[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 25 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[Pages 770-774]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, Virginia

June 17, 2003

    Thanks for the warm welcome. It's a pleasure to be here at Northern 
Virginia Community College. I am not the first person named Bush to come 
to this place, at least not the first person from my family named Bush 
to come to this place. It turns out my dad was here. President Templin 
was describing to me that he signed an important piece of legislation 
here on this stage. And then the Northern Virginia Community College 
wised up and invited my mother--[laughter]--who gave the graduation 
speech here. And as I explained to the President, they're now working 
their way down the food chain. [Laughter] But thanks for having me.
    I appreciate the opportunity to come and talk about the fantastic 
opportunities that people can find in our community college system 
across the country; about the idea of the need to have flexibility to 
make sure that training programs actually work to help people for jobs 
that exist; to thank the teachers not only here at this community 
college but around our country for being a part of a necessary and fine 
profession; to tell the students there are better days ahead when it 
comes for finding work.
    And to thank the Congress--Congressman Tom Davis is with us--and to 
thank Members of the Congress for coming together to pass a piece of 
legislation which will encourage job growth in our economy. As Elaine 
said, that I am concerned when I hear that anybody who wants to work 
can't find a job. And therefore, it was incumbent upon us, because too 
many of our fellow citizens were looking for work, to figure out ways to 
create an environment in which people would be willing to risk capital 
and expand the job base.
    And we did that by passing a really important piece of legislation. 
The jobs-and-growth bill will pass back money to the people who sent the 
money to Washington in the first place. And it will help with a--it 
helps because when people have more money in their pocket, they're going 
to demand an additional good or a service. And we need an increased 
demand in a sluggish economy. And when somebody demands an additional 
good or a service in our economy, somebody's going to produce that good 
or a service. And when that happens, someone is likely to find work.
    The jobs-and-growth bill came at the right time. And I want to thank 
the Congress for passing that bill. And as we expand the number of jobs 
in our economy, we better make sure that we have retrained people or 
trained

[[Page 771]]

people to fill those jobs. And that's what I want to talk about today. 
And that's why I'm grateful for President Templin for opening up this 
hall for me to speak, because it's here at our community colleges that 
people are likely to find the skills necessary to fill the jobs of the 
21st century.
    I want to thank Elaine Chao for her service to our country. She is a 
member of my Cabinet. And she's doing a really fine job on behalf of the 
American people. And I want to thank you, Elaine, for your service.
    I want to thank the attorney general of the State of Virginia for 
joining with us. General Jerry Kilgore is with us. I appreciate your 
concern; and I appreciate your interest; and thank you for coming.
    I've already mentioned Tom Davis, and now I've mentioned him twice. 
We just had our discussion with people that--people who are either 
helping people find work, or people who needed to find work and have 
found work, or people still looking to find work.
    And I want to thank those roundtable participants. Yvonne Golden is 
with us. She is a lady who is working, got laid off, didn't quit, and is 
now an independent bookkeeper. I appreciate your willingness to never 
give up hope and to be willing to retrain so that the skills that you 
have are honed to find--to find the work which exists.
    Connie Mitchell is with us. She used to work at the postal service. 
She left, struggled for a while, went to--is now a--wants to become a 
nurse. It turns out, as Elaine said, there's a lot of people that are 
looking for nurses, a lot of institutions looking for nurses around 
America. Connie and Andrea Weeks, who is with us as well--that's her 
little squirt making some noise over there. [Laughter] She's a single 
mom, which means she's got the toughest job in America, being a single 
mom. Yet she hasn't given up hope. She's here at Northern Virginia 
Community College. She wants to be a nurse. To the extent possible, the 
community college is providing courses for would-be nurses.
    The President explained to me there is a bottleneck when it comes to 
the training programs. We need to do something about it. We need to make 
sure that when there's demand for talent, people willing to acquire the 
skills necessary to meet that demand, that there is a smooth transition. 
And evidently there's a bottleneck in our community college system, 
which I've asked Elaine to look into and Congress must address when it 
comes to providing flexibility for worker trainer money--worker training 
money.
    Ralph Orlandella is with us. He was gainfully employed. September 
the 11th of 2001 affected his employment picture; he was laid off 
shortly thereafter. He went to a One-Stop program run by Dai Nguyen who 
is with us; he's the program manager of the Falls Church SkillSource 
Center. He walked in the place; he found help from one of Dai's fellow 
workers. He's now a teacher at Hayfield Secondary School. He didn't give 
up. He went for help; help was available; the system worked. And now 
he's practicing a noble profession. And I want to thank you very much 
for doing that.
    And I want to thank Dai and his fellow coworkers for making the One-
Stop worker training center effective. After all, that's what we're 
interested in, is effective programming and effective use of taxpayers' 
money to help willing worker find a job and to have relevant skills for 
the 21st century.
    We faced challenges. The biggest challenge we faced in order to get 
this economy going was for people to have confidence in the future. And 
there had been some uncertainty. September the 11th created a lot of 
uncertainty in America. After all, it changed how we--our strategic 
outlook. Oceans could no longer protect us from an enemy which hates 
what we stand for. And we made a determination as a country that no 
matter how long it took, we would hunt down those who hate freedom, the 
terrorists, and bring them to justice, which is precisely what this 
country has done and will continue to do.
    We have engaged in two major battles in the war on terror, one in 
Afghanistan, where we made it clear that if you harbor a terrorist, 
you're just as guilty as the terrorist. And the Taliban paid a price for 
harboring and training Al Qaida. And as a result of the actions of the 
United States and our coalition, the people of Afghanistan are now free 
from the clutches of a barbaric regime and many young girls now go to 
school for the first time, thanks to the United States of America.

