[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 25 (Monday, June 26, 2000)]
[Pages 1395-1399]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at a Southwest Voter Registration Education Project Reception in 
Houston, Texas

June 19, 2000

    Thank you very, very much. Well, I think Representative Noriega did 
his family proud, don't you? I thought it was great. Thank you. 
[Applause]
    I would like to thank all of you who are here, including the folks 
behind me: my good friend Bill White; and my long-time friend 
Representative Al Edwards; and Carlos Truan, whom I've known for nearly 
30 years. And Antonio Gonzalez, thank you very much. And Billie Carr is 
still working her cell phone after all these years. [Laughter] Tell 
whoever it is I said hello, Billie. [Laughter] I love this.
    I want to thank Representative Sheila Jackson Lee for being here. 
And Mickey Ibarra, who is my special assistant, who works with State and 
local government around the country; I thank him for coming down here, 
along with Steve Ricchetti, my Deputy Chief of Staff.
    I'm delighted to be with Southwest Voter Registration Project, and I 
want to thank you for all the work that you have done with me and the 
Vice President over the years, the work you have done to advance 
democracy, to bring Latino voters into the process, to promote education 
and economic development.
    I also appreciate the solidarity you have shown with others who also 
deserve to be empowered and to have a full portion of the American 
dream. And I want to acknowledge, again, Representative Al Edwards, who 
is here, because today is June 19th, which is known in the African-
American community in the South as ``Juneteenth.'' It's the holiday that 
celebrates the emancipation of the slaves in Texas.
    And for those of you who don't know, basically, Abraham Lincoln, in 
what is now the Lincoln Bedroom, signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 
September of 1862. It became effective January 1, 1863. But most of the 
slaves who were freed did not find out until after the Civil War, 
because the proclamation ran to the States that had seceded. And formal 
notice came on June 19th, in Texas, and it became known as Juneteenth. 
In the western part of the southern States, it's still not uncommon to 
see these ``Juneteenth'' celebrations all across the South, particularly 
in little towns who have family ties going back to that period. And Al 
made it a holiday in Texas. We congratulate him. Thank you, old friend.
    And let me sort of pivot off of that to say that this day should be 
a day for rejoicing but also for reflection, and for reminding ourselves 
that there's still a lot of hardship out there and still a lot of 
discrimination against people because of their race or their sexual 
orientation or something else that makes them different, and therefore 
makes other people afraid of them, or believe that they can look down on 
them and do things that aren't right.
    On the way in here, I met with Louvon Harris and Darrell Verrett, 
the sister and the nephew of James Byrd. They're right here. Stand up. 
[Applause] It was 2 years ago this month that James Byrd was killed here 
in Texas, in a heinous act that shocked Americans in every corner of the 
country, including all the good people of Texas. It reminds us that 
crimes that are motivated by hate really are fundamentally different 
and, I believe, should be treated differently under the law.
    In the Federal Government we have Federal hate crimes legislation on 
the books that I believe should be stronger. But we have prosecuted a 
number of the cases. We have substantially increased the number of FBI 
agents working them; we have formed local hate crimes working groups; 
and for 3 years we've tried to pass a stronger Federal bill

[[Page 1396]]

