[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

[[Page 2154]]

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.