[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 45 (Monday, November 15, 1999)]
[Pages 2356-2359]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Returning From Arlington National Cemetery and an Exchange 
With Reporters

November 11, 1999

Budget Negotiations

    The President. Well, good afternoon. I am delighted to be joined by 
Secretary Riley and by Bruce Reed, my Domestic Policy Adviser, and by 
these teachers from our area, some of whom have actually been hired 
through our class size initiative.
    All of you know today is Veterans Day. I've just returned from 
Arlington Cemetery. We always discussed how best to honor the 
contributions of our veterans on this day. One good way is by reaching 
agreement on a budget that honors our values, the values for which they 
served, that enhances opportunity, reinforces responsibility, 
strengthens our community and the future of our children. We have made 
important progress toward that end.

[[Page 2357]]

    Last night, after many days and hours of discussion, Congress agreed 
to continue supporting our efforts to hire 100,000 new, highly qualified 
teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. That is truly good 
news for our children and for their future.
    We know that school enrollments are exploding, record numbers of 
teachers are retiring. Research is clear that students do learn more in 
smaller classes with quality teachers. Every parent and teacher in 
America knows that a child in a second-grade class with 25 students will 
not get as much attention as he or she needs and deserves.
    Just this week, we learned that our class size initiative, which 
Congress agreed to last year, is working. Communities are using the 
funds from last year's agreement to hire more than 29,000 teachers and 
reduce average class size for 1.7 million children to 18 students a 
class. That's why I've made honoring our commitment to reducing class 
size such a high priority in these budget negotiations. The agreement we 
have reached has bipartisan support, and it keeps us on track to hiring 
100,000 teachers by 2005.
    As I said in my State of the Union Address, we don't just need more 
teachers, but better ones. This agreement furthers that goal as well. 
All teachers hired under this program must be fully qualified. The 
program gives school districts the flexibility to use 25 percent of the 
funds from this program to train and test new teachers. It also 
increases flexibility, with the involvement of the Secretary of 
Education, to get extra funds for school districts that have a high 
percentage of their teachers that are not certified to teach the 
subjects they have been hired to teach, so that they can become fully 
qualified in those subjects.
    Through this plan, taxpayer dollars will go for reducing class size 
in public schools. And I want to thank Members of Congress from both 
parties. I'd like to particularly mention Chairman Goodling, the 
chairman of the House committee, for working with us on this, and 
Senator Patty Murray, who has been such a strong advocate for the class 
size reduction initiative. But there are many others, as well, who came 
together in this agreement. This is a victory for America's children.
    In addition to reducing class size, we've made progress on other 
vital education initiatives, as well, more than doubling funds for 
after-school programs and increasing funding for computers in our 
schools, for mentoring to prepare our children for college, for the 
Hispanic education programs. We're also making progress on other vital 
budget priorities, from hiring up to 50,000 new community police 
officers, to setting aside funds to preserve natural resources and 
protect our environment for future generations.
    I am committed to continuing this work with Congress to reach 
agreement on the issues still outstanding, including ensuring assistance 
for those who have suffered from the devastating impact of Hurricane 
Floyd, to paying our dues to the United Nations. And if we can just 
continue in this bipartisan spirit, very soon, we will complete work on 
a budget that honors our values, lives within our means, and looks to 
our future.
    Thank you all for being here today, for symbolizing what we've been 
working for.

World Trade Organization Talks in China

    Q. Mr. President, Ambassador Barshefsky--stay in China for a third 
day--WTO negotiations. Are they getting close to a deal? How much 
progress have they made?
    The President. I think the best thing I can say at the present is 
what I said yesterday: They are working, and whether I know whether 
we've got an agreement or whether we haven't, I'll let you know. But I 
think the less we say now, the better. These are difficult negotiations 
and they're working on them.