and to support similar actions in States across the country.
    I know you were disappointed when the State hate crimes legislation 
didn't pass here. But I am pleased to be able to tell you that the 
United States Senate has finally agreed, the leadership of the Senate, 
to allow a vote, up or down, on hate crimes legislation that has now 
been held up since November of 1997, * when I had the first White House 
Conference on Hate Crimes. But it's now going to be voted on.
    * White House correction.
    And I want to tell you about it. The bill has been strengthened. The 
version of the bill that is now going to be voted on will be introduced 
by Senator Kennedy today on the Senate floor. It strengthens the Federal 
hate crimes legislation and also gives State and local officials more 
Federal resources to help to prosecute these crimes.
    Now, we believe that most hate crimes should be prosecuted--
investigated and prosecuted by State and local officials, with the 
Federal Government being a partner. But too often Federal officials have 
literally been prevented from teaming up with local law enforcement, and 
that has kept communities from being able to do what needed to be done 
to work these offenses.
    Senator Kennedy's bill takes steps to change that by giving State 
and local officials the assistance they need. It also requires the 
Attorney General to confer with them before bringing a case in Federal 
court. So we have actually strengthened the original bill, put some more 
resources in it, and done it in a way that I hope and pray will get us 
enough Republican votes to actually pass the bill. And I ask all of you 
to stand with this fine family. They've been out here working for this 
for 2 years now. They have worked through their grief and through their 
pain. They've been willing to stand up and be counted.
    And we have a chance now to pass this at the Federal level. And I 
know that Representative Sheila Jackson Lee cares very deeply about 
this. I brought two United States Senators down to Texas with me today, 
Ron Wyden and Bob Torricelli, who are profoundly committed to it. And I 
just want to ask you to help us. You have shown your solidarity on all 
these human rights issues. We have people here from the Human Rights 
Campaign Fund in this room today. I want to ask you to help us. We've 
got a chance now. We have to pass this legislation.
    I'd like to mention one or two other things, if I might. Congress, I 
hope, will pass some legislation to correct two long-standing injustices 
that affect immigrants in our country. First, we need to amend our 
immigration laws to provide equitable treatment for all Central American 
immigrants. In that connection, we should give migrants with 
longstanding ties to our country the chance to legalize their status.
    As all of you know, we had a huge amount of turmoil in Central 
America right through the 1980's, into the early nineties. The Federal 
law actually discriminates against Central Americans who came here for 
the same reasons, depending on what country they came from and what the 
nature of the conflict was back home. And I don't think any of us think 
that is right. And a lot of these folks have been here a long time. 
They've established families. They've married people from other 
countries or from our country. They've got kids in our schools, and we 
need to do this.
    The third thing I'd like to ask your help on is to continue working 
with us to see that our Federal courts reflect America's growing 
diversity. [Applause] I appreciate you clapping, but I want you to 
really help us do something about this.
    Representative Noriega said that I had appointed and nominated the 
most diverse group of Federal judges in history. We've appointed more 
Hispanic-Americans to the Federal bench than any administration before. 
Twenty-four of my judicial appointees have been Hispanic-Americans, more 
than the previous two Republican administrations combined. I'm proud of 
that. But--yes, but--[laughter]--and the ``but'' is important, several 
imminently qualified minority nominees have become casualties of a 
highly politicized confirmation process.
    Let me back up and say that, generally, if you--there have been lots 
and lots of scholarly articles pointing out that my nominees are the 
most highly regarded by the

[[Page 1397]]

