[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 32 (Monday, August 12, 1996)]
[Pages 1400-1402]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996

August 3, 1996

    Thank you very much. Thank you all for being here today. I'm 
delighted to see you. I know that a lot of you have come from a very 
long way away, and I know that was an extreme effort. But I think in 
some ways the most extreme effort was made by the Members of Congress 
who are here because they finished an exhaustive and very productive 
week late last night, and I can't believe they're still around in 
Washington, and I want to thank them for staying: Chairman Bliley; 
Chairman Roberts; Congressmen Waxman, Bilirakis, Condit, Dooley, and 
Richardson.
    And I'd like to say a special word of thanks not only to Congressman 
Dingell but to Congressman Fazio, who is not here, who also worked on 
this bill, and to Senator Heflin and Senator Leahy and Senator Lugar and 
my friend Senator Pryor, who worked on this bill, who is not here. And I 
want to thank the Agriculture Department. Deputy Secretary Rominger is 
here and the FDA Commissioner Kessler. And I'd like to thank the members 
of the administration, especially Carol Browner and Katie McGinty.
    I'd like to thank the Vice President, who told me that he held the 
first hearings on dealing with this issue 15 years ago in the Congress. 
This issue has been around a long time, and it's a great, great day. I'd 
also like to say that the happiest person in the administration today is 
Leon Panetta, because in his other life he is a walnut farmer. 
[Laughter] But I assure you this is not special interest legislation. 
[Laughter] There's nothing in here with a disproportionate impact on 
Italian walnut farmers from northern California--[laughter]--that is, to 
the best of my knowledge there is nothing.
    Ladies and gentlemen, we are here today in celebration, and we 
should be immensely proud of the Food Quality Protection Act that will 
revolutionize the way we protect food from harmful pesticides. It proves 
we don't have to choose between a healthy environment and a healthy 
economy. It shows when we come together across party lines and do the 
right thing for the American people we can get real results. This is 
important, not only for what was done but for how it was done, and I 
want to thank everyone here who has been a part of it.
    From the day I took office I have worked hard to meet what I think 
is a fundamental promise that we should make to our people. People 
should know the food they eat and the water they drink will not make 
them sick. We strengthened and expanded the community right to know law, 
which requires industries to tell our citizens what substances are being 
released into the world around us. Last year we put in place strong new 
protections to ensure that seafood is safe. Last month we announced 
steps to revamp our meat and poultry inspection system for the first 
time in 90 years.

[[Page 1401]]

    Today we add the cornerstone to this solid foundation with the Food 
Quality Protection Act. I like to think of it as the ``peace of mind 
act,'' because it'll give parents the peace of mind that comes from 
knowing that the fruits, the vegetables, the grains that they put down 
in front of their children are safe. It's long overdue. The old 
safeguards that protected our food from pesticides were written with the 
best of intentions, but they weren't up to the job. And as you can see 
from the vast array of support here across every specter of American 
life, nobody liked them very much and no one thought that they really 
worked as they were supposed to. Bad pesticides stayed on the market too 
long; good alternatives were kept out. In this new provision we deal 
with the problem of existing law, which is that there are strong 
protections against cancer but not against other health dangers. There 
is simply no uniform standard for what's safe.
    These weaknesses in the present law cause real problems for everyone 
involved in producing and distributing our food and for, most of all, 
the people who consume it, especially our children. According to the 
National Academy of Sciences, infants and young people are especially 
vulnerable to pesticides; chemicals can go a long way in a small body.
    This act puts the safety of our children first. It sets a clear, 
consistent standard for all pesticide use on all foods for all health 
risks. It sets a standard high--if a pesticide poses a danger to our 
children, it won't be in our food, period. The act will reform the 
regulatory process for pesticides so that new and safer substitutes will 
be approved faster, and this is also very important. The sooner they get 
on the markets, the sooner farmers will be able to use them to replace 
older pesticides that may pose greater health risks. The pesticides will 
be reviewed regularly using the best science available.
    Third, this legislation will see to it that consumers get the 
information they need. Supermarkets will be required to provide health 
information to shoppers about the pesticides used on food they're 
buying. A family ought to be able to gather for a summer dinner knowing 
that the food before them will provide nothing more than nourishment and 
joy. Americans have enough on their minds without having to worry about 
that. With this legislation, Americans will continue to know that the 
world's most bountiful food supply is also its safest.
    And as I said before, to me, almost as important as what the law 
does is how it was done. This act comes to our desk--to my desk and to 
our administration--with the support of farmers and environmentalists, 
consumer groups and agribusiness, and the medical community. After more 
than a decade of work, these groups have come together to say with this 
bill, ``We do not have to choose between a clean environment and a safe 
food supply and a strong economy. If we do it right, we can have both.'' 
It comes with the unanimous backing of every Member of Congress in both 
parties. And I must say, I am gratified to see this, because I see this 
effort to preserve the environment in a way that will permit us to grow 
the economy as an essential component of our national security in the 
21st century.
    Last year we were fighting about efforts to weaken our most basic 
safeguards for clean air, clean water, safe food. Now we see a 
bipartisan public commitment to the public health. This is an area where 
we stand on common ground. And as a people, we should continue to stand 
on common ground.
    I want to compliment the Congress for the work that was done in this 
last week, moving people from welfare to work, raising the minimum wage, 
helping small businesses, passing health care reform, making this effort 
to safeguard our food. Last night Congress passed strong legislation to 
help keep our drinking water safe. This has been a very good season of 
progress, turning away from extremism toward common ground, around 
opportunity, responsibility, and community. I am very pleased. I thank 
the Members of Congress here for their leadership. And I thank the 
American people, and especially those here represented, for making this 
day happen.
    We're going to do the bill signing now, and I want to invite the 
children who have come from around the country here to come up, and the 
Members of Congress to come up for the bill signing.
    Thank you.

[[Page 1402]]

Note: The President spoke at 11:45 a.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. H.R. 1627, approved August 3, was assigned Public Law 
No. 104-170.