    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 30, 1999]
    [Pages 2163-2166]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on a Parental Leave Initiative and an Exchange With Reporters
    November 30, 1999

        The President. Hello. Thank you. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
    The people here with me at the podium are, obviously, Secretary
    Herman, but also Katie and Eric Banks and their son,
    Collin, of Fairfax, Virginia; Jonathan and Teresa Graham, and
    their two
    children, from Baltimore; Darsie Cahall and
    James Baker, and their
    three children, from
    Takoma Park, Maryland. I'll say a little more about them in a moment.
    You can see this is a family event. [Laughter] We've orchestrated the
    children.
        Before I leave for the World Trade Organization meeting on the west
    coast, I want to talk a little about how we're using the strength of our
    economy to help strengthen working families.
        Yesterday I signed a budget that maintains the fiscal responsibility
    that has given us what will be in February the longest economic
    expansion in our history and at the same time lives up to the values of
    the American people. We have no higher value than family, but too many
    of our families are having trouble balancing the demands of home and
    work. Today I'm using my Executive order--authority--to give these
    parents new tools to succeed at home and on the job.
        The surging technology and soaring prosperity we currently enjoy are
    the result of a lot of hard work and very long hours by the American
    people. In fact, today many working parents are forced to make the
    unacceptable choice between being good workers and good parents. Too
    often, in our round-the-world, round-the-clock economy, there just don't
    seem to be enough hours in the day for parents to do what they need to
    do. That's why we've worked hard to help parents balance work and
    family.
        Last May I asked Secretary Herman to
    develop new ways to address this problem. Today I'm announcing a
    proposed Labor Department rule that lets States use their unemployment
    insurance to offer paid leave to new parents. This initiative is totally
    voluntary for States. It helps them empower more working parents, like
    the ones standing with me today. With this act, the United States joins
    the rest of the world's advanced economies, all of whom already have
    some form of paid leave for parents.
        When little Collin was born, his mother,
    Katie, was working as a waitress; his dad was working as a head electrical technician for a small
    company. Unfortunately, he was born ill and had to be in intensive care
    for several weeks. Katie took unpaid leave and eventually quit her job
    to be with her son. Collin's dad, Eric, wanted to take leave but
    couldn't afford to do so. Once Collin was well enough, Katie looked for
    and, fortunately, landed another job. But both Katie and her husband
    would have and should have been able to take paid leave to care for
    their son. That's what this parental leave initiative is all about.
        I believe giving States the flexibility to experiment with paid
    employment leave is one of the best things we can do to strengthen our
    families and help new mothers and fathers meet their responsibilities
    both at home and at work.
        State flexibility and the voluntary nature of this effort are key to
    its success. In our strong economy, we hope States will take advantage
    of this new option, and we believe those that do will balance this new
    benefit with the imperative of maintaining a fiscally sound unemployment
    insurance program.
        This effort builds on our commitment to giving working families more
    tools to help them adapt to the new economy, from expanding the earned-
    income tax credit to our welfare-to-work efforts, from increasing
    funding for child care to HOPE scholarships.
        In the budget bill I signed yesterday, we fought for and won a
    doubling of resources for after-school programs to give young people a
    safe place to study between the end of their school day and the end of
    their parents' work day.

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        I'm especially proud that the first bill I signed as President, in
    1993, was the family and medical leave law. Since then, millions of
    Americans--we believe well over 20 million--have used it to take up to
    12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for a newborn or sick relative without
    losing their jobs. The importance of this benefit has been confirmed by
    the testimony of experts and parents at the first-ever White House
    Conference on Early Childhood Development, in 1997, and from groups like
    the American Academy of Pediatrics. They all reinforce what we already
    know from common sense, giving parents and primary care givers time to
    bond with children leads to healthy development including boosting
    critical language and literacy skills.
        But the current law meets just a fraction of the need. And the
    number one reason families give for not taking advantage of family and
    medical leave is that they simply can't afford to take time off without
    a paycheck. The actions we take today will go a long way toward
    alleviating that burden if the States take up the challenge. I believe
    it will strengthen parents' bonds with both their children and their
    jobs.
        As I've said, on the eve of this new century, we ought to set a goal
    that all parents can take time they need for their families, without
    losing the income they need to support them. The new State authority
    will move us in the right direction and gives another tool in our
    national efforts to both strengthen our families and reward the dignity
    of work.
        Thank you very much.