American Bar Association professional evaluation in 40 years, that they 
have by and large not been political, that they have not been on one 
ideological extreme; they have been mainstream appointees. And they have 
constantly been attacked in the Senate, because they didn't fit the 
ideological mold that the Republican majority wanted.
    For example, Ricardo Morado, my candidate for the Southern District 
here in Texas, his nomination has been put on hold. Kathleen McCree 
Lewis in Detroit--her father, Wade McCree, was one of the two or three 
most important lawyers in the entire civil rights movement, highly 
regarded lawyer. Never been an African-American woman on the Court of 
Appeals there. Can't get a hearing for her.
    And perhaps the most egregious case in the entire country, I think, 
is the case of Enrique Moreno, who I nominated to the Court of Appeals 
for the Fifth Circuit. He has been waiting more than 275 days, without 
even receiving a judiciary committee hearing. And last month Senator 
Gramm and Senator Hutchison said they were going to oppose his 
nomination because he wasn't qualified. They said he wasn't experienced. 
Well, you be the judge. From humble beginnings in El Paso, he 
established, first of all, an utterly brilliant academic career--I might 
add, more brilliant than that of virtually everyone who'd be voting on 
his confirmation. [Laughter]
    The State judges in Texas said he was one of the top three trial 
attorneys in El Paso. The American Bar Association gave him their 
highest rating--not just a good rating, their highest rating. But this 
State's Republican Senator said he's not qualified. And apparently, 
everybody else is going along with it because there's been no voice to 
the contrary. Now, I don't know about you, but if he's not qualified, 
who is?
    This is the kind of thing--we've been going through this--I can give 
you lots of other examples. The first African-American ever to serve on 
the Missouri Supreme Court was defeated in the Senate by a blatant 
partisan misrepresentation of his record. And we can't have this kind of 
thing in our country.
    It wasn't as if I said, ``Well, I want a quota here, and I'm going 
to appoint this guy because he's Hispanic.'' This guy has a brilliant 
academic record, a brilliant record as a lawyer. The American Bar 
Association says they give him their highest rating. And the Senators 
here say he's not qualified. And this is part of a distinctive pattern.
    This should not be partisan. I went out of my way because we'd had 
20 years of partisan fights in judgeships. I went out of my way to try 
to pick people that would not raise partisan hackles, to be totally 
bipartisan in this. And in spite of that, because there are those in the 
other party who see the courts as an instrument of partisan policy and 
want it to be that--not because I've made it there but because neutral 
is not good enough, fair is not good enough, unbiased is not good 
enough--that's what's going on here. And if you feel strongly about it, 
you better be heard.
    And the device is always to deny these people a hearing or to deny 
them a vote. Why? Because they don't want them on the court, but they 
don't want the people you're trying to register to vote to know they 
don't want them on the court. Right? So the answer is, blur everything, 
shift, kind of just sort of waver around here, and let it all die and 
hope nobody will know what really happened.
    So I'm here to tell you this is a good man. If he was involved with 
me politically, I don't know it. Maybe that's--I don't. I appointed him 
because the people came to me and said we've got a chance to appoint a 
guy who's superbly qualified, who can get the highest ABA rating and be 
a good thing for Texas, a good thing for the Fifth Circuit, and so I did 
it. And I think for him to be denied, not because he's political, but 
because he's not political enough in the right way, is wrong.
    Now, let me just say a couple of things in closing. We've got to get 
everybody to vote in this election, and then they need to know what the 
stakes are. You want people to register to vote and to make intelligent 
choices. And I think we're actually quite fortunate in this millennial 
election, because we don't have to engage in a kind of personal, 
negative histrionics. I think you've got two good people running for 
President who have profound disagreements. But it's important people 
know what the differences are. I think you've got good people running 
for the Senate all

[[Page 1398]]