[[Page 772]]

    And we acted in Iraq as well. We made it clear to the dictator of 
Iraq that he must disarm. We asked other nations to join us in seeing to 
it that he would disarm. And he chose not to do so, so we disarmed him. 
And I know there's a lot of revisionist history now going on, but one 
thing is certain: He is no longer a threat to the free world, and the 
people of Iraq are free.
    The world is still a dangerous place, but America will rise to the 
challenge. The security of our country is of paramount importance. And 
no matter how long it takes, no matter what the sacrifices may be, that 
the United States of America will fight for freedom and will defend the 
security of our people. It is a charge that we have been given, and it 
is a charge that we will keep.
    We've also got a challenge here at home with our economy. As I 
mentioned to you, anytime anybody is looking for work, we've got an 
issue. And the tax relief plan is going to have a positive effect on the 
outlook of the American investor and the American consumer. After all, 
starting in July, there will be checks sent to American families with 
children reflecting the difference between the $600 child credit today 
and the $1,000 child credit that the Congress passed into law, which I 
signed. As we say in America, the check is in the mail--[laughter]--
soon.
    The point is, people will have more money in their pocket. And 
that's important. After all, it's not the Government's money we're 
talking about. It's your money. It's the people's money. And the 
Congress did the right thing in passing back the people's money. And in 
so doing, and reducing individual rates, we also provided impetus for 
growth in the small-business sector of America. After all, most small 
businesses are sole proprietorships or Subchapter S corporations, which 
means they pay tax at the individual income tax rate.
    And when you reduce all rates on people who pay taxes, you're 
providing capital infusion into the small-business sector of America. 
And when you couple that with the--increasing the amount of money that 
can be deducted for capital expenditures in the year of expenses from 
$25,000 to $100,000, there is tremendous incentive for small-business 
growth. And that's vital, because 75 percent of new jobs are created by 
the small businesses of America.
    And the bill I signed is going to be positive for job growth. And 
that's the whole focus of the legislation, is how do we create the 
number of jobs around our country so people can find work. And if one of 
those jobs are created, we must have a system which trains people for 
the jobs which actually exist. We invest $15 billion each year on job 
training and employment services, which Americans can now access through 
the more than 1,900 One-Stop Career Centers around the country. And 
that's positive. That's a consumer-oriented system where we take the 
opportunities to people in 1,900 different places for people to go and 
get help. People can check job listings there. They can get help to 
prepare a resume. And, equally important, they can sign up for job 
training programs.
    And we're taking other measures to improve people's chances of 
finding work. First, we're working to train Americans for jobs that 
exist--I've said that twice. That's not the way it used to be. It used 
to be, ``Are you training people?'' And it didn't matter what you were 
training people for, the question was, ``Are you training people?'' Now 
we're asking the question, ``Are you training people for jobs that exist 
so we can actually help the people we're trying to help?''
    In this current economy, in spite of slow times, there are 
industries such as health care and high technology manufacturing that 
are looking for well-trained employees. That's a fact. The Department of 
Labor has got a program called High-Growth Job Training Initiative. What 
that means is we're forming partnerships with businesses to train 
unemployed workers in the skills that are in demand.
    Connie Mitchell is a person who is involved in one such program. As 
I mentioned to you, she lost her job. She was at Dulles Airport. And 
this year she applied to a job training program funded by the Hospital 
Corporation of America, which is working in concert with the Department 
of Labor. If anybody here is from HCA, I want to thank you for being a 
good corporate citizen in America. I know you're working in your self-
interests to find people to fill the slots you're looking for, but it's 
also helpful to team up

