[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 21 (Monday, May 31, 1999)]
[Pages 983-987]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the White House Community Empowerment Conference in Edinburg, 
Texas

May 25, 1999

    Thank you. Give her a hand. [Applause] Wasn't she great? Well, 
ladies and gentlemen, I think I should begin by saying that the Vice 
President and I said simultaneously that we would be happy to write 
Trini a letter of recommendation for study in nursing or in advanced 
communication. [Laughter]
    I'd like to tell you how delighted I am to be here to see all of 
you. I thank Secretary Cuomo and Secretary Glickman, Administrator 
Alvarez. We're also delighted to be joined by Congressman Hinojosa, 
Congresswoman Jackson Lee, and Reyes, Congresswoman Juanita Millender-
McDonald from the State of California; Mayor Kurt Schmoke has come from 
Baltimore; my Deputy Chief of Staff, Maria Echaveste. One of our 
nominees who is from this area, Irasema Garza, the nominee for Director 
of the Women's Bureau at the Department of Labor, is here.
    I'd also like to say, as always when I come down here to the valley, 
I'm delighted to see

[[Page 984]]

former Congressman Kika de la Garza. We're glad to see you, sir, looking 
so well. We miss you.
    President Nevarez, we're delighted to be at the University of Texas-
Pan American, and I have enjoyed my stay here and am impressed by your 
work here. And I thank you for coming to welcome us.
    Mayor Ochoa of Edinburg and County Judge Pulido and the other mayors 
and judges and officials who are here, let me thank all of you for 
coming and for being a part of the White House Empowerment Conference, 
but even more important, for being a part of the community empowerment 
movement.

Cox Committee Report

    I have to make a statement just for a couple of minutes that has no 
bearing on this conference but affects all of you as Americans. Today 
the House of Representatives Select Committee, led by Congressman 
Christopher Cox of California and Norm Dicks of Washington, a Republican 
and a Democrat, is releasing its report on China's efforts to obtain 
sensitive United States military-related technology. We've been working 
with the committee to make sure that the public can have the benefit of 
the maximum amount of information consistent with our national security 
and law enforcement requirements.
    First, let me say that I am particularly appreciative of the careful 
and bipartisan manner in which the committee did its work. It has made a 
number of recommendations for actions to strengthen our national 
security protections. The overwhelming majority of those recommendations 
we agree with and are in the process of implementing. I'd like to say 
that Secretary Richardson, the Secretary of Energy, in particular, is 
moving aggressively to tighten security at our national laboratories.
    Like many other countries, China seeks to acquire our sensitive 
information and technology. We have a solemn obligation to protect such 
national security information, and we have to do more to do it.
    In February of 1998 I signed an order that put into place the most 
sweeping reorganization ever of counterintelligence in our nuclear 
weapons labs. Since 1996, we have increased funding for 
counterintelligence from $2.6 million to almost $40 million. We're 
giving polygraphs to scientists in sensitive areas, having background 
checks on visitors from sensitive countries. We have strict controls on 
the transfer of sensitive commercial and military technology to China, 
stricter than for any other countries except those like Libya, on which 
we have a total embargo.
    At the same time, I strongly believe that our continuing engagement 
with China has produced benefits for our national security. For example, 
China's decision to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty substantially 
reduces its ability to develop new nuclear weapons. We've persuaded 
China to end nuclear cooperation with Iran and with Pakistan's 
unsafeguarded nuclear program. China is working with us to help to 
eliminate North Korea's nuclear program and reduce its missile threat.
    I want to assure you and all the American people that I will work 
very hard with the Congress to protect our national security, to 
implement the recommendations and to continue our policy of engagement, 
because both of them are in the national interest. [Applause] Thank you.

Empowerment Conference

    Let me say, when I was listening to Trini describe all the wonderful 
work that has been done in this empowerment zone, my mind went back to 
the time not so long ago when I came to Mission with Congressman 
Hinojosa, and we had this vast crowd on the football stadium, probably 
20,000 people. And then we had a wonderful meeting with people who were 
involved in doing all these projects. And I came back and gave a report 
to the Vice President about how profoundly impressed I was.
    Then I thought back also to 1991 and 1992, when I was going across 
the country and I saw not only a country mired in recession but 
particular areas where it had been so long since any significant 
economic advances had been made. It was obvious to me that the National 
Government had to do more but that we had to do it in a different way, 
first of all, because our resources were limited, the deficit was so 
big, and we had

