[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 37 (Monday, September 15, 1997)]
[Pages 1321-1324]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Nomination of Dr. David Satcher To Be Surgeon 
General and an Exchange With Reporters

September 12, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much. Madam Secretary, our 
distinguished guests representing the health professions, to the Satcher 
family, and ladies and gentlemen.
    Just yesterday, we learned of the strong public health progress our 
Nation has been making in recent years. We learned that last year, 
infant mortality declined to a record low, prenatal care reached a 
record high, the teen birth rate declined for the fifth straight year, 
and death from HIV and AIDS declined more than 25 percent. These are 
huge gains for public health, and much of the credit goes to the Centers 
for Disease Control and Prevention and their gifted leader, Dr. David 
Satcher.
    As you heard from the Vice President, Dr. Satcher's many 
accomplishments are built on a deep foundation of personal experience. 
On the small corn and peanut farm where he grew up, he relied on a 
dedicated country doctor, the only African-American doctor in the area, 
to come to his family's side in times of need. That man, named Dr. 
Jackson, helped save David Satcher's life, and then he and other mentors 
and family members inspired him to dedicate his life to caring for the 
health of other people's families.
    They inspired a man, whose parents didn't have the opportunity to 
finish elementary school, to himself become the first black M.D., Ph.D. 
in the history of Case Western Reserve University, then go on to become 
President of Meharry Medical College and the Director of the world-
renowned Centers for Disease Control.
    In part, because of the inspiration of his family doctor, David 
Satcher is uniquely qualified to be America's family doctor. He's a 
mainstream physician with a talent for leadership. And I'm proud to 
announce that I intend to nominate him to be both Assistant Secretary 
for Health and the Surgeon General of the United States.
    Only once before has the President asked one person to fill two of 
the Nation's most prominent public health offices. I do so today because 
in his role as Director of the CDC, the agency that is the world's best 
defense against disease, David Satcher has demonstrated his profound 
medical expertise and eloquent advocacy for the Nation's public health. 
He's helped to lead our fight to improve the safety of our food, to wipe 
out the scourge of emerging infectious diseases, to expand access to 
vital cancer screening.
    I particularly want to thank him for guiding our childhood 
immunization initiative. Child immunization levels have now reached an 
all-time high, and cases of childhood diseases that can be prevented by 
vaccines are at an all-time low.
    Now I look forward to working with Dr. Satcher on our most important 
public health mission, to free our children from the grip of tobacco. 
Every year, more Americans die from smoking-related diseases than from 
AIDS, car accidents, murders, and suicides combined. And we all know if 
people don't begin to smoke in their teens, it's unlikely they will ever 
begin to do so. We have to make the most of this historic opportunity to 
protect our children against the dangers of tobacco by passing sweeping 
legislation that focuses first and foremost on reducing smoking among 
our young people. And he will lead our Nation's efforts on many other 
health issues, as well.
    Over the past three decades of serving the health needs of our 
Nation, David Satcher has earned the highest respect of public health 
officials around the Nation and, indeed, all around the world. No one is 
better qualified to be America's doctor. No one is better qualified to 
be the Nation's leading voice for health for all of us. And I am 
grateful that he is willing to serve.
    Before I call on Dr. Satcher to speak, let me make one more comment 
about another nomination. I'm very disappointed that my nominee for 
United States Ambassador to Mexico, Governor Weld, did not receive a 
hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today.
    Because our relationship with Mexico is so very important to our 
security and to our economy, I want an Ambassador who can represent all 
Americans. In a spirit of bipartisanship, I selected a highly qualified 
individual in the Republican Governor of Massachu

[[Page 1322]]

setts. I believe the full Senate should find a way to move forward on 
this nomination. And I am encouraged by suggestions that Senators are 
seeking a way within the rules of the Senate to do so. After all, a 
majority of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wants him to have a 
hearing, a majority of the United States Senate wants him to have a 
hearing, and all I have asked for is a fair hearing and an up-or-down 
vote on a man I believe to be highly qualified.
    Now, I hope I'll receive a quick hearing and up-or-down vote, which 
will, doubtless, be up on Dr. David Satcher.
    Dr. Satcher.
    Q.  Mr. President----
    The President. Please, let me finish.

[At this point, Dr. Satcher thanked the President and made brief 
remarks.]

Nomination of Governor William Weld

    Q.  Mr. President, Senator Lugar says that it's now up to you to 
prevail on Senator Lott to get the Weld nomination to the Senate floor. 
And, while I'm at it, will you go for a recess appointment if that 
doesn't work?
    The President. Well, I certainly intend to talk to Senator Lott 
about it, although, I would hope that Senator Lugar would do the same 
thing, and the other Republicans who want the fair and decent thing 
done. And my position is that this man should have a hearing. He's been 
a good Governor. He was a distinguished member of the Justice Department 
under President Reagan, and he's entitled to a hearing. And I believe if 
he gets a hearing, he'll be confirmed and he'll be able to go to Mexico. 
And that's what I'm working for.

