[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 51 (Monday, December 23, 1996)]
[Pages 2527-2533]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Second Term Domestic Policy Team and an Exchange 
With Reporters

December 20, 1996

    The President. Thank you very much. Please be seated.
    I thought the era of big Government was over, and then I saw all of 
these people here. [Laughter]
    Let me say as we move into my second term, we have the obligation to 
continue the progress we have made and to build on it to prepare America 
for the 21st century with a Government that is smaller but works hard 
not to abandon people but, instead, to give them the tools they need to 
make the most of their own lives and to build strong families and strong 
communities and a strong America.
    Today I want to announce the members of my domestic policy team who 
will make this happen. Today, the Labor Department is more critical than 
ever, as we work to make job training available to all who need it and 
make sure that employee rights are secure and our workplaces are safe. I 
am very sorry to lose the services of my old friend Secretary Reich, who 
has truly made this a Department of the American work force. But I am 
proud to nominate as Secretary of Labor one of my closest advisers, a 
talented leader, Alexis Herman, who got her start as a social worker for 
Catholic Charities on the Mississippi Delta. I first met her in the 
1970's, when she was Director of the Women's Bureau at the Department of 
Labor, pioneering efforts to give women training and economic 
opportunity.
    She has been a successful businesswoman and a leader in efforts to 
bring minorities into the economic mainstream. And for the past 4 years, 
as Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, she has been my 
eyes and ears, working to connect the American people, business and 
labor, individuals and communities, with their Government.
    I said throughout the campaign that we have to help parents succeed 
at home and at work and give working people the training they need to 
succeed in the new economy. For years now, I have been trying to prevail 
upon the Congress to consolidate training programs and pass the ``GI 
bill'' for America's workers. All these things we must do in the next 4 
years. As Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman will be a true national 
leader in this mission on behalf of working families.
    Let me also say that I considered a number of superbly qualified 
people for this position. I'd like to mention two in particular and 
thank them for their willingness to be considered: first, to Congressman 
Esteban Torres and second, the Director of the Corporation for National 
Service, Harris Wofford, who has done a wonderful job in heading 
AmeriCorps, which has now enabled 70,000 young people to serve in their 
communities all across America and which will play a vital role in the 
next 4 years.
    Over the last 4 years, Henry Cisneros led a revolution of ideas at 
the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He and his team have 
spent every day questioning old approaches and searching for new 
answers. He is my friend, my adviser, someone who has poured his heart 
into making the American dream of owning a home a reality for all 
people. Today a smaller and smarter HUD brings more hope and greater 
opportunities to American communities than ever before, not only in 
housing but in developing economic opportunities in ways that had not 
before even been imagined. I think it is not too much to say that he is 
clearly the finest HUD Secretary who has ever held the position. I will 
miss him greatly and will continue to rely upon him for his advice and 
counsel.
    I believe that the best person in this country who is today suited 
to lead HUD into the 21st century is Andrew Cuomo. He has lived and 
breathed housing and economic development for more than a decade, first 
at the grassroots as a community housing developer and then as our 
Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development.

[[Page 2528]]

[At this point, Housing and Urban Development-designate Andrew Cuomo's 
baby daughter Cara cried.]

