[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (1999, Book II)]
[October 20, 1999]
[Pages 1828-1832]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on Signing the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and
Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000,
and an Exchange With Reporters
October 20, 1999
The President. Ladies and gentlemen, let me, first of all, welcome
you all here for the signing of the VA/HUD bill, and say what I would
like to do. I want to make a statement, sign the bill, pass out the
pens, and then if you have questions, I'll answer the questions then.
Okay?
Q. It's a deal.
The President. We've got a deal? [Laughter] That way we won't all
have to claw each other to death before we finish this.
I would like to welcome Senator Edwards and
Congressman Walsh and Congressman
Mollohan, Secretary Cuomo, Secretary West, NSF Director
Colwell, NASA Director Dan Goldin, and FEMA Director James Lee Witt, as well as the representatives of all these groups who
are here who worked so hard with us to fashion what I think is a truly
remarkable and positive piece of legislation.
I also want to say a special word of thanks to our OMB Director,
Jack Lew, to Sylvia Mathews, and his whole staff, for the wonderful work that they did
on this in working with the Congress, and all the people here
represented.
For over 200 years, Presidents have been called upon to approve or
not approve spending bills passed by the Congress. Because these bills
can profoundly affect the future of our Nation, Presidents must
carefully weigh their decisions about signing them. In the 6\1/2\ years
I have been President, I have put my signature on spending bills only
when convinced they reflect the values of our people, respected the need
for Government to live within its means, and looked toward the future.
The VA/HUD bill I'm about to sign clearly meets these standards. It not
only maintains the fiscal discipline that has led us to this moment of
prosperity; it also honors our highest values.
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We value fairness and work. This bill reflects that by strengthening
fair housing enforcement and by providing housing vouchers to help
60,000 more hard-working, low income families move closer to where their
jobs are. I want to thank Secretary Cuomo,
especially, for his initiative on this. The bill also provides
significant increases in housing for elderly Americans and puts in place
a plan to ensure that they will continue to have safe and affordable
places to live.
We value opportunity. This bill expands opportunity to those who
have not felt the full benefits of our prosperity yet. It maintains our
commitments to empowerment zones and enterprise communities, while
adding part of my new markets initiative, to give investors the same
incentives to invest in our inner cities and poor rural areas they
currently get to invest in new markets overseas. And the Vice President
and I have worked very hard on this for many years, and I thank the
Congress. I think the idea of bringing free enterprise and empowering
poor communities is something that is becoming a bipartisan consensus in
our country. I hope it is. We know that the Government can never provide
enough economic opportunity in these areas. And we know if we can't
bring private sector enterprise to these areas now, when our economy is
so strong, we'll never get around to doing it. So I thank the Congress
for putting these provisions in.
We value clean air and clean water. This bill provides the
Environmental Protection Agency with the resources it needs to protect
our air and water.
We value our fighting men and women, and thanks to the leadership of
the Vice President and the commitment of
this Congress, this bill adds the extra resources necessary to improve
our veterans' health care.
We value strong communities. This bill will help young people
continue to serve their communities through AmeriCorps. And later today,
we'll celebrate our fifth anniversary, and I'll have more to say about
that.
The bill also provides critical funding for FEMA, to help
communities cope with hurricanes and other unforeseen natural disasters,
especially now, the disasters caused by Hurricane Floyd. Senator
Edwards is here, and I want to thank him for
his work on that.
Last night I asked the congressional leaders when we met to look at
doing more to pay for the agricultural disasters caused, particularly in
this part of our country, by the hurricanes coming on top of the
drought.
This bill also looks to the future. It gives NASA the resources it
needs to probe the mysteries of space and provides the National Science
Foundation with the extra resources it needs to fund research on the
frontiers of information technology. This is a little noticed, I think,
but profoundly important part of this bill, which I predict will have a
big impact on our future for years and years to come.
The legislation is important not just for what it will achieve but
for how it was achieved. I'm pleased that our administration and the
Congress were able to work together successfully on this bill in a
genuine spirit of bipartisan cooperation to resolve our respective
differences. Together, we produced legislation that is fully paid for
and effectively addresses the critical needs of the American people.
We're especially pleased we were able to achieve acceptable funding
levels in a number of areas by providing offsets that were agreed to by
both sides. There is no debate on this bill that there is any Social
Security surplus money involved at all.
Now, as all of you know, I met last night with congressional leaders
of both parties. We agreed to work together in that same spirit to
resolve our remaining differences and make the tough choices necessary
to reach an overall agreement on our other outstanding values and budget
priorities.
First and foremost, we must protect Social Security and strengthen
Medicare. I regret that the leaders of the Republican Party have said
they won't take up the Medicare reform and the prescription drug benefit
this year. I did ask them to consider my proposal, which would lengthen
the life of the Social Security Trust Fund to 2050 and take it out
beyond the life expectancy of the baby boomers, without a tax increase
or without any benefit cuts. And I hope they will do that.
