[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
[January 23, 2004]
[Pages 115-123]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the United States Conference of Mayors
January 23, 2004

    Thanks for your kind words, Big Jim. 
[Laughter] I've known him for quite a while, and he's an honorable man 
who's doing a fine job for the mayors. And I appreciate you all giving 
me a chance to come by and visit. I've got some thoughts I'd like to 
share with you about how we can work together to make this country 
hopeful and safe and secure.
    I want to, first, thank you for serving your communities. It's not 
easy to be a mayor. Probably a lot harder than being a President. After 
all, I don't have to fill potholes--[laughter]--or empty the trash. 
[Laughter] But I do really want to thank you. This country is a fabulous 
country because we've got good, honorable people who are willing to 
serve at all levels of government. And one of the key levels of 
government, of course, is running the city hall, and you're doing a fine 
job. And I look forward to working with you, and so does my 
administration.
    I do want to thank you all for the invitation. I want to thank Mayor 
Plusquellic, who's going to be 
chairman next year. Is that done? Yes--okay, good. I didn't want to jump 
the gun. [Laughter] I look forward to working with you. Mayor 
O'Neill, thank you very much for having me.
    Mayor Riley, it's good to see you, 
sir. You reminded me, my mother went to high 
school in the town he runs in South Carolina, and I reminded him that 
she graduated--[laughter]--like her son, barely.
    Speaking about sons, there's nothing wrong with a guy following in 
his father's footsteps. In this case, this guy is doing it really well. 
Mayor Daley, I appreciate you. Great mayor.
    I appreciate my temporary Mayor, Mayor Williams. He's a really good guy. He's the Mayor of Washington, DC. 
I notice you were over lobbying Laura the other 
day to handle a project. [Laughter] He knows where the power is in the 
White House. [Laughter] I appreciate you, Tony. He's a good fellow. We 
worked hard on an interesting education initiative. He took a bold 
leadership position on education, and we worked with the Congress to get 
some scholarship money to poor students in Washington, DC, who are going 
to schools that are failing, that will help liberate them and their 
parents to be able to choose new schools. And this is a landmark piece 
of legislation that's going to change people's lives for the better. And 
the Mayor showed strong leadership. He got out on front on a tough 
issue, and as a result, the children of this city are going to benefit. 
And I appreciate you, Mayor, a lot for taking that on.
    I want to thank the mayors who are here from Texas. Yes. Behave 
yourselves. [Laughter] Go to bed early. [Laughter] Don't whoop and 
holler. [Laughter] But I'm glad you're here. I miss my home State. I 
love Texas. I love the people who represent our State, and thanks for 
coming today.
    I also want to thank Pat McCrory for 
meeting me. You might remember he is the mayor of Charlotte, North 
Carolina. We

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worked together on brownfield legislation, which, Tommy, I want to thank you and the organization for working on 
that important piece of legislation. It will change America for the 
better. It's a collaborative effort between the administration and the 
mayors to do some good environmental policy that will make communities a 
better place.
    McCrory--I wanted to talk about 
brownfields--of course, he wanted to talk about football. [Laughter] And 
I bet Mayor Menino does too. [Laughter] So 
perhaps I can arrange a little bit of a friendly wager between you two, 
if it hasn't happened yet. It has happened? Well, that's good. Be 
careful what you bet. [Laughter]
    I wish I could report to you that the war on terror is over with and 
America is safe and secure, but I cannot. I can't tell you that in good 
conscience because I don't believe in it. The truth is that there's an 
enemy that still lurks out there. And we must continue to work together 
to protect our country. It is the most solemn duty of government, is to 
protect American people.
    It's important for all of us in positions of responsibility never to 
forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001. It is natural that we 
would, as distance passes, that we would kind of try to think for the 
best and hope for the best and think that time has maybe solved the 
problem of the first war of the 21st century. It's just not the case. 
It's not the case, and so we will continue to work with you on homeland 
security.