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to get rid of it; we had to bring the whole economy back or the poorest 
areas in our country would never have a chance to come back.
    But secondly, because we needed to convince people in the areas that 
had been left behind that they had the talent, the intelligence, the 
energy, the skill to bring their communities back. And we had to give 
them the tools and the framework within which they could do it, and we 
could do our part. That is basically where our approach came from, not 
leaving our communities behind, not promising Federal programs with 
worlds of money that weren't available, but taking a third approach: 
empowering communities to turn themselves around.
    I had seen already in my own State and in communities across the 
country what could be done when people got organized around the right 
vision with the right ideas and the right kind of teamwork committed to 
getting results.
    The Vice President and I took office absolutely convinced that our 
communities could rise to this challenge, and you certainly have not 
disappointed us. We have done everything we knew to do to have a new 
compact, to say the Federal Government will do everything we can to help 
if, community by community, the private sector and the public sector, 
people from all walks of life, will get together and define what they 
want for their future. That is what Trini talked about today; that is 
what we see all across America in these empowerment zones.
    Because of his unparalleled combination of creativity and energy, 
experience and determination, I asked the Vice President to take the 
lead in turning this vision we had into reality. It was a challenge, as 
all of you have seen, that he embraced passionately. He's crossed the 
country to meet with community leaders like you, helped to forge new 
lines of communication and coordination between Federal and local 
officials, among neighboring areas in the same region with the same 
challenges, and as I'm sure a lot of you would admit, even new lines of 
communications within individual communities that have had enormous 
benefits for all concerned.
    This conference--are part of the national dialog that the Vice 
President has led. And I just want to say that this was one of the 
reasons I ran for President, what seems like at once a long time ago and 
only yesterday, I am profoundly grateful to him for proving that this is 
an idea whose time had come.
    More communities than ever are on the road to recovery, creating new 
businesses and neighborhoods, now tens of thousands of jobs, training 
workers, building and rehabilitating housing. The 135 empowerment zones 
and enterprise communities we have designated are now flowing with the 
lifeblood of commerce, capital. Federal seed money has leveraged more 
than $14 billion in public and private investment in just these 5 years. 
The return on this investment is more than financial; as we rebuild our 
communities, we restore the American dream for many who thought it was 
out of reach.
    In addition to creating the empowerment zones and enterprise 
communities, we've also established a national network of community 
financial institutions. We have promoted microenterprise loans to help 
young entrepreneurs and sometimes not so young entrepreneurs get their 
first start. We have reformed the Community Reinvestment Act to give 
more Americans better access to capital, to credit, to basic banking 
services.
    The Community Reinvestment Act has been on the books for more than 
20 years now, but I am very proud that over 95 percent of all the money 
loaned under the Community Reinvestment Act has been loaned during the 
life of this administration. We believe people should invest in their 
own communities.
    We've also worked hard to make housing more available and mortgages 
more affordable. We've worked hard to build up other services that are 
important to economic development, especially in education. And I want 
to say another word about another one of the Vice President's favorite 
projects: This week the Federal Communications Commission is going to 
vote on whether to expand the so-called E-rate. It is a part of our 
commitment to hook up every school and every library in this country by 
the year 2000 to the Internet and to make sure that all the schools and 
all the libraries in the smallest,

