[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 37 (Monday, September 18, 1995)]
[Pages 1546-1548]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the First Anniversary of AmeriCorps and an Exchange With 
Reporters

September 12, 1995

    The President. I am glad to be here today with Senator Pell, 
Congressman Reed, Congressman Kennedy, Eli Segal, Senator Wofford, and 
the remarkable representative group of leaders from the State of Rhode 
Island, including leaders of the majority of the institutions of higher 
education there; business leaders, Mr. Fish, Mr. Romney, thank you for 
coming from Massachusetts; and young AmeriCorps volunteers; and of 
course, Senator Wofford. And Nick Lowry has been a great supporter of 
AmeriCorps from its beginning.
    We are here to mark AmeriCorps' first year of accomplishment and to 
find ways to make it better in the second year when 25,000 Americans 
will be out serving their country and earning some money for their 
higher education.
    AmeriCorps members have helped children to do better in school. 
They've helped to close crack houses. They've helped communities team up 
with police to keep themselves safe. They've cleaned mountain trails and 
urban waterways. And from Oklahoma City to south Florida, from the banks 
of the Mississippi to the streets of Los Angeles, whenever our people 
were faced with disaster in these last couple of years, AmeriCorps 
members have been there to help.
    AmeriCorps has truly brought out the best in America. Behind this 
success is a partnership that cuts across every line and sector in our 
country, where young people and others who work in the communities, 
leaders in business, education, community service, and public service, 
work together to make lives better for ordinary Americans.
    AmeriCorps members help our Nation as they help themselves. They 
earn money to help pay for college. And of course, some colleges are 
going even further. The Rhode Island colleges and universities here 
represented and those who are not here will be matching AmeriCorps 
scholarships and college loan repayments. And I want to thank all of 
them.
    Meanwhile, CEO's, like Mitt Romney of Bain Capital in Boston, have 
urged others to follow their examples of support for AmeriCorps 
participation. Foundations like the Ford Foundation, which has 
contributed $3 million as a challenge pool to community foundations, 
have also helped to stretch our Federal investment.
    An investment in AmeriCorps goes far. A team of noted conservative 
economists found recently that every dollar of Federal money invested 
returns at least $1.60 to $2.60, and maybe even more, for the taxpayers 
in public benefits. And of course, that doesn't calculate the long-term 
benefit of the increased education of the young people who participate 
in AmeriCorps. AmeriCorps is about personal responsibility and 
community, about giving young people positive avenues to opportunity.
    Now, the majority in Congress threatens to cut college scholarships 
and college loans and AmeriCorps. But in AmeriCorps we have a program 
that lifts our values and solves our problems; it helps send civic-
minded, hard-working young people to college. That's the kind of thing 
America should do to build up and not tear down.
    Tens of thousands of young Americans are lining up to serve their 
country in AmeriCorps. And I don't want Congress to close the door on 
them. I want the Republican majority to learn what the rest of our 
country now knows. Without regard to party, AmeriCorps works. If the 
congressional majority really wants to build more personal 
responsibility and expand opportunity only for those who are willing to 
help themselves, if they really want to rebuild a sense of community in 
America, then their principles and our common future should be put above 
politics. AmeriCorps should grow. It should not die.
    I want to reemphasize that it is not necessary to balance the budget 
to destroy

[[Page 1547]]

AmeriCorps or even to cut it in half. It is absolutely not necessary. 
This is a good program, and I think we'll be around next year to 
celebrate the second anniversary and look toward the third year, thanks 
to people like all of you around this room. I thank you very, very much.
    Q. Mr. President, do you think that the Republicans want to end the 
program simply because it's so closely associated with you and because 
it has been one of your head programs?
    The President. I don't think they'd be that small. I think that 
would be an incredibly small thing to do. I don't think they'd be that 
small. You know, I don't speculate on people's motives. But I believe 
that some people in the Congress really don't believe that any spending 
program is as good as any tax cut. That's what I think. I think that--
and I believe that any new thing that's been done--I happen to have been 
President the last 2 years--I think any new thing that's been done is in 
their mind an easy thing to eliminate if you want to balance the budget. 
But it is not necessary. We have given them a balanced budget plan. They 
don't have to cut this to balance the budget. This is a tiny, tiny 
budget item that does an enormous amount of good.
    Q.  They say that--[inaudible]--to the GAO report, I think, that's 
out now that shows that the amount of money that's actually spent per 
volunteer is a lot more than the $4,000 that the White House says----
    The President. Well, we have, you know, we have a lot of evidence 
that refutes that. I don't--and I'll be glad to give it to you; Mr. 
Segal can. But it's clear that this is an enormously popular program. 
The one thing the GAO didn't do is to consider all the people that are 
kicking into the program, they leverage the private money. And there's 
no calculation given to the extra economic benefit to the country from 
all these young people that are going on to school. But even on its own 
terms, I don't think it's right economically.
    This has been a good deal for America. And there's not a community--
yesterday I was in Carbondale, Illinois, in the American heartland, a 
small town with a good-sized university, where the young AmeriCorps 
volunteers are working in the elementary school there. All these people 
are working people, and a phenomenal percentage of them are working poor 
people who live in this community. And they'd like to see their 
AmeriCorps volunteers stay. And they'd like to see them going on to 
school there. And I think we're going to give them the chance to do 
that.
    Q. Mr. President, how optimistic are you of keeping the program 
alive?
    The President. Very.
    Q. I mean, are you finding a consensus among other Members of 
Congress to keep it going?
    The President. First of all, there are a lot of Republicans that 
down deep in their heart want this program to live. And after all, we 
created this program with bipartisan support. I went out of my way in 
1993 to say that I did not want any educational initiative created if we 
didn't have bipartisan support for it. I did not want this to be a 
partisan issue. And I have not made it a partisan issue.
    And I just believe that we have to be more discriminating about what 
we eliminate. To go back to the question you asked, I honestly believe 
that, particularly in the House of Representatives, there are 100 to 150 
Members that I believe that except for the national defense any tax cut 
is better than any spending program. But I think that's wrong. And we 
don't have to--we do not have to eliminate this to balance the budget. 
And I think I'll be able to make that point as we get into these budget 
negotiations. And I think--I think the program will survive, because 
it's a good, decent program; it's an effective program; and it has 
bipartisan support.
    Q. Are you willing to sign on to the Republican spending limits 
without accepting their priorities as a possible compromise on the 
budget?
    The President. Well, I don't know that that's a compromise. I have 
an alternative; they have an alternative. I picked up some kind of 
reading between the lines of some of the comments of the leadership and 
other prominent Members of Congress in the last couple of weeks, the 
possibility of some movement that might enable us to get together. I 
don't want a train wreck. I want a balanced budget in a fixed number of 
years

[[Page 1548]]

that has great credibility in the marketplace, and I believe we'll get 
it. I'm very hopeful.
    Q. And will you sign a continuing resolution in the meantime?
    The President. Oh, I hope we'll get a good continuing resolution. 
That's quite important. It's important that we not just walk away from 
our responsibilities.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:22 p.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Larry Fish, chairman and chief 
executive officer, Citizens Financial Group, and New York Jets football 
player Nick Lowry. A tape was not available for verification of the 
content of these remarks.