans, 
from Africa to Asia to Latin America, last year.
    There's one group of people who have not been acknowledged--and 
Hillary and I were talking about it--who were out there ahead of the 
Federal Government for years, without whom microenterprise never would 
have really taken off in America, and that's all the members of the 
foundation community. I'd like to--all the representatives of the 
foundations that are here that have supported microenterprise lending, 
I'd like to ask you to stand, please, and be acknowledged. Thank you. 
[Applause] Thank you very much.
    And I'll say more about this in a minute, but this whole issue has 
been a passion for the

[[Page 172]]

First Lady for, as she said, about 15 
years. We had a friend who was working at the South Shore Bank in 
Chicago which had a microenterprise loan program. We went there; we saw 
what they were doing.
    Then in 1984 I was able to meet, here in Washington--I was here at a 
Governor's meeting; I'll never forget it. I got up early one morning and 
had breakfast with Muhammad Yunus, who had 
been trained as an economist in the United States and then gone to 
Bangladesh and set up the Grameen Bank. Hundreds of thousands of loans 
had been made--market interest rates--very tiny loans, almost all to 
poor village women. The repayment rate was better than the commercial 
banks in Bangladesh, and it changed my thinking about this forever.
    And then Hillary scrounged up 
some foundation money and other money, and I squeezed some out of the 
Arkansas Legislature, and we started a development bank with a 
microenterprise program in Arkansas. And after I became President, she 
literally has gone all across the world. She's been in small villages on 
every continent, where people like her never go.
    And I should tell the rest of the story because I don't think 
President Museveni would object. I 
have the highest regard for the President of Uganda. He's one of the 
most intelligent and effective leaders of any developing country 
anywhere in the world. But when we were walking on this little rocky 
pathway into this village to see all these village women who now had 
their own businesses, he looked at me, and he said, ``That's some wife 
you've got.'' He said, ``Until you showed up here, I didn't even know we 
had these programs in our country.'' [Laughter]
    So, without her we probably 
wouldn't be here today. And I'm very, very grateful for everything that 
Hillary has done to champion this cause.
    I also want to say a word of appreciation to Carol and all the other 
small-business owners here. It takes a lot of courage to run a small 
business. Hillary and I have talked about this a lot. She talked to me 
about one time when she was a high school girl, she worked in a small 
business in her hometown, and there were days when no one came in. Every 
day, if you open a small business, you feel like politicians feel on 
election day. [Laughter]
    I'll never forget--I can't remember, one of the great old Hollywood 
moguls said, ``You know, if you make a bad movie, the people will stay 
away, and you cannot stop them''--[laughter]--which I think is great. So 
I want to thank all of you for having the spirit of enterprise and the 
vision and the courage.
    This whole country is basically built by entrepreneurs, whether 
they're in Silicon Valley or young investment bankers in Manhattan or 
people running the street-vending operations out here for the tourists 
in Washington. The genius of actually being able to have an idea and act 
on it, and having people respond to it and invest in it and be your 
customers and, as Carol said, in a way validate your ideas, your 
character, and your hard work, it's the whole secret of America.
    And because of the strength of our economy, I believe we have an 
obligation to give that opportunity to everyone. Just this morning we 
learned that what is now the longest peacetime expansion in American 
history has grown longer. Last month our economy created nearly another 
quarter-million jobs, and unemployment stayed at 4.3 percent. That's the 
lowest peacetime rate since 1957. Wages now rising at over twice the 
rate of inflation. Again, unemployment rates among Hispanic- and 
African-Americans dropped to their lowest recorded levels ever.
    Now, if we cannot expand opportunity into every corner of America 
now, we will never get around to it. We have an obligation now to spread 
the spirit and the opportunity for enterprise to all the American 
people. As you've heard from others, we've been working on this for 6 
years now, working to bring opportunities to some of our most distressed 
communities, with an agenda of empowerment. That's what we celebrate 
here, not a handout, a hand up. This microenterprise program is the 
embodiment of empowerment.
    We know--and I was so glad to hear what Carol said about self-
esteem, because sometimes a crisis of economic distress is a crisis of 
the spirit as well, a shortage of confidence that is just as 
debilitating as a shortage of cash. And these stories today--I want all 
of you to imagine not only the economic success but what it has done to 
these people's lives. There are stories like this all over America and 
all over the world.
    What does it mean to a single mom's life when she goes to the 
mailbox in the morning and sees a bank statement instead of a welfare 
check? What does it mean to a child when he or she can go to school and 
say, when they ask, ``What does your mother do for a living?'' ``She 
owns a beauty shop?'' What does it mean

