    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
    [November 29, 1999]
    [Pages 2153-2154]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on Signing Consolidated Appropriations Legislation for Fiscal
    Year 2000
    November 29, 1999

        Thank you. Good afternoon. Please be seated. I want to welcome the
    Members of Congress who are here, members of the Cabinet, the police
    officers and teachers who are shielding me from the cold wind--
    [laughter]--and who represent the big winners in this year's budget. I
    would like to say a special word of thanks to Jack Lew, Sylvia Mathews, Larry
    Stein, and Martha Foley for the work that they did on this budget. And I know
    that many Members of the Senate and the House who are here brought their
    staff members who worked on the budget. I want to thank them for their
    work, as well.
        Last January, in my State of the Union Address, I asked our Congress
    to use this truly historic time of peace and prosperity to meet our
    generation's responsibilities to the new century: to extend our economic
    prosperity, improve our education system, make our streets safer,
    protect our environment, move more Americans from welfare to work,
    prepare for the aging of our Nation, and strengthen our leadership in
    the world. The first budget of the 21st century was a long time in
    coming, but it goes a very long way toward fulfilling those historic
    responsibilities.
        Though it leaves some challenges unmet, it represents real progress.
    It is a budget for a Government that lives within its means and lives up
    to the values of the American people. We value prosperity, and this
    budget will help to extend it. It maintains the fiscal discipline that
    has turned deficits into surpluses and gives us what will be in February
    the longest economic expansion in the history of the United States.
        It avoids risky tax cuts that would have spent hundreds of billions
    of dollars from the Social Security surplus and drained our ability to
    advance education and other important public purposes.
        The budget keeps us on track toward paying down the debt so that in
    15 years, our Nation will be debt-free for the first time since 1835.
    This will mean lower interest rates and greater growth for a whole
    generation of Americans.
        We value education, and this budget truly puts education first,
    continuing our commitment to hire 100,000 highly qualified teachers to
    lower class size in the early grades, which common sense and research
    both tells us leads to improved learning.
        The budget also helps to fulfill another promise I made last winter,
    to encourage more accountability for results in our Nation's schools.
    Under this budget, for the first time we will help States and school
    districts turn around or shut down their worst performing schools,
    schools that year after year fail to give our most disadvantaged
    students the learning they need to escape poverty and reach their full
    potential. And the budget provides further help for students to reach
    higher standards by doubling funds for after-school and summer school
    programs, which will enable us to reach hundreds of thousands of more
    students, and by increasing support for mentoring programs, including
    the GEAR UP program to help students go on to college.
        We value the safety of our families, and this budget will make
    America a safer place. It invests in our COPS program, which already has
    funded 100,000 community police officers and helped to give us the
    lowest crime rate in 25 years. This agreement will help to hire up to
    50,000 more community police officers, targeted

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    in neighborhoods where the crime rates still are too high.
        We value the environment, and this budget protects the environment
    and preserves our precious natural heritage. It includes our historic
    lands legacy initiative to set aside more of our magnificent natural
    areas and vital green spaces, and does not include destructive
    antienvironmental riders.
        We value quality health care, and this budget includes historic
    investments in biomedical research, mental health, pediatric training,
    and other areas. And it ensures that hospitals and other medical
    providers will have the resources they need to provide the 39 million
    elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries with the quality health care
    they need and deserve.
        Finally, we value America's role of leadership in the world, and
    this budget strengthens that role, with greater investments in our
    Nation's strong defense and our Nation's diplomacy, by paying our dues
    and arrears to the United Nations, meeting our commitments to the Middle
    East peace process, providing debt relief for the poorest countries of
    the world, and funding efforts to safeguard nuclear weapons and
    expertise in Russia.
        Let me thank the leaders of both parties for their roles in this
    agreement. We had a lot of late night, long phone calls which led to it.
    I thank the leaders of the relevant committees and subcommittees for
    their special efforts in this regard. And, of course, I want to say a
    special word of thanks to the leaders and members of my party in both
    Houses who strongly supported my efforts for the 100,000 teachers, the
    50,000 police, the investments in the environment, and paying the U.N.
    dues.
        As we celebrate what we have accomplished, I ask us all to be humble
    and mindful of what we still have to accomplish. To give all Americans
    in all health plans the protections they need, we still need a strong,
    enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights. To curb gun violence and keep
    firearms out of the hands of criminals and children, we still need
    sensible gun safety legislation to close the gun show loophole in the
    Brady law, to ban the importation of large ammunition clips, to include
    the requirement for child trigger locks in a juvenile Brady bill. To
    build one America with freedom and justice for all, we should pass the
    hate crimes prevention act. To meet the challenge of the aging of
    America, we must extend the life of the Social Security Trust Fund well
    beyond the years of the baby boomers' retirement, lift the earnings
    limitations, and alleviate poverty among older women on Social Security.
    To ensure the health of our seniors in the years to come, we must secure
    and modernize Medicare, including a voluntary prescription drug benefit.
    To make sure hard-working Americans have a place at the table of our
    prosperity, we must pass a new markets initiative to give Americans the
    same incentives to invest in poor areas they have to invest in poor
    areas around the world. We must raise the minimum wage and increase our
    support for quality child care.
        In the weeks and months ahead, we can achieve these vital goals if
    we keep in mind that the disagreements we have are far less important
    than our shared values and our shared responsibility to the future. With
    this budget, we have helped to begin that future.
        Again, let me thank the leaders and the Members in Congress in both
    parties that contributed to a budget that passed with large majorities
    in both Houses and both parties. I am proud to sign a bill that I
    believe will give us a stronger, better America in the 21st century.
        I'd like to now invite the Members of Congress to come up and stand
    with me, and then I'd like to ask the police officers and the teachers
    to come in behind the Members of Congress, and we'll sign the budget.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White
    House. H.R. 3194, approved November 29, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
    113.