[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 43 (Monday, October 30, 2000)]
[Pages 2578-2580]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Establishment of a National Drunk Driving Standard

October 23, 2000

    Good morning. I really believe that everything that needs to be said 
about this has just been said. I want to thank Millie Webb for sharing 
her story and for her crusading leadership. I want to thank another 
person who is here today, Brenda Frazier, who came to the White House in 
1998 to talk about the tragic death of her 9-year-old daughter, Ashley, 
by a drunk driver.
    And I want to thank all the members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving 
for the grassroots campaign that has galvanized our Nation and changed 
the way we think and now, thank goodness, the way policymakers behave 
when it comes to this issue.
    I thank you, Secretary Slater. And I thank all the Members of 
Congress who have worked on this. We did have strong bipartisan support. 
It finally was able to overcome the lobbying pressure that Millie 
described.
    But I want to say a special word of appreciation to Representative 
Nita Lowey from New York, who is here to my right, and to Senator Frank 
Lautenberg. They have worked for more than 5 years on this legislation, 
and we wouldn't be here today without their leadership.
    And let me say a special word of good wishes to Senator Lautenberg. 
He is retiring after 18 years in the Senate. And he is leaving a true 
legacy as a champion for the children, the families, and the economy of 
this Nation, and we wish him well. Thank you, Frank.
    I'd also like to thank the other members of the administration who 
are here, who

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worked on this legislation, including Admiral Loy, the Commander of the 
Coast Guard, and others from the Department of Transportation and the 
Department of Defense. And I'd like to welcome the mayor of Chicago, 
Richard Daley, here and congratulate him on the things that Chicago has 
in this transportation bill--[laughter]--once again showing that his 
influence reaches beyond the city limits of the Windy City.
    Let me say to all of you that, for me, this is a very good day for 
the United States. This .08 standard is the biggest step to toughen 
drunk driving laws and reduce alcohol related crashes since a national 
minimum drinking age was established a generation ago. It is estimated 
by the experts that have studied it that it will save at least 500 lives 
every year. How often do we get a chance to begin a good morning and a 
good week by saving 500 lives a year?
    I appreciate what Millie said, that we sounded the call here at the 
White House for a .08 standard in all 50 States over 2\1/2\ years ago. 
It has been an uphill battle. But the victory came because there were 
Members of Congress in both parties who worked with a collation of 
health and safety organizations to do the right thing. It came because 
young people, parents, and communities recognized the problem and 
decided to do something about it. But mostly, let's face it, it came 
because people like Millie Webb and Brenda Frazier and their families 
decided to take their grief and make something good happen for the rest 
of America. No point in our kidding ourselves, the rest of us would have 
never defeated the lobbying interests that were against this legislation 
if it hadn't been for the people who were willing to honor their loved 
ones by standing up and being counted and fighting until this day came 
to pass.
    We have been working for years now to increase awareness, strengthen 
laws, toughen enforcement. Five years ago I signed a zero-tolerance law 
for underage drinking and driving. [Applause] I'm glad you like that. 
You know, the surveys always tell you, if you talk about something that 
happened more than a year ago, it has a limited public response. 
[Laughter] And I always pointed out, it may be limited, but it's 
enthusiastic. [Laughter]
    Two years ago I took executive action to make .08 the limit on 
Federal property, and we launched a public education campaign on drunk 
driving. This year the Departments of Transportation and Justice have 
released about $60 million to help communities combat drunk driving and 
underage drinking and to increase seatbelt use.
    And Secretary Slater, I just want to say at this moment how much I 
appreciate what you have done. You know, this man and I have worked 
together for 18 years now. I've aged quite a lot, and he looks just 
about like he did 18 years ago. [Laughter] He was a very young man when 
he came to work for me, and I have seen him grow and mature. And I think 
you'd be hard-pressed to name another person who served as Secretary of 
Transportation with greater distinction and who has not only tried to 
get more money for roads and bridges, more money for airports, more 
money for rail and mass transit--and we're still working on high-speed 
rail--but he's also tried to humanize the face of transportation and 
save lives. And I am very grateful to him, as well.
    Thanks to all these folks' efforts, we are making progress. Last 
year people killed in alcohol-related crashes dropped to an all-time 
low. But that low figure was a shocking 15,700 people, including more 
than 2,200 children. Now, I think we all know that as many people as we 
have driving our Nation's highways and all the countless miles that are 
driven, there will never be a year when no one will lose their life on 
the highway because of a mechanical failure or because an exhausted 
driver trying to reach a family emergency falls asleep or because 
something else happens. But if you could just take away the alcohol-
related deaths, the number would drop to a breathtaking low.
    Alcohol is still the single greatest factor in motor vehicle deaths 
and injuries. This law, .08, is simply a commonsense way to help stop 
that. The science has been clear for a long time. People that have that 
much alcohol in their blood are too impaired to drive safely. Judgment, 
reaction times, and other critical driving skills are severely 
diminished. When a driver with a .08 blood level turns the ignition, 
that driver is turning a car into a lethal weapon.