    My '05 budget has got $30 billion in there for homeland security. 
That's 3 times the amount spent prior to September the 11th. It's 
important that the money be spent wisely and focused on the protection 
of the American people.
    Mayor Jim just told me, on the way in he 
said, ``You know, one of the problems we face, we mayors face, is that 
the money is allocated and gets stuck.'' And I appreciated that 
recognition of the problem, and so we'll work with the mayors to make 
sure it gets unstuck. I understand sometimes it gets stuck not in 
Washington; it gets stuck at the State level, as I understand. Look I 
don't--hold on, I'm an ex-Governor, so I'm--[laughter]--and we're 
hosting the Governors pretty soon. [Laughter] But it will provide an 
opportunity to work this out so that it works better.
    Listen, I'm not interested in pointing fingers. I'm interested in 
making the system work better. Our most solemn duty is to work together 
to protect our people. That is the most important responsibility we 
have. And I want to thank you for the coordination that is taking place 
between the Federal Government, the State government, and the local 
governments.
    I've asked Tom Ridge often, how well are we 
doing communicating with each other, how good is the city response 
mechanism? And the report is very good. And the mayors get the credit. 
The mayors get the credit for energizing Joint Terrorism Task Forces. 
The mayors get the credit for good communication. The mayors get credit 
for good response.
    Recently, over the Christmas holidays, Los Angeles and Las Vegas and 
Washington, DC, and New York were put on especially high alert, and I'm 
telling you, the mayors and their offices did a fabulous job of 
coordinating information and activity. And I don't know if they're out 
there, but mayor, you deserve a lot of credit for doing the right thing 
and for responding.
    I know there's some talk in your communities about the PATRIOT Act. 
Let me tell you about the PATRIOT Act right quick. We're in a new war, a 
different kind of war. We need to be able to share information across 
jurisdictional boundaries at the Federal level. Do you realize, prior to 
September the 11th, 2001, the CIA could not pass information to the FBI 
or vice versa? By law, they were prohibited from sharing information. 
How can you fight a war against terrorists who hide in dark corners of 
the world and maybe slide into our

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country if you can't share information? We need the CIA and the FBI to 
be able to talk to each other.
    As I said in the State of the Union, many of the provisions in the 
law have been used to catch embezzlers or criminals. We need to make 
sure those provisions stay in the law. We're at war. We're trying to 
hunt terrorists. It's a different kind of war.
    In the old days, you know, you could measure progress based upon 
tanks destroyed or airplanes brought down to Earth, you know, by 
missiles or air-to-air combat. It's no longer the way it is in the 21st 
century. We're on an international manhunt. We have to find these people 
before they come and get us. And in order to do so, we need the best 
intelligence and the capacity to share that intelligence across 
jurisdictional boundaries. The PATRIOT Act is vital for our security, 
and Congress needs to renew it.
    We want to work with you on defending America. The best way to 
defend America, however, is to stay on the offensive and to find these 
killers, one by one, and bring them to justice. That's precisely what 
our Government is doing and will continue to do. There are thousands of 
military personnel, with aid from intelligence personnel, on an 
international manhunt. Slowly but surely, we are dismantling the Al 
Qaida network that caused such great harm to America and still continues 
to plot, by the way.
    I said in the speech the other night that two-thirds of known 
leaders have been captured or killed. That's a significant number when 
you think about where we were prior to September the 11th. We're, slowly 
but surely, demolishing them. If you--if Al Qaida was a corporation in 
America, you'd have the board of directors somewhat intact, but the 
operators, the middle management, retired, no longer useful, no longer a 
part of the problem.
    And we're going to stay on the hunt, which requires good 
intelligence, good cooperation, good participation with friends and 
allies around the world. As the world saw, there is no hole deep enough 
from the long arm of American justice.