Relax, this is a pro-family administration. [Laughter]
    He is a passionate believer in doing what's right, and he is a 
determined leader who gets it done. His test is never soft sentiments, 
but hard results.
    The empowerment zones effort he has led so well is a perfect example 
of the new HUD. Instead of big solutions imposed by Washington, it 
creates a partnership between Government, business, and private citizens 
to help communities lift themselves up. This is Andrew Cuomo's vision, 
and it is why I expect him to be a very strong voice for America's 
cities and a great HUD Secretary.
    The Department of Energy has many missions, ranging from producing 
nuclear fuels and managing nuclear wastes to widening the frontiers of 
science at our national laboratories, to promoting energy efficiency and 
environmental technology. Hazel O'Leary has made huge strides with that 
Department and has done this while bringing unprecedented openness to 
the agency. I mention obviously the reports that the Energy Department 
has done on radiation experiments and the groundbreaking work that the 
Energy Department did to lead us to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
    To manage this diverse and sprawling operation, a Secretary of 
Energy must be an experienced leader and manager who understands the 
demands of a large Government agency, who will demand peak performance 
from Government contractors, who knows why we must reinvent Government 
and how to do it.
    As Secretary of Transportation, Federico Pena has proven himself a 
talented leader of a large and complex Government agency. He found ways 
to encourage new technologies, promote safety, protect the environment. 
I am happy to announce today that I will nominate him to be our new 
Secretary of Energy. He will continue to streamline and reinvent the 
Energy Department. He will build on its unprecedented commitment to 
openness. He will oversee the urgent cleanup of our nuclear stockpiles, 
and he will work with the energy industry to create economic opportunity 
by using energy in a way that does not hurt our environment. I am very 
happy that he has agreed to remain in the Cabinet in this new and ever-
changing role, and very grateful for the service he rendered at the 
Department of Transportation.
    To replace him, I am proud to nominate the Federal Highway 
Administrator, Rodney Slater. First as the chair of the State highway 
commission in our home State and then as Federal Highway Administrator, 
Rodney Slater has managed large programs with skill and high standards. 
He has rebuilt and expanded our Nation's highways and linked isolated 
communities to jobs and opportunities. He has built bridges both of 
steel and of good will to bring people closer together.
    When the North ridge earthquake struck California with such deadly 
force, Rodney led our effort to rebuild vital highways in record time. 
He is the right person to help us meet the many transportation needs and 
challenges we face as we enter the 21st century. He has been my friend 
and adviser for many years. Along with his own family, I have watched 
with pride as he has built his own road to success.
    I can say that he was recommended by more people from more places in 
more ways for this job than any person for any position I have ever 
seen. [Laughter] And in spite of that--[laughter]--I am confident that 
he will be a superb and successful Secretary of Transportation.
    Over the past 4 years, first with Erskine Bowles' leadership and 
then Phil Lader's, we have worked hard to revitalize and broaden the 
mission and increase the impact of the Small Business Administration. 
SBA has doubled the number of loans to small businesses, tripled the 
loans to women-owned businesses, even as its staff has been cut by 25 
percent. Phil Lader told me several months ago that he wanted to return 
to private life after the election. However, I have asked him to serve 
in another senior role in my administration, and he will be considering 
this over the holidays. I hope he and his family agree to accept my 
offer. I can only stand so many of these people leaving. [Laughter]
    To replace Phil Lader, I will nominate Aida Alvarez. She has been an 
award-winning journalist and investment banker. For the

[[Page 2529]]