I believe the priorities that we have must also include making the
largest and most diverse group of students in our schools ever, the
smartest and best educated students ever, by giving them a world-class,
21st century education. That includes reducing class size by hiring
100,000 more teachers, building or modernizing 6,000 schools, connecting
every classroom to the Internet, investing in after-school programs to
keep
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our children safe, and demanding accountability, so that we can turn
around failing schools.
We must also work together to keep the crime rate going down. I say
again, I'm glad we've got the lowest crime rate in 26 years and the
lowest murder rate in 32 years. No American believes our country is safe
enough. We should set a goal of making this the safest big country in
the world. That means doing more of what we know works, including
putting 50,000 more community police into our toughest neighborhoods.
It also means, achieving this agreement, that we will have to put
aside our differences and honor our commitment to our environment and
our national security.
Again I say, in spite of all the conflicts of the last few weeks, we
still have a great opportunity to make this a season of progress and
work together to pass a budget that lives within its means and lives up
to our values. We've done it before, and we can do it again. We will be
stronger in the new century because of what we have achieved here today,
and I hope it is just the beginning.
Again, let me thank all of you for your role in this and especially
the Members of the Congress who are here.
[At this point, the President began to sign the bill.]
The President. Helen [Helen Thomas, United
Press International], how many pens did President Johnson use when he
signed the Voting Rights Act?
Ms. Thomas. Fifty. [Laughter] He gave one
to the press, too. [Laughter]
The President. When all else fails, I can always spell my middle
name. [Laughter]
[The President finished signing the bill.]
The President. I'll answer the questions and then pass out the pens.
How's that?
Meeting With Congressional Leaders
Q. Mr. President, after the meeting last night, why did both sides
come out with such conflicting views on taxes, Social Security, tobacco?
The President. I'll tell you exactly what I said about the tobacco
issue and what we said about spending. Now, first of all, there's a big
controversy, as you know, about whether the Congress has already spent
into the Social Security surplus. I don't think we can fully evaluate
all that until we see all these bills and we have a comprehensive
resolution. This bill had its own pay-fors. There's no question that
this bill does not get into the Social Security surplus.
So what I said to them is--I said the following things: Number one,
let's try to have a comprehensive solution. Let's look at all these
bills together, see where we are and where we need to go. Number two,
there were some things that I felt very strongly that we ought to fund
that weren't presently in the bills. I wanted to make sure that we
continued to work on the 100,000 teachers, that we continued to work on
the police, that we paid our commitments to the Middle East peace
process, to reducing the nuclear arsenal in Russia, to our part of our
efforts to alleviate the debt of the poorest countries--that's a big
part of the world's millennium project--to the U.N. dues--I'm trying to
work that out--but that if I ask for extra money, over and above what
they had appropriated, I would make a commitment that we would pay for
it, we would find a way to cover that, so there would be no question
that any extra funds we asked for--which, in the context of the overall
budget, would be quite modest now; there's not that much difference in
the dollars--that that would be paid for and that we ought to get all
this together and look.
Now, with regard to the tobacco tax, what I said was, I was well
aware that they were not going to raise the tobacco tax 55 cents, as I
had originally proposed. I still believe that it would be good health
policy to have a more modest increase or at least a look-back provision
to protect kids from smoking. We're seeing all over the country an
absence of those kinds of efforts. Even in the States that have gotten a
lot of money, some States are doing it; some States aren't. So I think
it would be good policy.
So all I said was that I realized they weren't going to accept my
proposal but that we were now talking about much more modest money that
I thought we could find a way to pay for that they could live with.
2000 Election/Campaign Finance Reform
Q. Mr. President, Elizabeth Dole pulled out of the Presidential race
today. And also, as you know, for I guess the fourth year in a row,
Senate Republicans have defeated the campaign finance efforts. So I
wondered whether--first, what you think of that, the fact that they've
put that aside again, and also, whether Mrs.
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Dole's pulling out is another example, in your opinion, of why these
efforts are necessary?
The President. Well, first of all, let me say about Mrs. Dole, I think she's a very, very, impressive person.
She's had a lot of important public service in her career, and she was
clearly qualified to seek the Presidency. And I regret the fact that
finances alone kept her from going through the first few primaries and
getting to the stage when all those candidates have debates and the
voters can actually see them all in ways other than they see them in
their ads. And I think that's too bad, because I think she has a kind of
experience that's different from that of any other person running, her
work in the Cabinet and in the Red Cross. And I think it's a loss to the
Republican Party and a loss to the country that she couldn't go forward.
Secondly, I think that part of what you see is that fact that
Governor Bush is the first candidate in the
history of the modern era when we've had Federal financing who has given
it up so that an unlimited amount of money could be raised; so that puts
all the others at, I think, a relative disadvantage. It's something that
some people urged on me 4 years ago, because I could have done that, and
I decided it wasn't fair, and I didn't do it. I didn't think it was the
right thing to do.