    We're making progress. It's important for America to speak clearly 
and, when America says something, to mean it. And so when I said right 
after September the 11th, ``If you harbor a terrorist, you're just as 
guilty as the terrorist,'' I meant it. I meant it as clearly as I could 
say it. And the Taliban found out what we meant. Thanks to a coalition, 
a large coalition of freedom-loving nations, we removed the Taliban from 
power. And America is more secure for it, because remember, Afghanistan 
was a haven for training bases. This is where many of the Al Qaida 
fighters learned how to fight and kill.
    And as importantly, the people of Afghanistan are free. They're free 
from the clutches of one of the most barbaric regimes in history. It is 
hard for the Western mind to fathom such a regime, a regime that refuses 
to allow young girls to go to school, but that's the way it was. And 
today, thanks to our coalition and our deep love for freedom and our 
intense desire to protect ourselves, young girls go to school in 
Afghanistan, and the world is better off for it.
    And as you know, I made a tough decision to take out Saddam 
Hussein, and I did so for this reason: 
September the 11th made it clear that America can no longer ignore 
gathering threats. Oceans no longer protected us from harm. We just 
couldn't say, ``Okay, well, there's a gathering threat. Let's just hope 
it goes away.'' I'm never going to forget the lessons of September the 
11th, 2001.
    And so, when we saw a threat--we saw a threat; we dealt with it. We 
dealt in this way: I went to the United Nations, and I said, ``You've 
given this man warning after warning after 
warning, and he's totally ignored you. You've got to have credibility.'' 
We want international institutions to work, but he ignored them. And the 
more he

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ignored them, the weaker the United Nations became. So I said, ``Let's 
pass a resolution,'' which was passed unanimously. ``Now let's enact, 
enact the resolution. Let's be a credible body. Let's be people, when 
you say something, people believe it for the sake of peace and 
freedom.''
    And we moved. We moved against a man who 
had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, attacked 
his neighbors, a man who we found out subsequently had murdered 
thousands of men, women, and children and buried them in mass graves, a 
person who when he found dissenters, tortured them, a person who ruled 
with utmost fear.
    No, we acted in our own--for our own security. No one can say the 
world is not more safe with Saddam Hussein 
sitting in a jailhouse. It is more safe, and so is America.
    Our most important duty is to protect America. But I also want you 
to know that something else drives me. And it's that my belief that 
freedom is not America's gift to the world, but freedom is the Almighty 
God's gift to each man and woman in this world. And it's the spread of 
freedom that will bring peace. Free societies are peaceful societies.
    And yet, we're running against a pretty strong current, because some 
in the world say that certain people, evidently, can't be self-governing 
and can't be free. That's not what Americans believe. We believe that 
people--all people from all walks of life--have got freedom indelibly 
etched in their heart. And I believe this Nation has an obligation to 
lead the world to be more free and more peaceful.
    I know many of you--you hear from families whose sons and daughters 
are in our military. I try the best I can to thank them for their 
service. I hope you do as well. I know you do. I know you're just as 
proud of them as I am. But I want to assure you as leaders in your 
community, these troops will have the resources they need to be 
successful in the war against terror.
    We're making good progress--we really are--in parts of the world. 
Afghanistan has now got a constitution which talks about freedom of 
religion and talks about women's rights. I don't think anybody would 
have dreamed that would have been possible prior to September the 11th, 
and now it's a reality. Democracy is flourishing. The world is better 
off because of that.
    I met with some of the city council leaders in Baghdad when I snuck 
in over Thanksgiving. I hope someday that you're able to welcome them to 
your own cities. And these are people that are--you can imagine what 
their vision might be like. First of all, they're overwhelmed with the 
thought of being free. That makes sense, because they had been locked in 
this cell of a country by a brutal tyrant. And they're learning what it 
means to be a free country, and they're learning what it means to be 
able to get along with their neighbor that may have a different view of 
how to worship the Almighty. But it's happening.
    Adnan Pachachi was with us the other day. 
He sat next to Laura at the State of the Union. 
