    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
    [May 23, 2000]
    [Pages 1006-1008]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the New Markets Legislation Agreement
    May 23, 2000

        The President.  Thank you very much, everybody. And I think it's
    just ``good afternoon.'' [Laughter] Mr. Speaker, Secretary Summers,
    Secretary Shalala, Administrator
    Alvarez, and Mr. Sperling from the White House. And I want to recognize here from
    the House of Representatives Congressman Rangel, Congressman Talent,
    Congressman Watts, Representatives
    Watt, Kanjorski, Jefferson,
    Velazquez, LoBiondo, Chambliss, Becerra, Bono, Davis, LaFalce, Price, Reyes, Waters, Hinojosa. I think that's
    everybody. [Laughter]
        I'd also like to acknowledge people who aren't here who have
    supported this effort, to Chairman Archer and
    Representatives Clyburn, Roybal-
    Allard, Hayworth, Kildee, and the members of
    the Congressional Black, Hispanic, and Indian Caucuses. And I want to
    acknowledge the presence in the audience of Mayor Webb of Denver and Mayor Campbell of
    Atlanta.
        This morning Speaker Hastert and I
    have the honor of announcing a truly remarkable bipartisan achievement.
    We have completed an agreement to making historic investments in the
    untapped markets of America's inner cities, rural areas, and Native
    American reservations.
        Today, our economy is the strongest it has ever been. But there are
    places that have still not been touched by our prosperity. For over 7
    years, our administration has worked hard to change that. Under the Vice
    President's leadership, we have created and
    administered empowerment zones and enterprise communities; we have
    strengthened the Community Reinvestment Act and fostered community
    development banks and other community financial institutions. These
    initiatives, I believe, have made a significant difference in many
    places in America. But we know that we have more to do, and we know we
    must do more to get private sector firms to step up to their
    responsibility to create jobs and opportunity.
        That's why I launched this new markets initiative last year. I've
    been to Appalachia, to the Mississippi Delta, to East Palo Alto, to
    Newark, to Phoenix, to many other inner cities, and I've been on the
    reservations of the Lakota Sioux and the Navajo.
        Every place I've gone, I've seen talented people eager for
    opportunity and certainly able to work. They are the untapped markets
    that are not only crying out for their own opportunity but clearly
    presenting us an opportunity to keep our economic expansion going
    without inflation.
        Early in this endeavor, I began to talk to the Speaker about this,
    and he told me he was interested in doing something, that it was
    something he was genuinely concerned about. Last November, on our second
    tour, the Speaker and I went together to Englewood, Illinois, along with
    Congressman Rush and Reverend
    Jackson. It's on the south side of Chicago.
    And together, we made a pledge to try to pool all the ideas that both
    parties had for dealing with this challenge and to try to come up with
    one unified, bipartisan effort. At the time, I said, and he said, that
    giving people a chance to make a living or start a business was neither
    a Republican nor a Democratic issue but an American imperative.
        Today we have Members of both parties here in substantial numbers to
    say that we're honoring the commitment we made at Englewood. We have
    achieved an agreement that will allow us to give every family in every
    community a stake in the prosperity Americans have worked so hard to
    build.
        I'd like to give some of the details of this agreement and leave it
    to the Speaker to outline the rest. And then we'd like to invite four of
    our Members, two from each caucus who have

    [[Page 1007]]