And finally, obviously it does make the point, as Senator McCain
pointed out earlier, that we do need campaign finance reform, that it's
not just the Presidential campaigns. It's also the Senate races. It's
also the Congress races. And I can only say, I'm very proud of the
members of my party. There were some, I think when I got here in '93,
some of our folks felt ambivalent about it, and we worked and worked and
worked until we've now got, I think, 100 percent of our party in both
Houses voted for both those bills.
You know, the truth is, this is now a matter that's in the hands of
the American people. If they decide it's important enough that it will
become a voting issue for them, we can change the direction of the
country. If they continue to say they care about it but it doesn't
influence their votes, then we won't, because it's a democracy, and
they're in the driver's seat.
But obviously, I think we ought to pass something like the McCain-
Feingold bill. I would even go further. I think--my whole view of this
is that the biggest problem is the cost of communications. So if you
want--and that's not a criticism of the people who charge us money to
run our ads, either, because they can get even more money, as you know.
In the election season, they can get even more money for commercial
clients. But it costs a lot money. So you're either going to have to
have free or reduced television time, radio time, access to the
newspapers, or some guaranteed source of funding, because no matter how
you change the rules, until people can have more or less comparable
access to have their views heard, it's going to be a difficult thing.
But I think we should keep working on it. I hope that Senator
McCain and Senator Feingold aren't too discouraged. I hope they'll be willing to come
back next year. And we'll keep working.
But the plain fact is that the American people need to say not only
that they care about it but that they care enough about it for it to
influence how they vote. And if they do, we'll make some progress.
Defense Appropriations Legislation
Q. Mr. President, are you going to sign or veto the defense bill?
The President. Well, let me tell you what I said yesterday to the
leaders. That's not a decision that I have to make until early next
week. And what I said to them I will say again to you. All these other
bills raise questions already about how they're financed and whether
they're properly financed. And then there are these outstanding
questions I mentioned. I think the teachers--keeping the commitment that
a bipartisan majority of Congress made just a year ago, in 1998, to the
smaller classes and the 100,000 teachers, continuing to do the things we
know will bring the crime rate down with the police, doing right by the
environment, these things are important.
So what I said we needed to do is to look at all the bills that are
outstanding so that we can evaluate exactly where we are and try our
best to reach agreement by next Tuesday. And I promised that our people
would work hard with the congressional leadership, the appropriators,
and all the relevant committees and subcommittees, and that if we had
to, we'd be prepared to work around the clock between now and next
Tuesday to get the job done.
So I think that's how I would like to leave it now. I think it's
important not to give the impression that this whole issue is just about
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one bill, because it's not. You can't just take one bill out of the
reality of the aggregate budget. We got the deficit down and eliminated
it and then got to a surplus by looking at the big picture, and that's
how we ought to deal with this.
Indonesian Elections
Q. Can you comment on the Indonesian elections and the outcome of
that election's impact on the situation in East Timor?
The President. Well, first of all, they accepted the results of the
referendum, which is good, because the Government offered the East
Timorese the chance to vote, and they took it, and they voted--over 78
percent, I think--for independence. So the first thing that has happened
is they accepted the results of the referendum.
The second thing that has happened is they have selected a new
leader consistent with the constitution of Indonesia. And I think that
has to be a very hopeful development for the world.
So I feel pretty good about where we are today. Now, there are still
a lot of problems in East Timor. There are still a lot of hurdles for
Indonesia out there. They've been through an incredibly traumatic time,
not just politically but economically, and a lot of people have been
hurt very badly economically. But I think the events of the last 2 days
should give us all hope that a very great country that the world needs
very much is on the way back, and that's what I'm hoping is happening.
Federal Budget
Q. Mr. President, you said on the budget that the amounts were quite
modest now. How much? How much money are we talking about?
The President. I don't know. I've asked our people to go back and
look at it. But we're not talking about a great deal of money, so that
if we're just talking about that amount of money, I think we could reach
agreement with the Republican and the Democratic leaders about ways to
pay for it.
We're also talking about the substance, though, of some of the
bills. I feel very strongly about not just the amount of money in
education but how is the money going to be spent. We shouldn't back off
of the commitment we made to the American people and to the children of
this country just a year ago, that both Republicans and Democrats were
bragging on in the election a year ago--we shouldn't just turn around
and drop it. I think that's a big mistake, and I'll fight for that.
I think that we need to continue to push raising standards, testing
kids, ending social promotion, but not blaming them for the failure of
the system, which means you've got to have more after-school programs;
you've got to have more summer school programs; and there ought to be a
system which provides help to turn around failing schools, because we
know that's working. In the States where that's going on, that's really
working. Where these schools are being targeted and being told you're
going to have to shut down if you don't turn around, it's working. But
those aren't money problems. And then I have several environmental
concerns that I hope we can work out, that I personally believe are
quite important to our country's future.
Thank you.
Note: The President spoke at 12:47 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. George W. Bush of Texas. H.R.
2684, approved October 20, was assigned Public Law No. 106-74. A portion
of these remarks could not be verified because the tape was incomplete.