He came to the Oval Office. He's a distinguished gentleman who believes 
in the possibilities of the Iraqi people. He sees a clear vision of a 
free country, and we're moving that way, moving toward a basic law that 
honors minority rights, a basic law that--based upon the principles of 
human dignity.
    I hope to have the sovereignty passed over, and I think we will, by 
June the 30th. But there's still work to do--you read about it in your 
newspapers--because people are trying to shake our will. That's what 
you've got to understand is happening. They're willing to kill innocent 
life to shake our will, but thugs and assassins will not intimidate 
America. We will stay the course until the job is done, because a free 
Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will make the world more peaceful. 
These are historic times. This is an historic opportunity to

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change the world, and America will continue to lead.
    At home, I'm optimistic as well. I'm optimistic because I see the 
economy is growing. That's important for the health of our cities. And 
it's getting better, and statistics say it's getting better. One aspect 
about the growing economy that I believe speaks to why it's growing is 
the tax cuts we passed. We'll have a philosophical argument about that 
here in Washington, DC, of course. I look forward to it. But I will tell 
you that one of the things in the tax relief plan that I hope you find 
inspirational for your cities is it is aimed at the entrepreneur. Much 
of the tax relief is aimed at the small-business owner. And the truth of 
the matter is the vibrancy of the inner cities of our country depend 
upon ownership.
    When more people own a small business, when people are starting 
their own business, when people are creating small businesses, they're 
creating jobs. They're not only creating a more vibrant and hopeful 
community; more jobs are being created. And the tax relief we passed 
was, in part, aimed at small businesses for this reason: Most small 
businesses are sole proprietorships or Subchapter S corporations, and 
they, therefore, pay tax at the individual income-tax rate. And so 
therefore, when you reduce individual income taxes, you're injecting 
capital into the small-business sectors of America's cities.
    The entrepreneurial spirit is strong in America. You know it as well 
as I do. The desire for some to own their business is strong, and the 
tax relief we passed helped invigorate that spirit.
    So this economy is growing, and we've got to make sure people are 
prepared to meet the jobs of the 21st century. It starts with making 
sure there's a literate America, which--make sure that the schools work 
well. No Child Left Behind Act--let me tell you my view of that 
important piece of legislation, since I was the person that asked 
Congress to pass it. I said, first of all, ``We'll increase the 
budgets,'' which we have done by 49 percent since 2001. But I've also 
said, ``In return for additional money, primarily aimed at Title I 
students, we should expect results.'' You see, some people aren't 
interested--well, I'm sure they're interested in results. They just 
don't want to measure results, and I think that's a shame. If you 
believe that every child can learn, then you want to know whether or not 
that's happening. It seems like to me that if the expectation is for 
excellence, we ought to measure.
    We ought to measure in a way that is open, measure in a way that 
puts the results out for everybody to see, including the mayors. So you 
know for a fact whether or not the obligations of our society are being 
met to the youngest of our children. In the bill, in the No Child Left 
Behind Act, not only do we insist upon local control of schools, an 
accountability system designed at the State or local level, we also say 
that when you see failure early, there's additional money to make sure 
children aren't left behind. This is an important piece of legislation, 
and I will resist any attempt to undermine it.
    I laid out the other night a Jobs for the 21st Century program. A 
part of that is to make sure there's additional money to help junior 
high and high school students who have been just simply shuffled through 
the system. And that's what's happened, as you know. If you want to be 
blunt about what has taken place, sometimes when you don't measure, you 
just shuffle kids through. Then you wake up at the high school level and 
find out that the literacy level of our children are appalling. I expect 
you, as mayors, to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations. I 
challenge you to keep raising that bar and standards.
    And we want to help here. We've got money for that. We've got money 
for additional grants, for Pell grants for low-income kids who are 
taking a good, strong curriculum. I told you what the Mayor did.

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He's challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations. It might not have 
been the most politically popular thing in certain editorial pages or 
around the city, but he's taken the lead. He's not afraid to lead, and 
that's what we expect from people at the local level when it comes to 
insisting that every child learn and no child be left behind in America.
