[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 22 (Monday, June 7, 1999)]
[Pages 1019-1021]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Following a Cabinet Meeting

June 3, 1999

    Good afternoon. I have just completed a very good meeting with the 
Cabinet. We discussed many issues, three in particular I would like to 
discuss with you.

Situation in the Balkans

    First, with regard to Kosovo. As you know, we have been working 
closely with President Ahtisaari and Mr. Chernomyrdin to try to achieve 
an agreement that would allow the refugees to go home with security, 
safety, and self-government. Movement by the Serbian leadership to 
accept these conditions, established by NATO and the international 
community is, of course, welcome, but based on our past experience, we 
must also be cautious.
    First, we must have clarity that the Serbian leadership has fully 
accepted these conditions and intends to fully implement them. Until 
then and until Serb forces begin a verifiable withdrawal from Kosovo, we 
will continue to pursue diplomacy, but we will also continue the 
military effort that has brought us to this point.
    In a few moments, I will meet with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to 
speak about the progress of our campaign and our planning for the force 
that would enter Kosovo when NATO's conditions are met. NATO and our 
military have been working hard to ensure that we can sustain our 
campaign and deploy KFOR quickly and effectively when that is necessary. 
We have worked to ensure that we can do this while maintaining our 
overall military posture around the world. They have my complete 
confidence and support as we move forward.

Legislative Agenda

    The second thing we discussed today was the budget and the 
importance of maintaining fiscal discipline, which has helped our Nation 
reach historic levels of prosperity, honored our values of opportunity, 
responsibility, and community, and enabled us to begin to meet the 
challenges of America in the 21st century.
    Last fall my Cabinet and I worked very hard to put together a budget 
that reduces the publicly held debt to its lowest point since before 
World War I, safeguards the solvency of Social Security and Medicare and 
makes improvements in both programs, offers targeted tax cuts for long-
term retirement savings, stays within the budget caps, and makes 
substantial new investments in the benefit of the American people, from 
education to the environment to new technology.
    Unfortunately, the Republican majority in Congress is moving ahead 
with a budget plan

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that, in the end, may do none of these things. It fails to extend the 
solvency of Social Security and Medicare. It fails to make new, crucial 
investments. It requires deep cuts in areas of great national need, from 
law enforcement to education to the environment. These cuts would be so 
damaging that Congress, itself, to date has been unwilling and unable to 
move some of the most basic and normally noncontroversial spending bills 
out of their committees.
    The majority budget plan is simply not realistic. It is a blueprint 
for chaos, and we can do better. I urge Congress when it returns to work 
with me in a bipartisan way for a budget that is both fiscally 
responsible and honors our values and prepares for our future.

Federal Energy Policy

    I also discussed with the Cabinet new actions to deal with what, in 
my State of the Union Address, I said was our most fateful environmental 
challenge, global warming. Almost every month, we see disturbing new 
evidence of climate change. Scientists now believe that last year, 1998, 
was very likely the warmest year in a millennium. Whole species of frogs 
are disappearing from forests in Costa Rica because the air there is 
getting hotter and drier. In the Arctic, the permafrost has started to 
warm and the sea ice is shrinking. These are alarming signs for what it 
means to biodiversity and the potential of a rising water level around 
the globe.
    Yet some still insist that the vast majority of scientists are 
simply wrong, and that we should do nothing. Others call for a raft of 
new regulations and new taxes. I believe there is a third way here, a 
better way, to invest in technologies that reduce greenhouse gases while 
also spurring economic growth. Many of those technologies are on hand 
right now.
    As the single largest consumer of energy in our country, the Federal 
Government should be leading the way. That is why today I am directing 
all Federal departments and agencies to take steps to markedly improve 
the energy efficiency of our buildings. With new technologies and 
contracts with private companies, the Federal Government will cut its 
greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent. That is the equivalent of taking 
1.7 million cars off the road. By taking these steps, we will also save 
the taxpayers over $750 million a year when they are fully implemented.
    I'm also pleased to announce that the Defense Department will award, 
by the end of this month, the largest energy-saving contract in the 
history of the Federal Government. Under this contract, the Government 
pays no up-front costs, the contractor wins a share of the energy 
savings; greenhouse pollution is reduced; and taxpayers will save over 
$200 million.
    I want to express my thanks to Secretary Cohen and Secretary 
Richardson for turning the idea of these win-win energy contracts into a 
reality. And I want to urge Congress, again, to pass the new research 
investments and the new tax incentives I have proposed in my balanced 
budget, so that America's consumers and businesses can reap the benefits 
of energy-saving technologies that exist today, and the new, better 
technologies that are soon to be developed.
    So, in closing, let me say we have some encouraging news on Kosovo, 
but we should be cautious, and we should see real results.
    We have presented a good budget to the Congress; the one they have 
come back with won't work. We've got to work together to give the 
American people one that will. The problem of climate change and global 
warming is real, but we don't have to have an economic breakdown to deal 
with it; what we need is a vigorous embrace of effective technologies, 
first by the Federal Government and then by all the American people.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 2:52 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Martti Ahtisaari of 
Finland and Special Envoy and former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin 
of Russia.

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