[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 21 (Monday, May 29, 1995)]
[Pages 910-911]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Remarks During a Meeting With Surgeon General-Designate Henry Foster and
an Exchange With Reporters
May 26, 1995
Surgeon General Nomination
The President. I want to thank the Senate Labor and Human Resources
Committee for endorsing the nomination of Dr. Foster to be Surgeon
General, and for doing it in a bipartisan fashion. I'd also like to say
a special word of appreciation to the people of Tennessee who stood with
him, and especially to the young children in the ``I Have A Future''
program, who came up here and talked about how he helped to turn their
lives around, helped to convince them to stay in school, to keep
working, to turn away from drugs, from teen pregnancy, from the other
problems that bother so many of our children.
This is a good day for the United States, and I look forward to
going on to the next stage, and to working right through until we get
Dr. Foster confirmed.
Q. Mr. President, what are you going to do if the----
The President. I would like for Dr. Foster to say something, too.
Dr. Foster. I, too, would like to thank the Senate Labor and Human
Resources Committee for a fair hearing and for moving this forward to
the full Senate. I also particularly want to thank the person on that
committee who knew me best, Senator William Frist, for supporting my
nomination. And lastly, I want to thank the President, his
administration, congressional Members, and my family for supporting me
so stoutly during these times.
Bosnia
Q. Mr. President, what are you going to do if the U.N. peacekeepers
are harmed in Bosnia by the Serbs? They have threatened to retaliate on
the bombing.
The President. We'll have to examine their actions as they take
them. The United States is in a--I want to make clear the position we're
in here--we, as a part of and a leader of NATO, responded to the request
of the United Nations, which I thought was very appropriate, to deal
with the shelling of Sarajevo and the shelling of civilians by the
Bosnian Serbs, in clear violation of the understandings that have been
in place for quite some time now. And we did that in an appropriate way
against military targets, so that the taking of hostages, as well as the
killing of civilians by them is totally wrong and inappropriate, and it
should stop.
The United Nations, the forces on the ground and the United Nations
Command obviously will have to analyze these circumstances on a daily
basis. We will work with them, and we'll do whatever is appropriate. And
I still believe that the action we took was appropriate. It was in
response to the request from the U.N., and it certainly was provoked by
the inappropriate shelling of civilians by the Bosnian Serbs.
Q. Do you have a backup plan if something happens? You're sending an
aircraft carrier to the Adriatic? Does that have a----
The President. I can't comment any further on what's going on now. I
think it's important for the United Nations, who have the forces on the
ground, to be able to deal with this situation, and as the events
unfold, I'll be happy to comment.
China
Q. Mr. President, why are you giving China MFN again, sir?
The President. Well, I haven't made a decision on that yet. But as
you know, I said last year--and I believe--that we should continue to
press China on the human rights issues, but I don't believe that
singling China out on the MFN is necessarily the best way to do it.
There are other countries with whom
[[Page 911]]
we have human rights differences as well, and we have certainly pressed
our differences with China, not only person-to-person, face-to-face with
the Chinese but also in the appropriate international forum, and we will
continue to do that.
And we also have other differences with them. I agreed to let
President Li from Taiwan come here. I thought that was the appropriate
thing to do. We won't always agree with the Chinese, but I think it's
important that when we disagree, we do it in the right way, aggressively
and forthrightly, but in the proper forum.
Q. President Yeltsin has called Mr. Major and Mr. Kohl complaining
about the--[inaudible]--has he tried to reach you, and what would you
tell him?
The President. Not yet, no. If he did, I would tell him just what I
told you, that the United Nations asked for this; they certainly weren't
put up to it, that the Bosnian Serbs went way beyond the bounds of
acceptable conduct. There have been clear restrictions on bombing
civilians and the shelling those areas for a long time now. I would ask
him to call the Serbs and tell them to quit it and tell them to behave
themselves and that this would not happen.
Surgeon General Nomination
Q. Are the Democrats ready to overcome a filibuster on the Foster
nomination if it happens?
The President. The Democrats are not numerous enough to overcome a
filibuster. But Senator Frist and Senator Jeffords put their country
above their party today and did what they thought was right, and I think
there will be others. There may even be some who may not think they
should vote for him, Dr. Foster, who believe that it's wrong to
filibuster a nomination of this kind.
In the past, when the Democrats were in the majority in the Senate,
they often did that as well. They often gave Republican Presidents votes
on their nominees, even if they didn't agree with them. This--it would
be unusual and unwarranted if this fine man were denied his day in court
in the Senate, and I don't believe the American people want that to
happen, and I don't believe that a majority of the Senate wants that to
happen.
Q. What are you doing for the rest of the day?
The President. Working. [Laughter]
Note: The President spoke at 12:33 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White
House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Minister John Major of the
United Kingdom; Chancellor Helmut Kohl of Germany; and President Boris
Yeltsin of Russia. A tape was not available for verification of the
content of these remarks.