    I also hope you work with your community colleges. The community 
college system provides a great opportunity to make sure you match 
willing workers with the skills necessary to occupy the jobs of the 21st 
century. Some of you who have been around long enough may remember the 
old days when they had workforce training requirements that said, ``Just 
go train people.'' So they'd go out and train 1,000 hairdressers for 50 
jobs. You'd have 950 well-trained hairdressers, but they weren't 
working.
    We've got to make sure the workforce training programs focus on the 
needs of the employers. And I know many of you are doing that in your 
communities and many of you are working with your local chambers. I went 
to Phoenix, and if the mayor is here, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for your hospitality. But there is a really interesting 
collaboration between the high-tech community and the community college 
system, all aimed at providing people with the skills so that when the 
job base expands, and as it is in many communities, they've got the 
skills necessary to fill the work.
    There is a health care shortage of workers in America. You need to 
work with your community colleges to make sure that those colleges are 
able to provide the skills in the health care industry so that people 
who want to work can do so. And that's what we're talking about when you 
hear about this community college initiative of $250 million. I 
certainly hope the Congress listens as well, because it makes sense to 
use the community college system wisely.
    Speaking about workers, I want to talk about illegal immigrants who 
are working in your cities. I believe strongly that this Nation is a 
nation of rule of law, and therefore, we must be open about what's 
taking place. And as you know, there's a lot of people here on false 
papers who have been smuggled in by ``coyotes,'' who have risked their 
lives to come and do what many of us--many of our citizens do, which is 
to work hard to put food on the table for their families. And they're 
here, and they're working, and they're making a contribution to the 
economy. And yet we don't have a system to deal with them, do we? We 
have a system that's underground, that's in the shadows of society. And 
in my judgment, that's not right.
    So what I think we need to do is have what I call a temporary-worker 
program, to issue a card, a temporary-worker card that's legitimate and 
real, that says, if you're a willing American employer, you can hire a 
willing foreign employee that has a temporary-worker card, so long as 
there's not an American worker available. In other words, people are 
doing jobs Americans aren't doing. And they're coming to our country, 
and they're taking great risk. And we've got a lot of Border Patrol 
agents trying to chase the good, hard-working people down. If we make 
the system work right, if we make it legitimate, then our Border Patrol 
will be able to chase down true threats to our national security. 
They'll be able to focus on the threats. We won't be putting our 
employers in a position where they're hoping the documentation that's 
presented to them is real.
    Now, this isn't an amnesty program. Let me be clear about this. This 
is a temporary-worker program to be registered and aboveboard. I oppose 
amnesty because amnesty--amnesty would encourage further illegal 
immigration. And I oppose amnesty because amnesty would reward those who 
have broken the laws of the United States. We've had people in line 
trying to become a citizen of our country. They've been waiting in line 
for a long period of time, and this program will not allow people to 
jump

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ahead in the line of those who have been here legally.
    I think this is a realistic approach to make sure the employer-
employee relationship is honest in this country. And I also think it's 
necessary. I think it's necessary because I don't like the thought of 
hard-working citizens, no matter where they may be from, not willing to 
report abuse, for example, because they'd then get shipped home and 
wouldn't be able to do their job as a mom or a dad. This is a humane 
country, and we need to treat people humanely, with good, reasonable, 
commonsense law. I look forward to Congress to getting it passed. I 
thank you for giving me a chance to explain that piece of policy.
    I'm winding down. I'm sure Daley is 
wondering when he's going to quit. [Laughter] Being from the Windy City 
he's--[laughter]--he sees the President is a little windy, himself. 
[Laughter]
    Let me talk about housing right quick. I know housing is important 
for the mayors. We want people owning their own home in America. This 
administration has been consistent about promoting what I call an 
ownership society. You heard me talk about creating environments for the 
entrepreneur to flourish. I want people owning their own home. 