    Seattle Round

        Q. Mr. President, what do you hope to achieve in Seattle at the WTO?
        The President. Well, I hope we'll get a new round launched that will
    slash tariffs and other trade barriers in agriculture and other areas. I
    hope that we will agree to keep E-commerce free of unusual burdens and
    that we will lead to more transparent and open rules among nations so
    that they believe the trading system is fair.
        I also strongly, strongly believe that we should open the process up
    to all those people who are now demonstrating on the outside. They ought
    to be a part of it. And I think we should strengthen the role and the
    interests of labor and the environment in our trade negotiations.
        This is not going to be easy to do, partly because some nations,
    particularly a lot of developing nations, see our concern for the
    environment and labor standards as a way to sort of keep them down. But
    that is not true. What we want to do is to make sure that when we open
    the trading system, that ordinary Americans benefit.
        In our country, about 30 percent of our growth has come from
    expanded trade. We have kept inflation down because we've kept our
    markets open and other people have been able to sell good quality
    products at lower prices in our markets. So we've had this huge growth
    with low inflation. I just want to make sure that ordinary people
    everywhere are benefited by the trading system and that the economy is
    not damaged by trading rules that could put short-term economic
    considerations over long-term environmental considerations.
        So I'm very sympathetic with a lot of the causes being raised by all
    the people that are there demonstrating. And since this has now become a
    global society with global communications, as well as a global economy,
    I think it was unrealistic to assume that for the next 50 years, trade
    could be like it's been for the last 50, primarily the province of
    business executives and political leaders. I think more people are going
    to demand to be heard, and I think that's a good thing.

    Deaths Due to Medical Errors

        Q. Mr. President, yesterday a report documented the problem of
    medical mistakes, and said that 44,000 Americans, at least, are killed
    every year because of these medical mistakes. What's your reaction to
    that, and is there anything that your administration is planning to do
    about it?
        The President. Well, you may remember that we had a task force a
    couple of years ago, headed by Secretary Herman and Secretary Shalala, which
    issued, in fact, two reports: One of them recommended the Patients' Bill
    of Rights; the other set up a quality commission to deal with problems
    like this.
        If you looked at it, to me, one of the most interesting things was
    that a lot of these hospitals, which are very overcrowded and have
    people coming in all the time and have doctors seeing all kinds of
    patients in rapid successions, have people lose their lives because of
    improper prescriptions of medicine, not knowing about a patient's
    allergy or not knowing about what other medication they're taking.
    That's a--and

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    I think that we have an opportunity here to work with the public-private
    partnership which the task force set up to use modern technology,
    information technology, and to also do some basic old-fashioned changes
    in procedures that will save a lot of these lives.
        I'm convinced we can do that. I talked yesterday, on the Patients'
    Bill of Rights, to one of the leading managed care providers in the
    country and suggested that they ought to be helping, too, and they
    agreed with that. We've all got to get together. No one has an interest
    in seeing these kinds of mistakes made. And we know that otherwise
    competent people are making a lot of these mistakes. So we've got to
    work through how we can use technology and how we can maybe even slow
    some of the actions to make sure that mistakes like this aren't made.
        But I think we need--this is a very welcome report; we need to study
    it very carefully. And in order to get something done on it, it's going
    to take a partnership of everybody involved in health care.

