[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 12 (Monday, March 24, 1997)]
[Pages 385-386]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the Report on Environmental Quality

March 19, 1997

To the Congress of the United States:

    I am pleased to transmit to the Congress the Twenty-fifth Annual 
Report on Environmental Quality.
    As a nation, the most important thing we can do as we move into the 
21st century is to give all our children the chance to live up to their 
God-given potential and live out their dreams. In order to do that, we 
must offer more opportunity and demand more responsibility from all our 
citizens. We must help young people get the education and training they 
need, make our streets safer from crime, help Americans succeed at home 
and at work, protect our environment for generations to come, and ensure 
that America remains the strongest force for peace and freedom in the 
world. Most of all, we must

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come together as one community to meet our challenges.
    Our Nation's leaders understood this a quarter-century ago when they 
launched the modern era of environmental protection with the National 
Environmental Policy Act. NEPA's authors understood that environmental 
protection, economic opportunity, and social responsibility are 
interrelated. NEPA determined that the Federal Government should work in 
concert with State and local governments and citizens ``to create and 
maintain conditions under which man and nature can exist in productive 
harmony, and fulfill the social, economic, and other requirements of 
present and future generations of Americans.''
    We've made great progress in 25 years as we've sought to live up to 
that challenge. As we look forward to the next 25 years of environmental 
progress, we do so with a renewed determination. Maintaining and 
enhancing our environment, passing on a clean world to future 
generations, is a sacred obligation of citizenship. We all have an 
interest in clean air, pure water, safe food, and protected national 
treasures. Our environment is, literally, our common ground.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
March 19, 1997.