Homeownership is high in America. I think it's the highest ever, which 
is really positive. It's positive for our country. We understand, when 
somebody owns something, he or she has a vital stake in the future of 
this country.
    But we've got more work to do. There's still a minority 
homeownership gap in America. I think here at the mayors', I laid out 
some initiatives that, in the past, one of which just recently passed 
the Congress, which is the downpayment assistance program. I'm asking 
Congress for $200 million to help people with their downpayment. As you 
know better than me, many citizens have the desire to own a home, but 
they don't have the dough to make the downpayment. And therefore, they 
balk at making the decision. So we want to help families with 
downpayments, and we've now got a plan to do so. Congress needs to fund 
it. It's authorized. It now needs to be funded.
    The print on these contracts is a little too fine for first-time 
homebuyers. And frankly, it's a little too fine for multiple-time home 
buyers. It's hard to understand the contracts. And I know HUD is working 
to simplify the contracts and to make it easier and less expensive for 
people to enter the process of buying a home, by simplifying the forms.
    I don't know if you felt it yet. We're expanding counseling services 
around the country, many times run by faith-based groups, by the way, to 
help people understand what it means to buy a home. First-time 
homebuyers are sometimes confused by not only the regulations but the 
obligations. And we've got counseling services being expanded out of 
HUD. And if you haven't had one in your neighborhood, call HUD. Get them 
to show up. It's a useful service. It's a helpful service to close the 
homeownership gap.
    I'm going to talk to the Congress about allowing the Federal home 
administration to permit zero-percent downpayment loans to low-income 
Americans. That needs to happen in order to encourage more 
homeownership. And Congress also, by the way--and they need to pass the 
single family housing credit to help people who are building these 
homes, these affordable homes inside America's cities.
    And we're making progress, by the way. The gap is narrowing. There's 
more work to do. I look forward to working with the mayors to close the 
minority homeownership gap in America, for the good of the country--for 
the good of your cities, but for the good of the country as well.
    Let me conclude by talking about a really important domestic 
initiative, at least as far as I'm concerned, and that's the Faith-Based 
Initiative--see if I can explain it properly to you. First of all, we 
strongly believe in the separation of church and

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state here in Washington, DC, and that's the way it's going to be. 
Secondly, I love the fact that people are able to worship freely in our 
country, and if you choose not to worship, you're just as patriotic as 
your neighbor. Freedom of religion means freedom to practice any 
religion you choose or the freedom not to practice.
    Thirdly, there has been discrimination against faith-based programs 
in Washington, DC. Sure, you can receive a Federal grant, but you have 
to take the cross off the wall in order to do so or the Star of David 
down or the crescent. Well, how can you be a faith-based program if you 
can't practice your faith? All of a sudden, you become just another 
program.
    Fourthly, I want you to know that out of frustration with Congress, 
I've asked them to pass a Faith-Based Initiative. I just decided through 
Executive order to open up as much Federal money as we possibly could, 
the grantmaking process, to faith-based programs, to let them apply. We 
want people of faith involved in solving people's lives.
    I know that you have opened an office to expedite Federal monies or 
the process or the grantmaking progress--process for your faith-based 
programs in your communities. I urge you to take advantage of it. I urge 
you to take advantage of it. You know as well as I do that many of the 
problems your citizens face are problems of the heart--addiction--and 
programs sometimes work. Government programs sometimes work, but 
sometimes they don't work. And sometimes it requires a higher power than 
a government program to help change a person's life. You've got armies 
of compassion in your communities that I'm confident, by working 
together, we can unleash, for the betterment of the people we serve.
    You know, I was down in New Orleans. Ray Nagin is the fine mayor of that city. And we had a Faith-Based 
Initiative there, and he has got a faith-based coordinating group to not 
only work in the city but with the State of Louisiana. I also urge you--
kind of like the grant problem we got in other areas, sometimes the 
money goes to the States, and if the State is not anxious to be involved 
with the faith programs, it gets stuck and doesn't make it to you. And 
so I urge you to work with your Governors to make sure that their faith-
based offices are up and running and that they help cut through the 
inherent prejudice toward faith programs, the inherent prejudice in 
government.
