[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 47 (Monday, November 27, 2000)]
[Pages 2899-2900]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7380--National Family Week, 2000

 November 17, 2000

 By the President of the United States

 of America

 A Proclamation

    Our families are perhaps the strongest influence in our lives. 
Anyone who grows up in a strong, nurturing family, grounded in the 
values of love and responsibility, will have a distinct advantage in 
achieving the most important tasks of adulthood--living fully,

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working productively, contributing to society, and forming one's own 
strong, stable family.
    Our Nation, too, draws its strength and character from America's 
families, so as citizens we must do everything we can to support their 
well-being and self-sufficiency. Over the past 8 years, my 
Administration has strived to create an economic and social climate 
where families can flourish. We have strengthened the economy; enacted a 
higher minimum wage; expanded tax credits for working families; created 
greater access to higher education, quality health care, and affordable 
child care; and, with passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act, made 
it easier for working adults to take leave to care for an ailing family 
member without putting their jobs at risk. We have also been successful 
in moving thousands of children from temporary homes in foster care to 
permanent families where they can grow and flourish.
    We are fortunate to be members of a larger family as well, composed 
not only of our immediate relatives, but also of our neighbors, 
colleagues, communities, and fellow citizens. As members of this 
extended family, we must learn to appreciate the value and diversity of 
other families' traditions; we must reach out to help those families who 
are still in need; and we must share responsibility for the care and 
development of all our Nation's children. In this season of 
Thanksgiving, let us be grateful for the knowledge that America is a 
Nation of families, standing together to make our country a better place 
in which to live and to make the future a brighter one for our children.
    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 the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim 
November 19 through November 25, 2000, as National Family Week. I call 
upon Federal, State, and local officials to honor American families with 
appropriate programs and activities. I encourage educators, community 
organizations, and religious leaders to celebrate the strength and 
values we draw from family relationships, and I urge all the people of 
the United States to reaffirm their own family ties and to reach out to 
other families in friendship and goodwill.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day 
of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand, and of the 
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
fifth.
                                            William J. Clinton

 [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., November 21, 
2000]

Note: This proclamation was released by the Office of the Press 
Secretary on November 18, and it was published in the Federal Register 
on November 22.