over America, and running for the House. There's one Senate race I'm 
especially interested in. [Laughter]
    But anyway, you've got all these good people. We don't have to run 
an election where anybody badmouths anybody else. Just everybody stand 
up and say where they disagree, and let the voters make up their mind.
    But it is important not to think that there are no disagreements and 
that there aren't any consequences, because there are. Just because we 
have a bunch of good people doesn't mean there are no consequences to 
the decisions the voters will make. So people have to make up their 
mind. And first, they have to register, then they have to vote. And when 
they go, they need to actually have a clear view of, if I vote for this 
set of candidates, this is what I get, these are the decisions I get, 
this is the direction I get; if I vote for this section, this group, 
this is what I get.
    And I've done everything I could to try to turn the country around. 
And I'm very proud of the fact that we're paying down the debt instead 
of running it up, that we've got the longest economic expansion in 
history and over 22 million jobs and the lowest Hispanic unemployment 
rate ever recorded and the lowest poverty rate in 20 years and the 
highest Hispanic homeownership and 2\1/2\ times as many SBA loans and 
all that.
    But the truth is, all that matters is, what are we going to do with 
it? What is it that you propose to do with it? I'm glad we had a 
successful empowerment zone in south Texas. I'm glad that we've been 
able to do these things.
    But the issue is, what are you going to do with it? What should the 
economic policy of the country be? Should we continue paying down the 
debt and protecting Social Security and Medicare and investing in 
education? Or should we give all the projected surplus back to you in a 
tax cut and just hope that we won't run a deficit and hope somehow we'll 
find the money to invest in education?
    What should we do in education? Should we modernize our schools and 
make sure we hire enough teachers and identify schools that aren't 
succeeding and turn them around, or change the leadership? Or should we 
adopt a voucher program and say that public schools probably can't be 
made to work, so let's go to a voucher system?
    I was in a school in New York City this week--let me just give you 
one example, one example. Two years ago Public School 96, in Spanish 
Harlem--2 years ago, 80 percent of those kids in this grade school were 
reading below grade level--2 years ago. Today, 74 percent of them are 
reading at or above grade level, and doing math at or above level--in 2 
years.
    I was in a school in Kentucky the other day that was one of the 
worst performing schools in the State--elementary schools. There were 5 
percent of the kids reading at or above grade level 4 years ago; today, 
57 percent of them are. There were 12 percent of the kids doing math at 
or above grade level; today, 70 percent are. There were zero percent of 
the kids doing science at or above grade level; today, two-thirds are--
basically, in 3 years. It's the 19th best elementary school in the State 
of Kentucky. And way over half the kids are on free or reduced school 
lunches.
    So what I want you to know is that without regard to income or 
background, intelligence is equally distributed, and schools can be made 
to work if we just do what we know works. And that's what I think we 
ought to make a commitment to do. You know, when I started this school 
reform business 20 years ago in Arkansas, when I was trying to do it, we 
didn't really know what worked. But we do now. And it would be a 
terrible mistake for us to turn away from what works toward something 
that we don't have any idea whether it works or not but would drain a 
lot of money off--I think.
    What about the economy? Well, I think it's important that we do more 
to bring the benefits of the economy to people and places that haven't 
fully participated. That's why I want to increase the earned-income tax 
credit, something you helped me do before--lifted over a million 
Hispanics out of poverty in the years that I've been in office. That's 
why I think we ought to raise the minimum wage again.
    That's why I think we ought to adopt this new markets initiative. 
It's the only really good bipartisan thing we've got going up in 
Washington now. We are working really well

[[Page 1399]]

in the House in a bipartisan way. It's really quite touching, and I 
thank the Speaker of the House for doing it. And I hope we can do it in 
the Senate. It's why I think we ought to implement a lot of the 
recommendations of the Southwest Border Initiative Task Force that I 
got. A lot of you have been involved in that in one way or the other.
    What are we going to do about health care? Are we going to have a 
Patients' Bill of Rights or not? Are we going to let all the seniors on 
Medicare have access to affordable prescription drugs or not? Are we 
going to do more to let working families have access to affordable 
health insurance or not? I've got a big proposal on that. I think 
Houston has one of the highest percentages of working people without 
access to health insurance in the entire United States--a lot of them 
Latino. This is a big issue.
    So that's the last thing I leave you with. The country is moving in 
the right direction. Things are better than they were 8 years ago. But 
how a nation deals with its prosperity is as stern a test of its 
character and judgment as how it deals with adversity. And those of us 
that are old enough to remember different times know that nothing lasts 
forever. And when you're in the bad times, you can thank God for that. 
But when you're in great times, you should be humble and grateful and 
make up your mind to make the most of them.
    We've got the best chance in my lifetime to deal with the big 
challenges still out there, to seize the big opportunities out there. 
And that's why it's important that you empower people. They can't take 
good times for granted. And if they're still in trouble, they shouldn't 
take that for granted, either. The vote is the voice, just like your 
sign says.
    And it's been a great honor for me to serve. It's been a great honor 
for me to work with you. I've had the time of my life. This is the first 
election in 25 years I'm not part of; most days I'm okay about it. 
[Laughter] But as a noncandidate, the only thing I ask everybody to do 
is to vote and to be intelligent about it, to make up your mind what you 
think we ought to do with this moment of prosperity, and then to clearly 
understand the choices before you and go out and make yours. If we do 
that, America will be in good hands.
    Thank you very much.

 Note:  The President spoke at 11:35 a.m. in the Austin Room at the Four 
Seasons Hotel. In his remarks, he referred to Texas State 
Representatives Rick Noriega and Al Edwards; Bill White, former chair, 
and Billie Carr, executive council member, Texas State Democratic Party; 
Texas State Senator Carlos F. Truan; Antonio Gonzalez, president, 
Southwest Voter Registration Education Project.