past 3\1/2\ years she has been the Director of the Office of Federal 
Housing Enterprise Oversight, responsible for the safety and soundness 
of $1.4 trillion in housing finance institutions. She combines business 
savvy with a dedication to public service. I have known her for many 
years and have been very proud to have her as a part of this 
administration. I am also proud that this is the first time a person 
born in Puerto Rico has been appointed to a President's Cabinet.
    To complete our economic team, I will nominate Janet Yellen to be 
Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Since it was created by 
President Truman 50 years ago, the CEA has provided objective and 
rigorous economic advice to the President. Under Laura Tyson and then 
Joe Stiglitz, the CEA has been unflinchingly honest, and our economic 
policy has had hard work--hard-won credibility. As we work together to 
balance the budget in a way that reflects our values and will continue 
to grow our economy, the CEA's role will be more important than ever. 
Janet Yellen will provide the leadership and experience to get the job 
done. She is currently a member of the Federal Reserve Board of 
Directors. She had been a professor of economics at the University of 
California Berkeley and at Harvard, where she taught, among others, the 
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers who said that his grade 
was sufficiently high for her to be recommended for the job. [Laughter] 
She is an esteemed writer and thinker who will serve our country well.
    The Domestic Policy Council coordinates the work of our domestic 
policy agendas--agencies. It finds innovative ways to use our most 
enduring values to meet our newest challenges. Today I am proud to 
appoint Bruce Reed as Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and 
Director of the Domestic Policy Council, replacing Carol Rasco about 
whom I will say more in a moment.
    Bruce is an original thinker, someone who long ago rejected the easy 
answers from any part of the political spectrum, and no one has had a 
greater impact on the thinking of the administration or the President. 
He combines a unique practical knowledge with a real powerful concern 
for the welfare of ordinary Americans. He has been at my side from the 
day I announced my candidacy for President in 1991. He was an architect 
of welfare reform. He has been a driving force behind our efforts to 
shrink Government, expand educational opportunity, and fight crime.
    For the past year, as Assistant to the President for Policy 
Planning, he has worked to hone our goals for the next 4 years, and now 
he will have a chance to make that agenda happen. He is the intellectual 
core of the vital center. Under his leadership, the Domestic Policy 
Council will be a place where dynamic ideas are turned into actions that 
will make a difference in the lives of our people. He is a person of the 
highest integrity, a good friend, and I am proud that he will be by my 
side as we complete the work of preparing our country for the next 
century.
    Finally, I have prevailed upon my friend of long standing, Mack 
McLarty, to stay on for a second term as Counsel to the President, 
remaining as a member of the National Economic Council. In addition, 
Mack will take on new responsibilities as Special Envoy to the President 
and the Secretary of State for Latin America. With this new role, I 
expect him to deepen and broaden his portfolio as he helps to coordinate 
and strengthen our policies toward Latin America. He is well suited to 
carry out this important role because of his business experience and his 
broad understanding of the new global economy. His perspective was clear 
when he served as one of the principal architects of our economic 
strategy and played a key role in passing our deficit reduction plan in 
1993.
    Throughout this administration he has been central to our efforts to 
build our relationships with our neighbors in our hemisphere. His 
leadership was instrumental in passing NAFTA and he led our efforts, 
along with Vice President Gore, to host the Summit of the Americas in 
Miami and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The 1994 summit was a historic 
meeting and will require significant follow up as we move forward to the 
second Summit of the Americas in Santiago. He will head the United 
States delegation to the signing of the Guatemala peace accords later 
this month. And this new assignment for Mack should underscore the 
importance that we in this administration and I personally

[[Page 2530]]

place upon Latin America as we move forward.
    The other members of my domestic policy team are here with us today. 
Attorney General Reno has led our crusade to put police on our streets 
and take guns off our streets. Donna Shalala has worked tirelessly and 
well to give our people quality health care, to move millions from 
welfare to work, to care for our children and their future. Dick Riley 
has succeeded in reforming the student loan program and lowering its 
costs and making it more available to millions of people. He has 
challenged our schools to reach even higher standards. We have expanded 
educational opportunity, enhanced reform, and we will do much, much more 
of this in the next 4 years. As I said in the campaign this year, 
education must now be our highest priority, and I am pleased that 
Secretary Riley will continue to lead our efforts.
    Earlier this week, I announced that one of my oldest and closest 
advisers, Domestic Policy Adviser Carol Rasco, will join the Education 
Department as Senior Adviser to the Secretary and Director of the 
America Reads Challenge. The importance of this initiative to me should 
be underscored by my asking someone this close to me to act on my 
behalf.
    If you will remember in the campaign, I talked a lot about the 
importance of mobilizing one million volunteer tutors all across America 
to work with parents and teachers, to make sure that by the year 2000 
every 8-year-old in this country can read independently. If every third-
grader can read independently, when 40 percent of them are not reading 
at grade level today, it will dramatically alter the future of America's 
landscape for the better.
    Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jesse Brown has been a strong and 
effective voice for our veterans. He will continue to ensure that they 
have the health care and the services they deserve.
    Federal Emergency Management Administrator James Lee Witt has 
transformed that agency into a model for disaster assistance and helped 
communities all across our country to rebuild. In community after 
community, from the southeast to the middle west to the west, he has 
made the term ``Federal bureaucrat'' a positive, not a negative 
appellation.
    General Barry McCaffrey will stay on as the Director of the Office 
of National Drug Control Policy. We need his vigorous leadership, and he 
is in the process of doing something that Presidents for more than 30 
years have wanted to do but never succeeded in doing, actually 
developing a coordinated, disciplined, long-term approach to dealing 
with the drug problems and reducing drug abuse in America, particularly 
among our youth.
    Secretary Babbitt has been a wise steward for our precious natural 
resources and has helped us to solve some of the thorniest challenges 
facing America in this regard. He sent me a letter right after the 
election saying that in one way or another we have protected over 20 
million acres of America's precious land in the last 4 years, a legacy 
of conservation equaled only in the two Roosevelts' administrations, and 
I thank him for that.
    Secretary Glickman has worked to keep our food the safest and most 
plentiful in the world, as we have overhauled our food safety standards 
for the first time in decades and decades. And I thank him also for 
finding ways to promote agriculture and protect the environment.
    As EPA Administrator, Carol Browner has cut redtape and curbed 
pollution. She has brought common sense back to the task of protecting 
our environment, enlisted more allies, and will lead the way in the next 
4 years to making sure we do close those hundreds of toxic waste dumps 
that keep our children from growing up next to parks, not poison.
    All these leaders have done a remarkable job. I am delighted they 
have agreed to stay in their positions. And now I'd like to ask the new 
appointees to come up and make some statements, beginning with the next 
Secretary of Labor, Alexis Herman.

