[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 39 (Monday, September 30, 1996)]
[Pages 1839-1841]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal 
Year 1997 and an Exchange With Reporters

September 23, 1996

    The President. Today I have the privilege of signing legislation 
that will increase the security of our country and our families. Before 
I finish my statement, I would like to say a special word of thanks to 
three legislators who are retiring from the Congress who have provided 
great leadership on national security issues for a very long time.
    I thank my friend Senator Nunn, who has been here since 1972, for 
many years was the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. And since 
he has been here we have always had a defense authorization bill, many 
times only because of his persistent efforts.
    I thank Senator Cohen for so many things that he's done, 
particularly in the area of national defense and security, for his 
willingness to work for a genuine bipartisan foreign policy, and 
especially in view of the events of the last several days, for his 
decisive votes with regard to the Saudi AWACS which was a critical 
decision which enabled us to contain Saddam Hussein.
    And finally, I thank Congressman Sonny Montgomery, the father of the 
GI bill, a great friend of the National Guard and Reserve and the 
veterans of this country, for more than 30 years of service here in the 
Congress.
    So I thank them all for their role not only in this legislation but 
for their entire careers, which will be ending shortly and too shortly 
for many of us.
    One of our central missions is to ensure that our country remains 
the strongest force for peace and freedom in the world. This bill makes 
good on our pledge to keep our Armed Forces the best trained, best 
equipped fighting force on Earth. It carries forward our modernization 
programs by funding crucial weapons systems, such as the F-22 and F/A-
18E/F fighters, the Comanche helicopters, and the V-22 Osprey. It gives 
us the technological edge to prevail on the battlefields of tomorrow. It 
builds on our progress in reducing the nuclear threat. It continues 
programs sponsored by Senators Nunn and Lugar to destroy thousands of 
nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union and to prevent dangerous 
materials from these weapons from falling into the wrong hands.
    This month our Nation has again been reminded of the extraordinary 
skill and dedication of our Armed Forces. In Iraq our men and women in 
uniform have shown their strength in advancing our strategic interests. 
In Bosnia our troops and their IFOR counterparts have helped to make 
possible the elections which mark another milestone on the road of that 
nation's recovery.
    Our service men and women go the extra mile for us and we in turn 
should do the same for them. This bill does that by paying for 
improvements in family and troop housing, along with new starts in 
military construction projects. It provides a pay raise of 3 percent, 
nearly 1 percent more than the law now provides. Our troops have more 
than earned that.
    The legislation protects not only our national security but also our 
security at home. The Interstate Stalking Punishment and Prevention Act 
of 1996, which is part of this legislation, dramatically toughens the 
law against stalkers, those who would threaten, harass, and instill fear 
in others, especially

[[Page 1840]]

women and girls. Though most States have strong antistalking laws, still 
there are big loopholes for those stalkers to slip through. We started 
to close those in the 1994 crime bill. Thanks to that law, stalkers now 
can be charged with violating restraining orders if they travel from one 
State to another to pursue their victims.
    But many who are being stalked and harassed do not have protection 
orders and may not even know who is pursuing them. Until now they were 
not protected by Federal law. Until now, those being pursued across 
State lines by a spouse or an intimate had to wait until they had 
suffered an act of violence before we could use Federal resources to 
protect them. For the very first time, this legislation makes it a 
Federal crime for any stalker to cross State lines to pursue a victim, 
whether or not there is a protection order in effect, whether or not 
they have committed an actual act of violence, whether or not they are a 
spouse or an intimate of the victim.
    Today we say loud and clear, if you stalk and harass, the law will 
follow you wherever you go. And if you are the victim of stalking and 
want to build a new life somewhere else, you will have the full 
protection of Federal law.
    I want to say a special word of thanks to Senator Kay Bailey 
Hutchison, the bill's sponsor, a victim of stalking who fought back; to 
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who's done so much to bring this legislation 
here today; to the victims and families who are here today, including 
Bonnie Campbell, a survivor of stalking; Shari De Priest and her son, 
Jesse--Shari's stalker is currently behind bars; Ricardo Wiggs, who lost 
his wife to a stalker and is here with their daughters, Jenine and 
Janelle. These are the true faces of this legislation and the reason we 
worked so hard for these new protections.
    We have continued to work to make American life safer for women and 
children and families. We have more to do. I am calling for a 
constitutional amendment to guarantee victims' rights, legislation to 
extend the Brady bill to keep guns away from people with a history of 
domestic violence.
    This legislation is proof, I will say in closing, of the progress we 
can make for the American people when we put the national security and 
the security of America's families first. And I thank those who have 
done so much work on this. I'd like to thank the Vice President 
especially and ask him to now make just a few comments about the 
reinventing Government aspects of this bill--some of them are remarkable 
and important--and then I will sign the legislation.