Police Brutality

    Q. Mr. President, the Congressional Black Caucus is in town, and 
they're calling on you today to address the problem of police 
brutality--[inaudible]--to the Justice Department. What do you have to 
say to the Caucus about the issue of brutality, and what should be done 
about it?
    The President. Well, I believe that--first of all, I think that when 
any kind of State action rises to the level of a constitutional 
violation, the Justice Department ought to be on top of it. And I look 
forward to meeting with--I'm going to be with the Black Caucus, and I 
look forward to hearing from them and to seeing what else they think we 
should do. This administration, I think, has done more for law 
enforcement than any administration in modern history, and we've been 
very supportive of it. And I think those of us who believe in law 
enforcement and support it should also hold it to the highest standards 
of conduct.

Tobacco Settlement

    Q. Mr. President, you're meeting with your tobacco advisers this 
afternoon on the proposed settlement. Can you tell us what direction 
you're leaning in, and do you think that the penalties that are posed on 
the tobacco industry are severe enough?
    The President. Well, let me say the direction I will lean in is I'm 
going to do whatever I think will best further public health and will 
best increase the chances that we can dramatically reduce smoking among 
young people. And I will do that--not only what, but when I do that. 
There are questions of substance and timing here, and it's a highly 
complex issue.
    I want to thank Secretary Shalala and Bruce Reed for heading the 
process for our administration to review all aspects of this and also to 
hear from all people involved, including the tobacco farmers, which 
Secretary Glickman worked on. And I will be--at least I'll begin my 
review of that later this afternoon, and then I'll do whatever I think 
is best. But I can't--I don't want to make any specific comments until I 
have a chance to hear from my folks. They've been working on this very 
hard.

Nomination of Governor William Weld

    Q. President Clinton, on the--back on the Weld nomination, what do 
you make of Senator Helms' implied threat that this could have fallout 
in your relationship with him on other foreign policy matters?
    The President. Oh, I don't think it was implied. I thought it was 
explicit. [Laughter] I like that about Senator Helms; he always tells 
you where he is and what he's doing. This is just a--we've had a very 
cordial relationship, partly because we've been very can

[[Page 1323]]

did and honest with each other, and this is just an area where we have 
disagreement.
    I think Governor Weld would be a good ambassador; he doesn't. I 
think whether you believe he'd be good or not, he's entitled to a 
hearing, especially when a majority of the members of the committee and 
a majority of the Members of the Senate want him to have it. And so 
that's where I am, and we're at loggerheads. Now, as--Senator Lott 
operates the Senate under the Senate rules, and they may well have the 
ability to prevent this from ever happening, and they may prevail, but 
the battle is not over yet.
    Q. Mr. President, Mr. Weld used the term, ``despotic'' to describe 
today's proceedings. Would you go that far?
    The President. Well, I think there are a lot of things about the 
Senate that when they operate properly may be good--the Senate was 
designed to slow things down in America by the Founding Fathers--but 
when they're abused can be bad. I think, among other things, that 
filibuster has been grossly overused in the last 5 years, and I know of 
no precedent for this action. But we'll just have to see.
    I didn't answer that question on purpose. That's right, I didn't 
answer--let me remind you of what the situation was in the last recess. 
We just finished a recess, and Senator Lott told me in no uncertain 
terms that if I intended to recess-appoint Governor Weld, the Senate 
would not go into recess, and that he would do whatever was necessary to 
make sure the Senate did not go into recess. And again, I value my 
relationship with--we got a balanced budget out of this Congress in part 
because we trusted each other to tell the truth. So I have to be careful 
how I handle this. I would never mislead Senator Lott, and he might have 
the same position this time he had last time.
    So I think it's premature to talk about that. We should do this the 
right way. This man has been a distinguished public servant, and he 
ought to get a hearing. Let's do this the right way and not talk about--
there are circumstances under which recess appointments are appropriate, 
but the appropriate thing to do here is to give this man a hearing.
    Thank you.

Surgeon General Nomination

    Q. Mr. President, there has been some criticism on why you waited so 
long on appointing a Surgeon General. Can you address those criticisms, 
and also, the other criticism that there doesn't even need to be a 
Surgeon General?
    The President. Well, first of all, I--we had this ready to go. We 
thought the appropriate thing to do was to wait until right after the 
break instead of doing it right before the break. So we've been ready 
for some time. But I thought to do it after the August recess would give 
it greater national visibility and greater impetus going into the 
congressional hearing process.
    And secondly, you could make an argument that we don't need a lot of 
folks, I guess, but my view is that the country is better off with a 
Surgeon General than without one. And I think of the contributions that 
Dr. Koop has made. I think of contributions many of our other Surgeons 
General have made. I think the idea of having a person who can be looked 
to by ordinary Americans for good advice and for strong advocacy on what 
they can personally do, on what the public policy of the country ought 
to be, and who can advise us about what we should be doing in policy and 
research, and things of that kind, is very, very important.
    I think the country kind of likes the idea that there ought to be a 
doctor that they can trust, that they can turn to for old homespun 
advice and for also keeping them on the cutting edge of whatever modern 
medical developments are. And I know that I certainly feel that way, and 
I'll feel a lot better when Dr. Satcher has been confirmed.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 1:30 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to former Surgeon General C. Everett 
Koop.

[[Page 1324]]