[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 2 (Monday, January 18, 1999)]
[Pages 47-49]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing an Initiative To Improve Economic Opportunities for 
Americans With Disabilities

January 13, 1999

    Wow! Wasn't she great? Let's give her another hand. She was great. 
[Applause] Thank you.
    On behalf of all of us in our administration, many of whom are here, 
I want to thank all the advocates for persons with disabilities in our 
audience. I thank especially Tony Coelho, Becky Ogle, Paul Marchand, my 
great friend Justin Dart, Paul Miller, and others. I want to thank all 
the people in the administration, those in the Cabinet who are here with 
me, and the agency heads and the others in the White House who have done 
so much to help to sensitize me and the Vice President and others to the 
challenges and our obligations.
    I say a special word of thanks to Tom Harkin, who has personally 
taught me a lot about the issues we discuss today, to Senator Ted 
Kennedy and to Senator Jeffords. I knew if I listened long enough, that 
Republican rhetoric would finally sound good around one issue. 
[Laughter] And you did it today, and I thank you. You were just great. 
It was great.
    I'd also like to thank two great friends of this cause who are in 
the audience: Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island; Congressman Ben 
Cardin from Maryland. We thank them for being here.
    You know, a lot of things have already been said, and I would like 
to say something not in my notes. I hope nobody will take this the wrong 
way, because everybody knows what a great enthusiast I am of athletics. 
Most of the cameras at this hour are somewhere else, and I want to say, 
on behalf of my wife from Chicago and myself, that we wish Michael 
Jordan well. We admire him. We like him very much, and we thank him for 
years of thrilling exploits.
    In my life, I don't know that I ever saw another athlete with such a 
remarkable set of qualities of mind, body, and spirit, not only somebody 
who had a body that would do things no one else's would do but who 
always expected to do whatever it was he tried to do. And I think it's 
appropriate that the sports fans around America take a day or two to 
``ooh'' and ``aah'' and hold their breath again, and be glad again. But 
the courage of Karen Moore, and all the people like her, is greater 
still, by far.
    I remember once, many years ago, after I lost an election and became 
the youngest former Governor in American history--[laughter]--with very 
dim future prospects, a wise old country lawyer wrote me a letter. And 
he said, ``Bill, you know, it takes a little bit of strength to sustain 
a terrible setback,

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but the real courage in life is living through the grind of day-to-day 
existence with dignity and nobility and charity.''
    How much more true is that for people with disabilities, for whom 
daily existence can be a greater grind, for whom charity is harder to 
muster of the spirit because so many of the rest of us have been so 
blindly insensitive to things which would enable all of us to get 
through that daily life better?
    A lot of good things have happened since the seventies--Senator 
Kennedy talked about it--since these gentlemen and others passed the 
Americans With Disabilities Act. We did have a great renewal of the IDEA 
a year or so ago. But 75 percent of Americans with disabilities are 
still unemployed. You just heard why. Millions are forced to make the 
impossible choice between going to work and keeping their health 
insurance. Millions more lack the tools and services that could make the 
difference between dependence and independence.
    We all know working is a fundamental part of what we say is the 
American dream. Maya Angelou once said that work is ``something made 
greater by ourselves, and in turn, that makes us greater.'' You heard 
Karen; you heard what she said: ``I'm working; how I love being at work. 
Oh, by the way, my family life is better, and I don't get sick as 
much.'' That is not an accident. Every single one of us, we want to be 
fully engaged in life. And we ought to have the chance to do so.
    I like what Senator Jeffords said about how the Congressional Budget 
Office might or might not estimate this initiative, and I had that 
argument before and lost it, so I'm not going to get into that. But let 
me ask you this: When we've got the largest surplus in our history, the 
longest peacetime expansion in our history, perhaps the strongest 
economy we've ever had, if we cannot address this issue now, then when 
will we ever address it? Now is the time.
    So, here is what we propose to do. First, you've already heard about 
the landmark legislation by Senators Jeffords, Kennedy, Roth, and 
Moynihan, to assist millions of Americans with disabilities who want to 
work. Today I am pleased to announce that the balanced budget I will 
present to Congress fully funds this vitally important initiative. 
Americans should never have to choose between the dignity of work and 
the health care they need. With this legislation, they'll have a ticket 
to work, not an impossible choice.
    I will also continue to work with Congress to pass legislation I 
know is very important to the disability community, a strong enforceable 
Patients' Bill of Rights and to strengthen Social Security for the 21st 
century, not just for retirees but also for people with disabilities. 
And we ought to do it this year, with no excuses.
    Second, we must make it easier for people with disabilities to get 
to work. As anyone with a disability can tell you, it takes more than a 
job to enter the work force. Often, it takes accessible transportation, 
specialized technology, or personal assistance. And the cost can be 
prohibitively high. Today I am pleased to announce a new $1,000 tax 
credit so hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities will be 
helped to meet these critically important expenses.
    Finally, we have to give people with disabilities the tools they 
need to succeed--we all need that. I hope all of you had a chance to 
experience and see the amazing displays out there in the Grand Foyer, 
from a portable computer kiosk that helps people with disabilities vote 
or find a job, to the latest voice recognition software that lets you 
use a computer without touching a keyboard, to a new generation of 
mobile telephones that connect directly to hearing aids, to a device to 
immediately translate music into braille. This kind of ``assistive 
technology,'' as it is called, will empower people as never before. 
Today I am pleased to announce that my budget will double our investment 
in this sort of technology, to make it more available to people with 
disabilities.
    We also will help States to expand low-income loan programs to help 
more people afford these promising products. The Federal Government will 
become a model user of assistive technology. We will increase our 
commitment to research and development to continue our progress.
    Increased access to health care, more assistance at home and in the 
workplace, remarkable new technologies made more available: This is how 
we can make sure that all

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Americans can take their rightful place in our 21st century workplaces.
    Last summer the Vice President announced our plan to build at the 
FDR Memorial a new statue of President Roosevelt in the wheelchair from 
which he led our Nation, the wheelchair he then felt compelled to hide 
because of the negative attitudes of his time. Well, we've come a long 
way since those days and, even though we in public life get to make the 
speeches, I think it's clear to all of us that you deserve the credit--
all of the work you have done.
    People with disabilities are increasingly a powerful presence in 
America, from our schools to our businesses to the halls of government 
but, maybe equally important, increasingly a welcome, comfortable, 
normal presence. President Roosevelt said, ``No country, no matter how 
rich, can afford to waste its human resources.'' This is really all 
about living up to that objective.
    Thank you, Karen. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Let's go out and 
pass this legislation. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:58 p.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to polio survivor Karen Moore, 
transit system dispatcher who introduced the President: Tony Coelho, 
Chairman, President's Committee on Employment of People with 
Disabilities; Rebecca (Becky) Ogle, Executive Director, President's Task 
Force on the Employment of People with Disabilities; Justin Dart, Jr., 
chairman and founder, Justice For All; Paul Marchand, chairman, 
Consortium for Citizens With Disabilities; Paul Steven Miller, 
Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; five-time 
National Basketball Association MVP Michael Jordan; poet Maya Angelou. 
The President also referred to the Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA), Public Law 105-17.