[[Page 173]]

to a neighborhood when, all of a sudden, an old building that has been 
vacant for 10 years has a ``help wanted'' sign out in front of it?
    This is about more than economics. And through our network of 
community development banks--or CDFI's, as we call them, community 
development financial institutions--through the strengthened and 
streamlined Community Reinvestment Act--and I will say that even though 
that act has been on the books for more than 20 years now, 95 percent of 
all the investment under community reinvestment has been done in the 
last 6 years, in our administration. And I'm proud of that. And the 
banks are doing quite well. [Laughter] They're doing well by doing good. 
And it's important to remember as the debate develops this year about 
that. And through these empowerment zones, we've seen the steady 
expansion of opportunity.
    Last month, as the Secretary said, I announced this new markets 
initiative, to spur even more private investment in underserved areas. 
And we want to reach--building a bridge from Wall Street to Harlem, to 
Appalachia, to the Mississippi Delta, to south Texas, to Pine Ridge, 
South Dakota--everywhere there are opportunities still untapped.
    Today I am proud to announce that, as a part of our budget, we would 
more than double our support for microenterprise in America. We would 
continue our--[applause]--thank you. We also want to continue our 
efforts to promote microenterprise abroad, especially in the nations 
that have been hardest hit by the global financial crisis or by our 
neighbors hit by natural disasters. And I think that is very important, 
because we are giving courage and awareness to other governments and 
other countries to do more for their own people in this regard.
    First, we recognize that, for the vast majority of 
microentrepreneurs, good ideas and credit are just the beginning. A 
little guidance, lessons on accounting, billing, planning, those things 
are essential for any business to thrive in a complex economy. The 
budget doubles the Small Business Administration's capacity to provide 
such training through its microloan program, triples support for SBA's 
one-stop capital shops, which offer microlending advice and other 
assistance in disadvantaged communities. I'm also proud to support the 
bipartisan program for investments in microentrepreneurs, the PRIME Act, 
sponsored by Senator Kennedy and Senator 
Domenici from New Mexico, and 
Representatives Rush, Leach, and LaFalce, so that we can 
expand our technical assistance through the Treasury's CDFI fund.
    Second, we want to make even more credit available to low-income 
Americans with good business ideas. That's why I'm proposing to leverage 
more than $75 million in new loans by doubling our support for the SBA's 
microloan program.
    Third, we want to keep encouraging Americans to save some of their 
own hard-earned money, to start or expand businesses. Last year, I was 
proud to sign new individual development accounts into law, fulfilling a 
campaign pledge from 1992, and thanks in no small measure to the 
leadership of Senator Tom Harkin from Iowa and 
former Senator Dan Coats from Indiana. We thank 
you very much, Senators, for that. [Applause] Thank you.
    For those of you who don't know, these individual development 
accounts, IDA's, are special accounts that provide Federal matching 
funds to low-income Americans who save money to invest in their 
business, buy a first home, pay for a college education. I want to 
double support for these accounts in our budget.
    Next, we will continue to lead the world through USAID to promote 
microenterprise for millions of families to get out of poverty in other 
countries. The recent local financial crisis and the hurricanes in 
Central America and the Caribbean have literally upended the lives of 
tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. As you have heard 
from the First Lady's account, we have seen, first hand, how these 
loans, sometimes in other countries loans as small as $10, $15, $25, $50 
can make all the difference in helping families to get back on their 
feet.
    Our balanced budget will target extra microenterprise assistance to 
the countries that are in trouble. And to break down the bureaucratic 
walls that block microenterprise in some developing countries, we'll 
continue to work with the World Bank and other financial institutions to 
reform the regulatory structures so we can make more of these loans 
available. There is a virtually unlimited potential abroad and at home 
for this, and I keep hoping if we just keep pushing and keep pushing and 
keep pushing we will reach a critical mass of investment which will 
explode it and let the whole world know that this works.
    And this ceremony today is a part of letting the whole world know. 
So we come here not