[At this point, Secretary of Labor-designate Alexis Herman, Secretary of 
Housing and Urban Development-designate Andrew Cuomo, Secretary of 
Energy-designate Federico Pena, Secretary of Transportation-designate 
Rodney Slater, Small Business Administrator-designate Aida Alvarez, 
Council of Economic Advisers Chair Janet Yellen, Assistant to the 
President for Domestic Policy

[[Page 2531]]

Bruce Reed, and Special Envoy to the President and the Secretary of 
State for Latin America Thomas F. (Mack) McLarty each made brief 
remarks.]

    The President. Thank you. Who is first? I'll take a couple of 
questions. It's almost Christmas. [Laughter]

Access to the White House

    Q. Mr. President, as you move forward into your new term, questions 
continue to be asked about the first 4 years, especially in the area of 
campaign fundraising. Last February at the request of a friend of yours 
in Little Rock and the Democratic National Committee, an arms dealer 
from China was invited to a private event with you inside your residence 
at the White House. Four months later, this man's company was implicated 
in U.S. gun-smuggling. What do you remember about your contact with this 
man at this meeting? Does it concern you that he was perhaps not 
adequately screened in order to gain access to the White House? And do 
you feel in any respect that in situations like this you were taken 
advantage of?
    The President. Well, first of all, I'm disappointed that it 
happened. It was clearly inappropriate. And I think what is obviously 
called for and what I have instructed to be done is to establish some 
sort of better screening provisions that are tighter to minimize this. 
Thousands of people come in and out of the larger White House office 
complex all the time, but we have to develop some way of screening them. 
I am disappointed. It was inappropriate. We must have a better screening 
system. We will have.
    I remember literally nothing about it. I'm not sure that the 
gentleman ever said anything at this coffee. I asked my staff to let me 
see the records of it when this story broke, and there were disparate 
people from different walks of life from all over the country there, and 
normally what would happen in one of those conversations is I would talk 
for 5 or 10 minutes and then we would either go around the table and let 
people say whatever they wanted to say. And as I said there were all 
different kinds of people from all different walks of life always. I'm 
not sure that--I have no recollection of meeting him. I'm not sure he 
ever said anything. And I can tell you for sure nothing inappropriate 
came from it in terms of any governmental action on my part.
    But we have to do a better job of screening people who come in and 
out of here.
    Helen [Helen Thomas, United Press International], go ahead.

