[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 25 (Monday, June 22, 1998)]
[Pages 1148-1151]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Nominations of Bill Richardson To Be Secretary of Energy 
and Richard C. Holbrooke To Be United Nations Ambassador and an Exchange 
With Reporters

June 18, 1998

    The President. Senator Bingaman and Congressman Becerra, ladies and 
gentlemen, I welcome you all here today as I announce my intent to 
nominate Ambassador Bill Richardson to become our Secretary of Energy, 
Ambassador Richard Holbrooke to assume the portfolio of America's 
Representative to the United Nations. I'm especially pleased that their 
families could join me and the Vice President, and as you can see, our 
entire national security team.
    Over the last 2 years, Bill Richardson's experience, energy, and 
tenacity have made a real difference in advancing our interests in the 
United Nations and around the world. With diplomatic skills honed in one 
of the most diverse congressional districts in our country, negotiating 
ability tested in some of the toughest hot spots on our planet, and a 
personal touch evidenced from his first day on the job, Bill Richardson 
has brought creativity and drive to our leadership at the U.N.
    He has served the Secretary of State and me by tackling some of the 
toughest negotiating challenges from the Congo to Zaire to Afghanistan. 
He helped to rally the international community to speak and act as one 
in the crisis in Iraq. Today, the international inspectors are back on 
the job, working to end Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons 
threat, thanks in no small measure to his efforts. He has been a 
vigorous and articulate proponent of our engagement around the world and 
the importance of leveraging that engagement by living up to our United 
Nations obligations.
    In short, if there's one word that comes to mind when I think of 
Bill Richardson, it really is ``energy.'' But that is hardly the only 
reason I am appointing him to this job. [Laughter] For 14 years 
representing New Mexico, an energy-rich State that is home to two of our 
national Department of Energy labs, and his long service as an active 
member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he has gotten 
extensive, firsthand experience in issues ranging from deregulating the 
oil and gas industries, to promoting alternative sources of energy, to 
ensuring that energy development meets tough standards of environmental 
safety. I thank him for his willingness to serve.
    Let me also say that Secretary Pena has left a very impressive 
legacy upon which to build. I appreciate his 5 years of service to our 
Nation as both Secretary of Transportation and Secretary of Energy, 
where he surprised, I might say, even his greatest admirers with the 
speed with which he mastered

[[Page 1149]]

the incredible complex issues of the Department and the leadership he 
demonstrated in supporting the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, in coming 
out with an electricity deregulation plan that will save consumers $20 
billion a year, in helping to open all kinds of opportunities for energy 
conservation and a clean energy future for America. Let me also thank 
him as Secretary of Transportation for his service there in advancing 
mass transit more than at any point in recent history and for opening up 
our air commerce with 40 other nations.
    With Congress' support, Bill Richardson will do his part now to 
secure our energy future, at a time when that is inextricably bound up 
with our obligation as Americans to do our part to deal with the problem 
of climate change and our obligations as Americans to build a secure 
future for our country that allows economic growth and protection of the 
planet.
    I believe that this challenge will require the greatest energy from 
our labs, from our scientists and technology, from an Energy Department 
that can work clearly with the private sector on what plainly will be 
one of America's most important priorities for years and years to come.
    Ambassador Holbrooke, my new United Nations designate, is already a 
familiar face all around the globe. His remarkable diplomacy in Bosnia 
helped to stop the bloodshed, and at the talks in Dayton, the force of 
his determination was a key to securing peace, restoring hope, and 
saving lives. His ongoing service in the Balkan region has helped to 
keep Bosnia's peace on track through some difficult moments.
    He has helped to advance our efforts to break the stalemate in 
Cyprus, and he's worked to defuse the alarming tensions and violence 
still brewing in Kosovo. His expertise rests on an outstanding career of 
diplomatic service, from his early days as one of the youngest ever 
Assistant Secretaries of State for Asia, an area where he has continued 
to be actively involved and which is very important today. Then he 
worked as my Ambassador to Germany and as Assistant Secretary of State 
for Europe.
    His long experience in the private sector has given him a keen eye 
for the bottom line, economically and politically. He will help us to 
shape a U.N. that is leaner, more efficient, better equipped, that 
fulfills the best ideals of its founders and meets the challenges of the 
21st century.
    Ambassador Holbrooke understands, as do all the members of our 
national security team, the important role the United Nations can play 
in supporting our goals around the world, pursuing peace and security, 
promoting human rights, fighting drugs and crime, helping people lift 
themselves from poverty to dignity and prosperity. Our Nation will 
always be prepared to act alone if necessary, but joining our strength 
with our U.N. partners, we maximize our reach and magnify our 
effectiveness while sharing costs and risks.
    In a world where developments beyond our borders have dramatic 
implications within them, from rogue states seeking nuclear weapons and 
chemical and biological weapons to pollution corroding the atmosphere, 
international cooperation is clearly more important than ever. I urge 
Congress to send me legislation, therefore, without unrelated issues, to 
live up to our legacy of leadership and pay our debt to the United 
Nations.
    In closing, let me say that the Vice President and I feel very 
fortunate every day to have such a strong national security team, men 
and women of vision, of judgment, of commitment. We have worked closely 
together to make sure that our Nation remains the world's leading force 
for peace and freedom, for prosperity and security.
    The line-up I announce today maintains that exceptional standard. I 
thank all of them for their willingness to serve. I especially thank 
Ambassador Holbrooke and Ambassador Richardson for their willingness to 
take on these important new tasks.
    And now, I'd like to turn the floor over to them.

