[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 46 (Monday, November 22, 1999)]
[Pages 2404-2405]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7254--National Family Caregivers Week, 1999

November 19, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    During this season when we give thanks for the many blessings in our 
lives, let us take time to acknowledge the loving support of the 
millions of family caregivers across our country who provide for the 
needs of parents, spouses, and other loved ones who are no

[[Page 2405]]

longer able to care for themselves. These remarkable individuals give 
their utmost to ensure that their relatives can remain in the 
comforting, familiar surroundings of their homes and communities.
    Family caregivers embody the finest of American values. With 
compassion and a deep sense of responsibility, they devote their time 
and energy and often their own financial resources to care for family 
members in need. In many ways, family caregivers are mainstays in the 
provision of long-term care in our country. Today, more than 7 million 
Americans are informal caregivers who provide unpaid help to older 
persons, and 95 percent of older Americans with limitations on their 
daily living activities depend on family members for some portion of 
their care. That number will continue to grow during the next three 
decades as our elderly population doubles, with the aging of 76 million 
baby boomers. Recognizing the important role family caregivers play in 
the lives of so many, we must continue to strongly support efforts to 
provide them with the assistance, information, and encouragement they 
need to fulfill their vital responsibilities to older family members, 
and to those who are chronically ill or disabled.
    Millions of lives have been enriched by the hard work and generosity 
of family caregivers; many older, ill, or disabled Americans enjoy a 
greater measure of comfort, dignity, and independence thanks to the 
loving care of family members. During National Family Caregivers Week, 
let us honor the many devoted men and women whose efforts do so much to 
strengthen the bonds of family and community in our Nation.
    Now, Therefore, I William J. Clinton, President of the United States 
of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 
and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 21 through 
November 27, 1999, as National Family Caregivers Week. I call upon all 
Americans to pay tribute to and acknowledge the contributions of 
caregivers to the quality of our national life.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day 
of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, 
and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred 
and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., November 22, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
November 23.