President's Visit to Kosovo

    Q. Sir, can you tell us why you are going to Kosovo, and is the plan 
to winterize every home in Kosovo overly optimistic, given that many 
non-governmental organizations have reported that people are living in 
tents and don't appear that they will have a winterized area of their 
home in time for the winter season?
    The President. Well, I'm going for several reasons. I'm going to 
thank our troops and see how they're doing, to support the United 
Nations' operation there, and to see how

[[Page 2358]]

we're doing in helping the peace to take hold and meeting basic human 
needs.
    As to the last question you asked, I can't give a definitive answer 
because I don't know what the possibilities are. I think we have to do 
what is necessary to make sure that people are not too cold this winter 
because they exercised their right to go home.
    I want to remind you that in some ways we have this problem because 
almost everybody who left Kosovo went home, because the world community 
acted more quickly here than we acted in Bosnia, where there are still 
hundreds of thousands of refugees who have not gone home because the 
Bosnian war went on for 4 years and a quarter of a million people died 
there. So I'm--it's a problem, but I think we'll deal with it, and I 
think the Kosovars know that it's a problem because they all got to go 
home so fast. And we just have to work it through and find out whatever 
is necessary to get them through the winter.
    One more. I'll take one more. Go ahead.

Africa and Caribbean Trade Legislation

    Q. Mr. President, in your conversation with Mr. Lott, you have 
raised the African and CBI legislation. Did you get any assurance from 
him that there would be action on that before the end of the session?
    The President. Oh, I'll tell you exactly what he said, and actually, 
I think he's basically right about this. He said, we've got every 
available resource now, all of our available resources thrown into 
resolving all the remaining budget issues. As you know, we stand up--
Senator Lott and Senator Daschle and Speaker Hastert and Mr. Gephardt 
and I, we stand up and we give these talks, and we answer your 
questions. And for every question we answer there are scores of people 
that are required to do all this work and hammer out the agreements to 
turn it into legislative language, to work out the mechanics of how it's 
going to get on the calendar and all that.
    So what Senator Lott said was that he strongly supported the 
legislation, as do I. Senator Daschle strongly supports it. They want to 
know that we have--put mechanically--that we have a way to resolve all 
the budget issues and deal with getting it up, getting it voted on at 
the appropriate time next week. And if we can get this resolved, then 
they're going to try to get the Africa trade-CBI bill worked out. And I 
do think this is a completely good-faith offer on their part.
    There are still some differences between the Senate and the House 
approach. The House bill doesn't have CBI in it. And there will, 
inevitably, be some disputes about some provisions of the CBI bill. I 
think we can work through them all. I do believe there is a majority in 
both Houses for this legislation. But it just takes--it's not something 
that can be done without some time and care. And right now, everyone's 
energies are focused on resolving the budget agreement.
    So I pledged to him that we would do our best to resolve the budget 
agreement as quickly as possible--to reach a budget agreement. And he 
pledged to me that if we got it done in time, if they could physically 
do it, he would try to hammer out an agreement on Africa-CBI that both 
Houses can support. And I think it's terribly important, so I hope very 
much we can do it.

Israeli Radar Sales to China

    Q. Sir, can you take a question on Israel? Could you tell us, sir, 
how it is that Israel got the notion that it would be prudent to sell 
radar equipment to the Chinese, and what are you doing about it?
    The President. Well, we have raised it with them because we raise--
whenever any of our friends sell sophisticated equipment that might be 
American in origin that is inconsistent with the terms under which the 
transfer was made, then we raise that. That has not been acknowledged 
yet; the facts are in dispute. So I think before I can tell you what I'm 
going to do about it, we have to be absolutely sure what the facts are.
    Our people had questions, and they had good reason to have 
questions. But sometimes when you hear these things, it's not always 
right. So the story is accurate that we've raised the matter, but it is 
inaccurate to say that we know it's an actual fact that such a transfer 
has occurred. As soon as we do know the facts, then we will decide what 
is appropriate, and I'll be glad to tell you that. I just--but I don't 
want to say anything that I'm not sure is true. And I do not believe

[[Page 2359]]

that the Israeli Government has confirmed this yet, and I think the 
matter is still in some dispute.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:54 p.m. in the Oval Office at the White 
House.