    been particularly active in this endeavor, to speak.
        First, under the agreement, people who invest in a high
    unemployment, high poverty area anywhere in our country will qualify for
    a new markets tax credit equal to 30 percent of the amount they invest.
    The American people will share the risk of taking a chance on Americans.
    Of course, no one's going to put up the money if they think they're
    going to lose it. But at least this will give them a greater incentive
    to take that risk.
        Second, the House of Representatives will authorize the other major
    pillars of the new markets initiative: new markets venture capital firms
    geared toward helping small and first-time entrepreneurs; America's
    Private Investment Companies, modeled on the Overseas Private Investment
    Corporation, which will help large-scale businesses expand in or
    relocate to distressed inner-city communities. With these venture
    capital firms and APIC's, we'll provide two dollars of Government-
    guaranteed loans for every one dollar of equity capital investors put
    into new markets. That will lower their interest costs for borrowing
    and, again, reduce the risk of taking a chance on America. We will now
    be able to spur, with these initiatives, more than $20 billion in
    private sector investment.
        Third, the agreement will give a major boost to our empowerment
    zones, which the Vice President helped to launch in 1993 and which have
    proven that investment in inner-cities and rural areas is a right and
    smart thing to do. The agreement will create a third round of zones and
    bring the total number up to 40. It will make both wage credits and tax-
    exempt bonds available across all the empowerment zones and extend the
    life of the zones to 2009.
        As Speaker Hastert will explain in a
    moment, it will also create, in addition to 40 empowerment zones, 40
    renewal communities. These communities were designed by Representatives
    J.C. Watts, James Talent, and Danny Davis, and they will
    operate much like the empowerment zones, although with different tax
    incentives, which the Speaker will explain.
        When I first started this process, I said no one had all the
    answers--if we had all the answers, unemployment would be uniform across
    America--and that I thought we ought to try the best ideas from both
    parties. That is in the best American tradition, and that is exactly
    what this legislation will do.
        Last year the leaders you see here today could have said, ``We've
    got an idea. They've got an idea. Let's have a fight.'' [Laughter] But
    instead, thank goodness, they took a different course, and it led us to
    common ground and, I would argue, higher ground. Once again, I want to
    thank the Speaker for being as good as his
    word on this. I want to thank the Members of both parties for making a
    personal commitment to taking that what we call Third Way.
        Tomorrow the House will vote on the issue of opening new markets
    abroad when it deals with the question of permanent normal trading
    status with China. I hope that we'll see the same bipartisan spirit
    tomorrow we see today. I believe it is very much in our interest. And
    again, as I said, I think it's very important to advance the rule of law
    and human rights in China, which is why we have seen support from the
    President--the new President of Taiwan, the
    leader of the democracy movement in Hong Kong,
    and most recently, the Dalai Lama, for this
    approach.
        I want to say one final thing. The consequences of this vote will be
    felt after I am no longer President. But our country fought three wars
    in Asia in the last half century. We ought to give our children a chance
    to have a different 50 years ahead of us. No one knows what the future
    holds, but we do know which course is likely to give us a more peaceful
    future. It's the sort of thing I hope everyone will think about before
    they cast that vote tomorrow.
        Again, let me say, this is a happy day. It would not have been
    possible if it hadn't been for the Speaker. I thank you, and I'd like to give you the podium now.
        Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

     [At this point, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert
    made brief remarks.]

        The President.  Thank you. Now, I'd like to ask Congressman
    Watts and Representative Nydia
    Velazquez, Congressman Talent, and Congressman Rangel
    to say a few words.

     [The Representatives made brief remarks.]

        The President.  Well, Mr. Talent, just
    on that point, I called Senator Lott this morning
    before we started this and pointed out that Mississippi would do as well
    as any State in America under this legislation. [Laughter] And I talked
    to Senator Daschle about it, who obviously
    has a lot of Native America's population that need the

    [[Page 1008]]

    benefits of this bill. I think we've got a good chance to succeed if we
    can move this bill quickly.
        In closing, I would--there are so many of you here who have worked
    on this for so many years. And I don't want to get into--I'll never
    finish calling you all. But I do want to thank, in his absence,
    Secretary Cuomo and my longtime friend Alvin
    Brown here, who have operated the empowerment
    zone program under the Vice President's
    leadership. They've done a great job, and I thank all of you.
        I just want to make two points in closing. We actually believe--we
    may be wrong, but we actually believe that we can bring the benefits of
    free enterprise to poor people. And I think there's a lot of evidence.
        The other point I'd like to make is, I want to emphasize something
    the Speaker said because I thought it was so important. We revel in our
    mobility, you know, and the average American probably moves 5 times in a
    lifetime. Nearly 20 percent of our people move every year. But the
    people that will really benefit from this are the people that cherish
    their roots, people that don't want to leave the Delta or Appalachia or
    the city neighborhoods from Anacostia to Brooklyn to Englewood to
    wherever, where they grew up; the Native Americans who want to go to
    college and go back home, even if it's to Shiprock, New Mexico, a long
    way from any urban center. And a lot of these people live in communities
    that still don't even have water or sewers or telephones. But if you
    believe intelligence and effort are equally distributed in this old
    world--and I do--we owe it to them.
        And I agree with what Mr. Talent said. I think what we've done is a
    privilege for us. We're just doing what we ought to do. Now we've got to
    go out and finish the job.
        Thank you very much.

     Note: The President spoke at 11:57 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Wellington E. Webb of
    Denver, CO; Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta, GA; Rev. Jesse Jackson,
    civil rights activist; President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan; and Hong Kong
    Democratic Party Chair Martin Lee. The transcript released by the Office
    of the Press Secretary also included the remarks of Speaker Hastert.