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    The law is effective. The National Transportation Safety 
Administration study found that Illinois, after adopting the .08 
standard, reduced the number of drinking drivers involved in fatal 
crashes by about 14 percent. The law is reasonable. It is not, contrary 
to what some of the propaganda against this said, about just having a 
drink or two after dinner. There is more involved here. Lowering the 
limit will make responsible Americans take even greater care when they 
drink alcohol in any amounts, if they intend to drive, and it should, in 
any amounts.
    Today's success is just one more example of what we do when we come 
together to meet common challenges, to help our children's future and 
make our communities stronger. We have to keep working together, because 
there are still too many drunk drivers, and there will still be too many 
after this law passes.
    So I urge the American people to take notice of this day and, 
mostly, to take notice of the stories of the Mothers Against Drunk 
Driving. Talk with your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors, your 
family members. Make sure there is a designated driver, and teach 
children about the dangers of drunk driving.
    This .08 measure, as I said, is part of a larger transportation bill 
that I signed that will also improve roads and bridges and airports and 
mass transit. It will also enhance the safety and performance of the 
transportation system itself in the new century. But I can't let this 
day go without saying that we're now in the fourth week of November and 
the work of the budget was supposed to be completed on October the 30th. 
I mean, we're in the fourth week of October. The work of the budget is 
supposed to be completed September 30th. [Laughter] I'm still not over 
flying to Egypt and back in 3 days. I'm sorry.
    But anyway, you get the point. We're 3 weeks late, and we don't have 
a budget. Last week I signed another continuing resolution to keep the 
Government open until Wednesday, but I told the leadership that if we 
don't make this deadline, we're going to have to go forward on a day-by-
day basis because Congress expects us to get the job done.
    I must say, this is the most unusual thing I've ever seen. I would 
have thought that Congress would want to get the job done so they could 
go home and run for reelection. And I say that not in a negative way. I 
think that's an honorable part of our system. We need to finish our 
business here. We need especially to get an education budget that is 
worthy of our children, that builds on what works, continues to hire 
100,000 teachers, helps communities build or modernize schools, expands 
the after-school programs and college opportunities, and helps to put a 
qualified, certified teacher in every classroom.
    This is Monday morning, and the children are at school. The parents 
are at work, and Congress comes back tonight to go to work. Today we 
have celebrated the best of the American political system. Citizens came 
together, told their stories, overcame obstacles, and after years of 
fighting, made America a safer, more humane, more decent place. This 
proves that our system can work. And what we need to do is to bring 
these values and this kind of effort to the remaining few days of 
Congress, so that we can together do more things that are worthy of the 
great people we serve and the great system we're privileged to be a part 
of.
    Thank you very much, and good morning.

Note: The President spoke at 10:05 a.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Millie Webb, national president, 
Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Prior to his remarks, the President 
signed H.R. 4475, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2001, in the Oval Office. H.R. 4475, approved 
October 23, was assigned Public Law No. 106-346.