[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 10 (Monday, March 9, 1998)]
[Pages 365-366]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing a Memorandum on Standards To Prevent Drinking and 
Driving

March 3, 1998

    The President. Thank you, Brenda, and I thank the other members of 
the Frazier family and the friends who are here in support of you. 
Attorney General Reno, Senator Lautenberg, Congresswoman Lowey, Senator 
DeWine, Chief Flynn, thank you for your work and your support. I thank 
Secretary Slater, Senator Dorgan, Senator Hollings, Senator Moseley-
Braun, and Congressman McGovern for their presence and their support. 
And I thank the Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against 
Destructive Decisions, the organizations for highway safety, all of you 
who are here in this noble endeavor.
    Let me say that after hearing Brenda Frazier's story there is very 
little that needs to be said. After seeing the photograph of Ashley, 
there is very little that needs to be seen. Every parent in this 
country, every single one, who has ever put his or her child in a car 
with someone else to go off to some destination, has felt that sense of 
loss of control, that fear that something might happen. Every parent of 
a teenager has spent some moment on every weekend of the teenager's 
life, when the teenager was out, wondering, hoping, and praying that 
nothing would ever happen.
    To be reminded that these things do happen should be all the 
reminder any Member of Congress or any American ever needs. We've heard 
Brenda's story, but there is hardly a family or community in America 
that hasn't been touched by drunk driving. Senator Dorgan, we thank you 
especially for being here today, because you lost your mother, Dorothy, 
to a drunk driver. And we know that this is a national problem. Senator 
DeWine reminded us that in 1984 President Reagan signed into law the 
legislation to help make 21 the national drinking age. Senator 
Lautenberg fought for that law in Congress because he knew that most of 
all our young people were threatened.

[[Page 366]]

    Eleven years later, I was proud to sign into law the zero tolerance 
legislation that is helping to make it illegal for a person under 21 to 
drive in any State after drinking any measurable amount of alcohol, no 
matter what the legal limit is. I say to you, if we win this battle and 
you want to come back for a lower limit, I'll be glad to stand here with 
you under those circumstances as well. The ``Safe and Sober Streets 
Act'' takes the next step to lower the legal limit to .08 in every 
State. When Congress passes it I'll sign it, and we'll work hard to pass 
it.
    Today there is something else I'd like to do. I am instructing 
Secretary Slater to report back to me in 45 days with a plan to make .08 
the legal limit on all Federal property, from National Parks to military 
bases, so that the United States can lead the way in making .08 the law 
of the land all over the land.
    Lowering the legal limit to .08 will not prevent adults from 
enjoying alcoholic beverages. But lowering the limit will make 
responsible Americans take even greater care when they drink alcohol in 
any amounts if they intend to drive.
    To people who disregard the lethal threat they pose when they drink 
and drive, lowering the legal limit will send a strong message that our 
Nation will not tolerate irresponsible acts that endanger our children 
and our Nation. We will, meanwhile, continue to do all we can to protect 
our young people from harm, fighting to keep drugs and guns and alcohol 
out of our schools and our children's lives, fighting to shield them 
from the deadly harm of illegal exposure and use of tobacco.
    With the steps we take today, we will build on that progress to help 
to ensure that the lives of Ashley Frazier, Dorothy Dorgan, and 
thousands of others cut short by drunk driving will not have been lost 
in vain.
    Now, in a few moments I want to ask Ashley's classmates who are 
here, members of my Cabinet, and the Members of Congress who are here to 
join me as I sign the Presidential directive on Federal property. But 
before I do, if you will indulge me, because of the action of the United 
Nations Security Council with regard to Iraq and because this is the 
only chance I have to appear before the press and therefore the American 
people today, I would like to make a brief statement.
    The unanimous vote of the United Nations Security Council last night 
sends a clear message. Iraq must fulfill without obstruction or delay 
its commitment to open all of the nation to the international weapons 
inspectors--anyplace, anytime, without any conditions, deadlines, or 
excuses.
    All the members of the Security Council agree that failure to do so 
will result in severest consequences. The Government of Iraq should be 
under no illusion. The meaning of ``severest consequences'' is clear. It 
provides authority to act if Iraq does not turn the commitment it has 
now made into compliance.
    As the Secretary-General told the Security Council yesterday, Iraq's 
complete fulfillment of these obligations is the one and only aim of the 
agreement. No promise of peace and no policy of patience can be without 
its limits. Iraq's words must be matched by deeds. The world is 
watching.
    Now, I would like to ask Ashley's classmates, the members of the 
Cabinet, and the Members of Congress, as well as Chief Flynn, would you 
all join us up here now, and Brenda, please.

[At this point, the President signed the memorandum on standards to 
prevent drinking and driving.]

    The President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 2:16 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Brenda Frazier, mother of Ashley 
Frazier, who was killed by a drunk driver; Edward Flynn, chief of 
police, Arlington County, VA; and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi 
Annan.