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poorest rural areas and the most densely populated poor urban areas, on 
every Native American reservation, everywhere, that they will all be 
able to afford to use this invaluable service.
    Now, at every step of the way we have not only tried to speak to you 
but to listen, to take heed of what you have told us about your own 
neighborhoods and what you need for us to do. Every time the Vice 
President leaves town and then comes home, he brings back more success 
stories of old problems being met with new solutions, examples like 
those of the Kentucky Highlands, where empowerment zone residents are 
extending telecommunications cables deep into the countryside, 
connecting 40 counties to the vast resources of the Internet; or 
Baltimore--Mayor Schmoke, thank you for your work--where businesses and 
empowerment board members are teaming up to train specialized workers 
for careers--not just jobs, careers--in high-tech industries that once 
they could only have dreamed of.
    All across our country, communities are coming together to take 
responsibility and to create new opportunity. From unemployment to 
crime, challenges are being met successfully, community by community. It 
is a model that works. And if you will forgive me, I would just like to 
say one thing about another problem that we've all had on our minds 
lately. It is a model that will work when it comes to preventing 
violence against our children as well.
    Of course, there are things we must do in Congress, and I hope the 
House will follow the lead of the Senate in taking responsible action to 
keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals. Of course, there 
are things the entertainment community should do, and I hope that they 
will reexamine the rating systems and try to reduce the amount of 
gratuitous violence and not advertise it to children, and enforce the 
ratings that are there. I hope that will be done as well.
    But every State and every community must be involved in this effort. 
States can act to close gun show loopholes, as the voters in Florida did 
last November with a 72 percent vote of the people, to make sure that 
our children are safer.
    But communities also have to act. Now is the time for leadership on 
that. I think every one of you know that if every child in every school 
were as connected to common endeavors as all of you feel connected to 
the common endeavors of reviving your communities, we would have far 
less violence, far less failure, far more kids looking forward to 
tomorrow instead of being caught in some dark vision of their own lives. 
You can do that as well, and I hope you will.
    Let me say to you also that in spite of the progress we come here to 
celebrate, in spite of the fact that Hispanic- and African-American 
unemployment nationwide is at its lowest recorded level, that 
homeownership is at its highest recorded level, that wages for all 
income groups are rising for the first time in more than 20 years, we 
all know that there are inner cities and poor rural areas and small- and 
medium-sized towns in between that still have not felt the warm sunlight 
of our prosperity.
    We must, therefore, here recommit ourselves to the proposition that 
we do not intend to leave anyone behind as we march into the 21st 
century. I can't think of a better place to underscore this issue than 
here in the Rio Grande Valley.
    I first came here--hard to believe--27 years ago as a young man. I 
was completely captivated then, and I remain so today, by the spirit and 
the character of the people, the genuine feelings of friendship and 
affection that people have for one another; the inordinate love people 
have for their families and their communities; and the devotion they 
have to their relatives, older and younger; and the incredible amount of 
work people have been able to do here against so many odds, often for 
such modest returns. For 27 years, I have hoped that there was something 
that I could do, that we could do, for the people of this valley and for 
people like you throughout our country in places large and small.
    The Vice President will describe in a moment the executive action I 
am taking to create a new interagency task force under his leadership 
and in close cooperation with the communities of this region to promote 
growth and opportunity specifically tailored

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to the unique character of the Southwest border. I hope it helps you, 
and I know you'll make the most of it.
    We have also asked Congress to fully fund a second round of 
empowerment zones. And I ask you to help us get that passed. When we 
were pushing this before in 1993 as a part of our economic program, it 
might have been permissible for people who were not of our political 
party to say, ``Well, this is just a political issue. This is something 
the President ran on.'' I understood that. I understood we had to carry 
the burden of proving that the tax benefits and the cash investments 
would work. But we have met that burden--no, you have met that burden. 
This should no longer be a partisan issue in America. You have proved 
that every American will be better off if we give more Americans the 
chance to do what you have done.
    So I ask you all to help convince the Members of the Congress of 
both parties that if you can do it, others can do it, and we ought to 
have a second round of empowerment zones.
    We also have another major proposal before the Congress which we 
call the new markets initiative, designed to create more incentives to 
get more capital not only into the enterprise zones and the empowerment 
zones and the enterprise communities but to any eligible community that 
is underinvested in America.
    This new markets initiative would take a combination of tax credits 
and loan guarantees for new investments in America's untapped markets 
that are very like the benefits we give for people to invest in our 
underdeveloped neighbors, to invest in the Caribbean and other places. I 
don't propose to revoke them. I'm glad we do that. But I think we ought 
to give those same investments to get capital into places in the United 
States that need it. And I hope we can pass the new markets initiative. 
All of us can benefit from that, including those of you who are already 
in the empowerment zones. And I ask you to help us pass that in this 
session of Congress as well.
    In July I'm going to take a bipartisan group of chief executive 
officers of companies, Cabinet Secretaries, Members of Congress, on a 
tour of the places in America where we need to do better. We're going to 
visit urban areas, small towns, places like the Mississippi Delta and 
Appalachia, Native American reservations, places all over America where 
there are people just like the people in the Rio Grande Valley, who 
deserve a shot at the American dream and have paid their dues to their 
families, their communities, and their country.
    We need to keep doing everything we possibly can until we can look 
at each other straight in the eye and know we are saying what is true 
when we say we are going into the new century leaving no one behind.
    Let me, in closing, again thank you for everything you have done, to 
tell you that everything we will do from here on out will build on the 
community empowerment strategy because you have proved that it works. 
Together we can make it work for all communities in the United States.
    Now I'd like to introduce the person who has worked by my side and 
yours for many years now and who has, more than any other single person 
in the United States, made community empowerment a reality in the lives 
of ordinary Americans, Vice President Al Gore.

Note: The President spoke at 1:46 p.m. in the gymnasium of the Health 
and Physical Education Building II at the University of Texas-Pan 
American. In his remarks, he referred to Maria Trinidad Gutierrez, 
member, Rio Grande Empowerment Zone board of directors, who introduced 
the President; Miguel A. Nevarez, president, University of Texas-Pan 
American; Mayor Joe Ochoa of Edinburg; and Elroy Pulido, Jr., Hidalgo 
County judge.