    And I'm talking about all faiths, by the way. There's fantastic 
Jewish charities in America that are helping change this country, one 
soul at a time. You ought to look at those and welcome them and 
encourage them. Same with the Muslim charities and, of course, the 
Christian charities that are strong. This Government is--will continue 
to work hard to make sure this vision becomes reality.
    Jim Towey--raise your hand, 
Towey; right over there--he runs the faith-based office in the White 
House. We've got faith-based offices throughout bureaucracies. I see 
that the Deputy Secretary of HUD designee is 
with us. We've got a faith office at HUD that can be used by mayors and 
community groups to access Federal money. Billions of dollars are now 
available. I encourage you--I encourage you to use this source of fund 
and empower one of the greatest strengths we have in our country, the 
faith community.
    There are other initiatives. I laid out the prison initiative, $300 
million to help on the prison reentry program. This will make a big 
difference in your communities. It will make a big difference in 
people's lives. Call upon your faith-based programs to help with these 
souls that are looking for help. You know, the clinical probation 
program sometimes works. But oftentimes, it's helpful to have somebody 
with their arms out there saying, ``I love you, brother,'' or ``I love 
you, sister. What can I do to help you reenter our society?''

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    That's not exactly the traditional approach, I readily concede, to 
prison--to rehabilitation programs. I know that. But sometimes 
traditional rehabilitation programs have fallen short of the mark. 
Sometimes, it's that extra ingredient called love that will make a 
fundamental difference in somebody's future. And our houses of worship 
are houses of love. That's what they exist for. The universal call, love 
your neighbor just like you'd like to be loved yourself, is a important 
part of the soul of your community. Use it. And the Federal Government 
want to help you.
    Towey's job is to make sure 
that we cut through the strings, to make sure your faith groups are able 
to access the money without losing their faith. You're going to hear 
people say, ``Why do I want to interface with the Government? They're 
going to call me to have to do something I don't want to do.'' Towey's 
job--and by the way, just to show you what kind of society we have, 
before he came, he was Mother Teresa's lawyer. [Laughter] I'm not going 
to get into lawsuit abuse--[laughter]--but he's doing a good job. And 
his job is to make sure that the armies of compassion are unleashed.
    So those are the things that are on my mind. I thank you for giving 
me a chance to come by and share them with you. I'll tell you what else 
is on my mind. I understand '04 is going to be a difficult year for 
some. But I want you to know this--[laughter]--I want you to know this. 
I don't want--I don't want politics to get in the way of me doing my job 
and you doing your job for the people. I want you to know, I assure 
you--I understand it, and so do you. But let us not let the elections 
get in the way of our solemn responsibility. I don't care what your 
party is. I don't care who you're for, for President. I have a job to 
do, and so do you. And by working together, by working together on key 
initiatives in a way that respects our differences, honors our values, 
we can do our job for America.
    And that's what I expect of you, and I know that's what you expect 
of me. And together, we're going to make this country continue to be 
great. Thanks for coming.

Note: The President spoke at 10:25 a.m. at the Capital Hilton Hotel. In 
his remarks, he referred to Mayor James A. Garner of Hempstead, NY, 
president, U.S. Conference of Mayors, who introduced the President; 
Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic of Akron, OH, vice president, U.S. 
Conference of Mayors; Mayor Beverly O'Neill of Long Beach, CA, advisory 
board chair, U.S. Conference of Mayors; Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr., of 
Charleston, SC; Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL; Mayor Anthony A. 
Williams of Washington, DC; Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston, MA; former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; Adnan Pachachi, Acting President, 
Iraqi Governing Council; Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, AZ; and Roy A. 
Bernardi, Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development, 
Department of Housing and Urban Development.