[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.