[At this point, the Vice President explained the reinventing Government 
initiatives in the bill.]

    The President. Thank you.
    Now I'd like to sign the bill.

[At this point, the President signed the legislation.]

Presidential Debates

    Q. Mr. President, are you supporting Perot's bid to participate in 
the debates?
    The President. We signed an agreement with the Dole campaign when it 
was obvious that there would be no debates if Mr. Perot was involved. 
And I thought the American people were entitled to a debate between 
Senator Dole and me, so eventually, the people that were negotiating for 
me told me--I told them to go ahead and make the agreement.

President Boris Yeltsin of Russia

    Q. Mr. President, are you concerned that Boris Yeltsin's health, his 
apparently deteriorating health, is creating a destabilizing situation 
in the Soviet Union?
    The President. I think they've come a long way in developing 
constitutional mechanisms of authority. They have worked out the 
relationships that will exist between President Yeltsin and Prime 
Minister Chernomyrdin. And we have regular contact with him, with the 
Foreign Minister, Mr. Primakov, with others in the executive office of 
the President, and I feel comfortable right now that our relationship 
will proceed on a normal course and a positive one.

United Nations

    Q. Mr. President, what's it going to be like to go to the U.N. 
tomorrow with your campaign to force out Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the $1.7 
billion debt that the United States owes,

[[Page 1841]]

and the questions about the Persian Gulf coalition? Is there any 
awkwardness there?
    The President. No. It's going to be a happy day because we're going 
to be the first country to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban 
Treaty. So it will be a milestone day for the United States and for the 
world. And that issue will--and then what we now have to do to follow up 
on it is what I intend to talk about and will overshadow everything 
else.
    I believe that things are proceeding reasonably well now in Iraq, 
based on what I know today. I feel good about that. I think the United 
States should pay its U.N. dues. We're going to pay our dues this year, 
and we'll start to pay our debts on a regular basis until we get our 
debt paid back. I think we ought to, and I've always felt that, as you 
know.
    And our position on the future of the U.N. and the Secretary 
General, a man for whom I have great personal respect, has been clear 
for many months now. So nothing's changed there. That's not new, not a 
surprise. And I expect it to be a good day.
    Q. Have you got a replacement for him? Do you have a successor in 
mind?

1996 Elections

    Q. What do you think about Bob Dole calling you a closet liberal and 
hitting you so personally on the drug issue?
    The President. Well, let me--I'll just answer the liberal thing. 
I'll save the other one. I've got to have something to say at the 
debate. [Laughter]
    But there's a real problem with that. One is my record, my record as 
Governor, my record as President. If you look at what we did on the 
deficit, bringing it down 4 years in a row for the first time since 
before the Civil War; what we did with the crime bill, which had the 
death penalty for drug kingpins and people who kill police officers and 
``three strikes and you're out'' and 100,000 police and the assault 
weapons ban and the Brady bill; when you look at what we have done on 
welfare reform, starting in '93, that now has reduced the rolls on 
welfare by almost 2 million, the record doesn't support the charge. If 
you look at what I'm advocating for the next 4 years, it doesn't support 
the charge.
    It is true that he and I had differences over the budget last year. 
And we will again in this campaign. And we have different tax cut plans. 
But I don't think that that qualifies me as a closet liberal.
    Besides that, a President is too exposed. You can't be a--I don't 
have a closet. [Laughter]
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:45 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, the President referred to Ross Perot, Reform 
Party candidate for President. H.R. 3230, approved September 23, was 
assigned Public Law No. 104-201.