[At this point, Secretary-designate Richardson and Ambassador Holbrooke 
thanked the President and made brief remarks.]

Rapprochement With Iran

    Q. Mr. President, are you softening your policy toward Iran? Are you 
softening your policy toward Iran? Did you find a new rapprochement?

[[Page 1150]]

    The President. I agree with the remarks made yesterday by Secretary 
Albright. We talked about them extensively before she made her speech. 
What we want is a genuine reconciliation with Iran based on mutuality 
and reciprocity and a sense that the Iranians are prepared to move away 
from support of terrorism and distribution of dangerous weapons, 
opposition to the peace process.
    We appreciate the comments that were made by the President several 
months ago, and we are exploring what the future might hold. We have not 
changed our principles, our ideas, or our objectives. We believe Iran is 
changing in a positive way, and we want to support that.
    Q. Are you contemplating a gesture, sir?
    The President. I think Secretary Albright's words should stand for 
themselves right now. I thought it was a fine speech and an important 
one.

Tobacco Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, do you have any plans to resurrect tobacco, 
perhaps in the House? And how?
    The President. Well, yesterday many of the Republicans Senators whom 
I called--and I talked to 10 of them yesterday--said that they had been 
approached by Senator Lott about the prospect of putting some sort of 
special group together of four Republicans and four Democrats and maybe 
having them try just in a matter of a few days to come up with a bill 
they thought would actually not only pass the Senate but could be 
written into law. And if that's a good-faith effort they're willing to 
make, that's certainly one option that I would consider.
    But I don't intend to continue--to stop fighting for this. I think 
it's obvious to everybody in the world what happened. This bill was 
voted out of the committee 19 to 1. Some of the people who voted for it 
in the Republican caucus then did not vote for it on the floor, even 
though every major amendment which was adopted to the bill was sponsored 
by a Republican Senator. And I think it's pretty clear what happened.
    They may believe that the $40 million in advertising by the tobacco 
companies changed public opinion irrevocably and permanently, and 
therefore, it's safe to walk away from the biggest public health 
obligation that this country has today. I don't believe that.
    But even if the politics have changed, the merits haven't. One more 
day will pass today when 3,000 more children will start to smoke even 
though it's illegal to sell them cigarettes, and 1,000 of them will have 
their lives shortened because of it. And for us to sit here and do 
nothing in the face of evidence which has been mounting during this 
debate, even in the Minnesota case, during this debate, gave the 
freshest and in some cases the most vivid documentary evidence of all 
from the tobacco companies themselves that they've known about the 
addictive qualities of nicotine for years and that they have 
deliberately marketed cigarettes to children for years, even though they 
knew it was against the law to do it, because they needed what they call 
``replacement smokers.''
    Now, the bill is simple in its outline and clear in its objectives. 
And in terms of the complications of it, many of those were added by the 
people who now are criticizing it.
    So, on balance, I think the case is still so overwhelming that we 
ought to keep working on it, and I'm prepared--you know, I've been 
working on this for years. When we started, most people didn't think 
we'd get as far as we have, and I don't think that we intend to stop 
until we prevail. And sooner or later we will, because it's the right 
thing to do.
    Q. Sir, how will you finance this child care initiative and other 
things that were contained in that bill without ruining the budget?
    The President. We can only finance--we can finance that part of it 
which is within our own budget, and that part of it which was dedicated 
to--which would had to have been financed by the States and which was 
within a menu of things that we supported that the States could spend it 
on won't be financed unless the States get the money some other way. And 
I think that's unfortunate, because I think that would be a good 
expenditure of some of the money.
    Keep in mind, most of the Federal money was designed to be spent 
on--directly on

[[Page 1151]]

health care--on medical research, on smoking cessation programs, on 
programs designed to deal with the consequences of the health problems 
that are directly related to smoking in this country. And that was, of 
course, a part of the Senate's decision in killing it.
    I think it's important to point out also that there were--that this 
bill is temporarily dead because of the unusual rule of the Senate that 
requires 60 percent, not 51 percent, of the Senate to pass on any bill 
other than the budget if somebody objects to it. So for all the $40 
million in spending--and as reported in the paper today, all the 
commitment to run the same ads all over again in November to protect the 
Republican Members who voted with them--they still could only muster 43 
votes. And two of those votes were people who wanted a better provision 
for the tobacco farmers and essentially supported the bill.
    So, essentially, what you've got is 41 people denying the American 
people and denying the huge majority of the United States Senate, 
including a number of Republicans, the right to pass a tobacco bill and 
ask the House to do the same to protect our children. That's not a long 
way from success. And that means that each and every one of the members 
of the Republican caucus who voted for that was in a way personally 
responsible for the death of the bill.
    It's not all--it's dead today. It may not be dead tomorrow. And it's 
not dead over the long run because the public health need is great. I've 
never quit on anything this important in my life, and I don't intend to 
stop now. There are too many futures riding on it, and I think in the 
end we will prevail.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:08 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Mohammad Khatami of 
Iran.