    Russia

        Q. Mr. President, there's been yet another case of espionage from
    Russia. Are you concerned that there's some sort of epidemic of spying
    going on? And what does this say about U.S.-Russian relations?
        The President. From where? From Russia? Well, I think what we should
    do is investigate this like we do all others. But I don't think we
    should stop our efforts to try to drastically cut nuclear weapons or end
    corruption in Russia or do all the other things we're supporting. I
    think this shows the importance of our work that the Congress ratified
    to continue to reduce the nuclear weapons in Russia and the nuclear
    threat associated with the decommissioning of nuclear weapons.
        And I think that what we have to do is continue--we have to deal
    with espionage firmly, but we need to try to reduce the consequences of
    error and mistakes and wrongdoing.
        Q. What do you hear about Yeltsin's health?
        The President. I think it's a case of pneumonia. That's what they
    said. I checked on it yesterday, and they believe that he'll be all right.

    Mass Graves in Mexico

        Q. Mr. President, the Mexican Attorney General is reportedly saying
    that 22 Americans are among those found in the mass graves. Have you
    received any official word?
        The President. No. I asked about it just before I came out here,
    actually, and I haven't. It's a horrible example, apparently, of the
    excesses of the drug dealing cartels in Mexico, and I think it
    reinforces the imperative of our not only trying to protect our border
    but to work with the Mexican authorities to try to combat these.
        You know, we had a lot of success a few years ago in taking down a
    number of the Colombian drug cartels, and one of the adverse
    consequences of that was a lot of the operations were moved north into
    Mexico. And there are organized criminal operations there, and they are
    particularly vicious. You may remember that in that same area a couple
    of years ago, an honest and brave Mexican prosecutor was shot over a
    hundred times in front of his wife and child. So it's a very violent,
    dangerous thing, and we have to be on top of it.
        Thank you.

    Panama Canal

        Q. Mr. President, why aren't you going to Panama? I mean, it's a
    major event in history.
        The President. Well, first of all, I have taken and may have to
    take--I've already taken, I think, a dozen foreign trips this year. It
    is a major event. I think my interest in Latin America is well-known,
    but I may have to take yet another trip before the end of the year, and
    about that time, which is why I asked President Carter and Secretary Albright to head our delegation.
        I think that President Carter deserves
    enormous credit for his leadership in getting the Panama Canal Treaty
    through. It was, at the time, as you remember, very controversial,
    immensely unpopular. A lot of Members in the Senate were--had their
    seats put in peril over it. And I think it----
        Q. So you're not against the turnover?
        The President. Oh, no. I supported it at the time, and I still
    support it. I think it's the right thing to do. I think that the new
    Government of Panama is committed to maintaining the canal in an
    appropriate way and keeping it open and working with us to do so, and
    having good relations.
        So no one in Panama or anywhere in Latin America should draw any
    adverse conclusion. We have a lot of things going on in the world

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    now. I've been out of the country a lot. I need to get ready for the new
    Congress and the new budget, and I may have to take another foreign trip
    at about the same time, which is why I have not committed to make the
    trip. But I think----
        Q. What, which one?
        The President. I can't talk about it. [Laughter] But I think--I do
    think that Jimmy Carter deserves to lead our
    delegation down there. He did a historic and great thing in advocating
    the Panama Canal Treaty. But the people of Panama should know that this
    President and our Government strongly support both the treaty and the
    event, which will occur in a few days.
        Q. You're not worried about the Chinese controlling the canal?
        The President. I think the Chinese will, in fact, be bending over
    backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and able and fair
    manner. This is like them, is like China coming into the WTO. I think
    they'll want to demonstrate to a distant part of the world that they can
    be a responsible partner, and I would be very surprised if any adverse
    consequences flowed from the Chinese running the canal.

    President's Possible Visit to Ireland

        Q. When are you going to Ireland?
        The President. I don't know. You know, I'd like to go once a month.

    Note: The President spoke at 9:20 a.m. in the Oval Office at the White
    House prior to departure for San Francisco, CA. In his remarks, he
    referred to President Boris Yeltsin of Russia.