[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 30, Number 43 (Monday, October 31, 1994)]
[Pages 2149-2150]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 6748--National Consumers Week, 1994

October 24, 1994

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The American marketplace is the great engine of our free enterprise 
system. Ever-expanding as it evolves in response to consumer needs and 
desires, it inspires technological innovation and the development of new 
products and services, and it rewards efficiency and productivity. The 
framers of our Constitution sought to establish a free market in which 
competition, ingenuity, and productivity would flourish. Today, it is 
more apparent than ever that their intent has been realized--Americans 
can choose from the greatest variety of goods and services in the 
history of the world.
    This extraordinary economic machine works most efficiently when we 
as consumers are at the controls: when our choices and decisions, our 
requirements and collective will determine the direction and the 
workings of the marketplace. But individuals and the Nation's economy 
suffer when products and services are ineffective, inferior, or unsafe; 
when prices are unfair; and when consumer needs for reliable information 
and protection are unmet. If such abuses were to become common, the 
consequent loss of faith in our free market system would jeopardize our 
American way of life.
    On March 15, 1962, President John F. Kennedy acknowledged the 
centrality of consumers in our marketplace in his Special Message to 
Congress on Protecting the Consumer Interest.
      The Federal Government--by nature the highest spokesman for all 
      the people--has a special obligation to be alert to the consumer's 
      needs and to advance the consumer's interests.
    Since then, what has come to be called the Consumer Bill of Rights 
has evolved as our marketplace has evolved. At present, it includes:
    (1) The Right to Safety--the right to expect that the consumer's 
health, safety, and financial security will be protected effectively in 
the marketplace;

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    (2) The Right to Information--the right to have full and accurate 
information upon which to make free and considered decisions and to be 
protected against false or misleading claims;
    (3) The Right to Choice--the right to make an informed choice among 
products and services in a free market at fair and competitive prices;
    (4) The Right to Be Heard--the right to a full and fair hearing and 
equitable resolution of consumer problems; and,
    (5) The Right to Consumer Education, added by President Gerald R. 
Ford in 1975--the right to continuing consumer education without which 
the consumer cannot enjoy the full benefit of the other enumerated 
rights.
    In the 3 decades since President Kennedy's message, our marketplace 
has changed. Innovations in such vital areas as materials and 
electronics, telecommunications technology, health care, food processing 
and packaging, and financial services; the increasingly fast-paced 
global economy; and the urgent need to preserve our environment have 
altered what we buy as well as how we buy. The technological complexity 
of much of what we buy and, frequently, the distance between buyer and 
maker or seller have expanded the importance of service. Americans 
understand that service means the commitment to consumers that their 
experiences in the marketplace will meet all reasonable expectations of 
civility, responsiveness, convenience, performance, and fairness.
    I propose that for National Consumers Week, 1994, we, as a Nation, 
declare an additional consumer right:
    (6) The Right to Service--the right to convenience, courtesy, and 
responsiveness to consumer problems and needs and all steps necessary to 
ensure that products and services meet the quality and performance 
levels claimed for them.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim the week 
beginning October 23, 1994, as ``National Consumers Week.'' I urge all 
business persons, educators, members of the professions, public 
officials, consumer leaders, and the media to observe this week by 
emphasizing and promoting the fundamental importance of consumer rights 
in our marketplace.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fourth 
day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and nineteenth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:50 a.m., October 25, 
1994]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on October 
26.