[[Page 174]]

only to honor you with these Presidential Awards for Excellence in 
Microenterprise but to say to the world that these six organizations 
whose vision and commitment have made such a profound difference in the 
lives of the business owners, their employees, and their customers are 
but a small beginning of what we could achieve together in the United 
States and throughout the world if we work harder to make the economy 
work for ordinary citizens.
    And so this, too, is a part of letting the whole world know. And 
when you come up here and get your awards I hope that you will not only 
feel enormous pride; I hope that you will not only feel an enormous 
sense of rededication to further success; I hope you will feel that you 
are sending a message to people who will see this all over America or 
read about it in their newspapers. And you may be sparking someone 
else's conviction either that, A, they ought to set up one of these 
funds, or B, they ought to find one and get a loan.
    And I believe that we will continue to see the steady march of 
progress here. This has the potential to revolutionize not only the 
lives of ordinary Americans but the whole way we organize our economy 
here and around the world.
    So, first: For excellence in the category of access to capital, the 
Microcredit Industry Rural Organization. Since 1987, MICRO has provided 
some $5.5 million in loans to more than 1,000 entrepreneurs living in 
rural Arizona's poorest Hispanic communities. Accepting this award is 
Executive Director Frank Ballesteros and 
entrepreneur Maria Jesus Gaxiola, a 
former migrant farm worker who used a $1,500 loan to build her own 
cosmetics business, and I might say, she's a remarkable walking 
advertisement for her success. [Laughter] Please come up here.

[The President presented the award.]

    Next, for excellence in developing entrepreneurial skills, the 
Detroit Entrepreneurship Institute. Founded at Wayne State University, 
the institute has worked to teach low-income clients the full range of 
business skills. Clients can also take advantage of a free computer 
center, a tax preparation service, and graphic design department to help 
launch and expand their businesses. Accepting this award is Cathy 
McClelland, the president and CEO; and 
Jackie Tucker, who started a successful 
catering business after training at the institute. I'd like to ask them 
to come up now.

[The President presented the award.]

    Also for excellence in developing entrepreneurial skills, the 
Northeast Entrepreneur Fund of Virginia, Minnesota--[laughter]--in the 
Iron Range, north of Duluth. Serving rural communities throughout a 
20,000 square mile area, the fund offers one-on-one counseling to 
clients, helping them to tailor their studies to specific needs. 
Accepting this award is the fund's president, Mary Mathews; and our star speaker today--[laughter]--Carol 
Willoughby.

[The President presented the award.]

    For excellence in poverty alleviation, the Institute for Social and 
Economic Development of Iowa. One of the earliest statewide 
microenterprise efforts in the Nation, the Institute--listen to this--
has helped 90 percent of its welfare clients free themselves from lives 
of dependency through self-employment. Accepting this award today is 
John Else, founder and president; and entrepreneur 
Rhonda Auten, a former welfare recipient who 
started her own dance school with help from ISED.

[The President presented the award.]

    For excellence in private support for microenterprise development, 
the Corporation for Enterprise Development. For two decades, through 
research, public advocacy, and technical assistance to microenterprise 
organizations, the corporation has fostered so much of the progress we 
see today, including the success of three of this year's award winners. 
We are all--including all of us in this administration--profoundly 
indebted to the awardee, the corporation, and its founder and chairman, 
Mr. Robert Friedman.

[The President presented the award.]

    For excellence in public support for microenterprise development, 
the Montana Microbusiness Finance Program. As part of the Montana 
Department of Commerce, this program has helped to launch or sustain a 
dozen microlending organizations serving communities throughout that 
vast and beautiful State. Accepting this award are program officer Robyn 
Hampton and entrepreneurs Kevin and Heidi Snyder, who used a 
microloan to start their racquetball and fitness centers. They are two

[[Page 175]]

walking advertisements for what they're doing, as you can see. 
[Laughter] Come on up.

[The President and the First Lady presented the award.]

    Now, don't you feel better than you did when you got up this 
morning? [Laughter] Isn't this great?
    Henry Ford--a small entrepreneur--once said that the best Americans 
were those with ``an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.'' 
We honor those kinds of Americans, testaments to the power of enterprise 
and the strength of the human spirit.
    I ask you to leave here committed to work in the years ahead to 
bring this spirit, and this opportunity, to every corner of every 
community in our land and on our globe.
    Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:37 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Carol Willoughby, owner, Let the 
Whole World Know, who introduced the President; former Senator Donald W. 
Riegle, Jr.; Muhammad Yunus, founder and chief executive, Grameen Bank, 
Bangladesh; and President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda. The 
transcript released by the Office of the Press Secretary also included 
the remarks of the First Lady.