Investigations

    Q. Mr. President, do you have a sense of deja vu all over again--4 
years of Whitewater, now new investigations----
    The President. No.
    Q. ----on the Hill, Justice Department?
    The President. No.
    Q. What does this bode for the next administration and how do you 
cope?
    The President. I show up for work every day. The American people 
ought to feel good about me. They spent $30 million or something, and 
there has been not a single solitary shred of evidence of any wrongdoing 
on my part. I feel good about it.
    I think it's unfortunate for democracy, and I think, as I said, this 
special counsel thing ought to be reviewed in light of what Archibald 
Cox and others have said, because the costs outweigh the benefits.
    But on the other issue, any questions that are raised about 
contributions ought to be answered and any records that are needed ought 
to be provided. That's no different than what happened in Senator Dole's 
campaign when one of his officials was charged with money laundering and 
had to plead guilty and pay the biggest fine in FEC history. That didn't 
reflect on everybody else in the campaign. Those things happen. So if 
any--if there's any question about what happened, the evidence, the 
information should be provided, and we ought to determine whether anyone 
did anything wrong.
    Q. Well, how are you coping?
    The President. That's not a--how am I coping? [Laughter] It's not a 
problem. If you haven't done anything wrong and a problem comes up, you 
fix it, and you go on. I cope by thinking about the 11 million jobs we 
created and the millions more we have to create. I think about the 
millions of people that have a better deal going to college and the 
millions of more that will have. I cope by thinking about what the 
American people hired me

[[Page 2532]]

to do and the questions they ask me when I see them.
    Yes, Gwen [Gwen Ifill, NBC News].

Second Term Transition and Diversity

    Q. Mr. President, your spokesman said earlier today that you've been 
very displeased with these events of the last couple days. I wonder if 
you could characterize your displeasure? And also, 4 years ago when you 
appointed your first Cabinet, you said very much up front that you 
wanted a Cabinet that looked like America. It took some juggling and you 
weren't as public about it this time, but it looks like you've assembled 
that. Did you feel like you were under any special pressure from special 
interest groups?
    The President. No, the pressure was pressure I put on myself. I 
believe that one of my jobs at this moment in history is to demonstrate 
by the team I put together that no group of people should be excluded 
from service to our country and that all people are capable of serving. 
So I have striven to achieve both excellence and diversity. The same 
thing is true about the Federal judges I've appointed. It's the most 
diverse Federal bench of appointees in history. It also has the highest 
rating from the American Bar Association since the bar started rating 
judges.
    So I'm very proud of the first Cabinet that I appointed. I am very 
proud of this Cabinet. I am proud that they are diverse, but I would not 
have appointed a single one of them because of their gender or their 
racial or ethnic background had I not thought that they could succeed. 
And if you look at the comparative record in department after department 
after department of the people who served in the first 4 years and 
compare the results they achieved, the work they did, I think that the 
evidence will indicate that.
    And it goes back to something you asked me. You know, what we do, we 
all show up for work every day, and we create a team and work like crazy 
for the American people, we have goals, we have objectives, we hold 
ourselves to timetables, and we keep score about what we're doing for 
other people. And if that is your focus, which is what people hire us to 
do, that's what you worry about, and that's what you do. So I feel good 
about it.
    Now, this is----

Campaign Financing and White House Access

    Q. [Inaudible]--feel pressure----
    The President. Well, my feelings are that, in the areas where we had 
more direct control--our campaign and the legal defense fund--as far as 
I know, the proper decisions were made because the proper scrutiny was 
applied. The Democratic Party officials have already admitted that they 
did not apply the proper review, and I am very displeased about it 
because 99 percent-plus of all the contributors did not do anything 
wrong, and over 98 percent of the money appears to be perfectly in 
order, and the other 1 percent got all the publicity and, thereby, 
disserving the Democrats around the country, the people who gave, and 
everything else. That is wrong.
    And all they have to do is to institute a simple review system. Now, 
from time to time, mistakes may be made. If you have over a million 
contributors as both parties do now, that may happen from time to time, 
but common sense and strict review are the order of the day.
    I feel the same way about this. I realize that Secret Service and 
others are reluctant to be too burdensome with all the thousands and 
tens of thousands of people that come in the White House complex every 
year, but I'm confident that if they put their minds to it they can come 
up with a better screening procedure so that things like this don't 
happen.
    It's not a press conference. We've been here a long tme. We'll have 
another press conference early next year. Merry Christmas. I'll see you 
early next year.

Note: The President spoke at 12:32 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Chinese businessman Wang 
Jun, chairman, Poly Technologies. A portion of these remarks could not 
be verified because the tape was incomplete.

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