[[Page 773]]

with the Department of Labor to provide a partnership to help people 
find work--you're pointing at that; thank you.
    The program is paying for Connie's classes at Northern Virginia 
Community College. She will have a job with HCA when she graduates with 
her nursing degree. And she said she will have a career with really good 
training and a really good income. And that's important. We want Connies 
all across the country to have the same experience that she has had.
    The administration is combining Federal resources with private 
funding to support these kinds of job training partnerships, and we 
intend to expand them into new areas. Right now, Secretary Chao is 
developing partnerships with companies in biotechnology and information 
technology. And these industries are growing rapidly, and as they do so, 
they need well-trained workers. And that's our mission, is to help more 
Americans to get the training necessary to qualify for the new jobs.
    The second way we're helping people build careers is to direct aid 
for education at schools like this school right here. Community colleges 
make it possible for people to brush up on skills or to develop new 
skills. I mean, this is a place where you can get--can take your talents 
and convert them to meet the jobs of the 21st century.
    And so, therefore, helping students attend community colleges like 
Northern Virginia Community College is good for the students; it's good 
for the colleges; and it's good for the economy. More than 1.8 million 
community college students rely on Pell Grants to help pay for their 
education and training. Pell Grants are very important for the future of 
this country. And therefore, I have asked for more than $12.7 billion of 
Pell Grants in--for the '04 budget. This is a 45-percent increase in 
funding since I took office. I've asked for that increase so more 
benefit--students can benefit from the opportunities made possible by 
Pell Grants.
    Third, I'm asking Congress to establish what we call Personal 
Reemployment Accounts for unemployed Americans. Americans who face the 
greatest difficulty finding work under this vision will receive up to 
$3,000 to use in their job search. Different workers have different 
needs, so the concept is to provide flexibility to help those workers 
meet those needs. A person will be able to use the account for job 
training, or for child care, or for transportation, or money to help 
relocate to a city where there is a job. If a worker finds a new job 
quickly within three week--13-week period, he or she will be able to 
keep the balance in the account as a reemployment bonus.
    The idea is to empower the person, not the system. The idea is to 
focus money on each individual and to give that individual the 
opportunity to use additional monies to help meet needs.
    Yvonne Golden, who I just talked about, is a person who could have 
benefitted from such a program. She had 20 years of experience in 
banking and accounting. She wanted to get extra training quickly to 
qualify for additional jobs. She knew what she wanted to do, yet she had 
to wait a long time. The Personal Reemployment Account would have given 
her monies to meet certain needs in order to get into the job market a 
lot quicker, in order to get the training necessary to achieve her 
dream, which was to work and to get her own business going.
    Now, these accounts are important accounts. I hope Congress takes 
them up soon. It is a way to help those who are supposedly tough to 
employ develop the skills necessary and to give them the flexibility 
necessary to meet their dreams.
    The idea of trusting people and giving people flexibility to become 
better prepared for a--in a complex society makes eminent sense. That's 
why I've asked Congress to provide $3.6 billion for this initiative. The 
money would go to the States, and the States would be able to set the 
criteria for those who could qualify. And we believe that more than a 
million unemployed men and women across America would be helped by this 
amount of money. Congress needs to pass the proposal right away, because 
we've got people looking for work who need help.
    The other thing is that Elaine and I are working with Congress to 
make sure that the monies we actually spend are used effectively. Right 
now the Federal Government funds adult employment and training programs 
through three different sources, all of

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which have got different rules and regulations. These funding sources 
ought to be streamlined into one source and one set of rules and 
regulations. And the States ought to be given flexibility to expand 
services for people looking for work.
    In other words, the system needs to be simplified and focused on the 
consumer, who happens to be the person we're trying to help find a job. 
A complex system makes it much harder for people to succeed. A complex 
system makes it hard to get results, the results we want, which is an 
educated workforce, people educated to meet the needs of the 21st 
century.
    The House of Representatives--and Davis was very much involved in 
this--passed a bill that includes the reforms I'm talking about. And the 
Senate must act so that we can better get unemployed people back to work 
in America, so that we can make sure as our economy changes, the 
workforce changes with it.
    Technologies race through our economy, and as they do so, the 
workforce can become much more productive. But the problem is, is that 
unless there is a concerted, focused effort to help our citizens stay up 
with technological change, people will be left behind. And that's not 
what we want in America. We want an educated workforce to keep this 
country the most productive in the world. And with the right focus and 
the right policies out of the United States Congress, this is an 
objective that I'm confident we can achieve, because I believe this 
country can achieve everything--anything we set our mind to. I believe 
in the greatness of America. And our greatness is not just our military 
might. We're great at that, by the way, but that's not our greatness. 
Our greatness is the ability for the American people to rise to any 
challenge. That is our greatness.
    Look what we've been through. We've been through a terrorist attack 
and a national emergency; we've been through a recession; we've been 
through corporate scandals where CEOs forgot what it means to be a 
responsible citizen. People didn't tell the truth. They were not 
responsible to their shareholders and employees. They will be held to 
account for their irresponsible behavior. And that was a shock to our 
system. We've been through war.
    And yet we're a strong nation and we're a confident nation, because 
we're a nation full of people who are hard-working and dedicated, people 
who love freedom, people who love our country, people who are 
responsible citizens.
    But most importantly, we're a nation that is made up of 
compassionate people who care deeply when one of us hurts. There's a lot 
of people in this Nation who want to help those who are looking for 
work. The Federal Government has a role. The people who are involved in 
education have a role. Employers have a role. But the thing that gives 
me most heart is that the nature of the American person--the American 
people is such that when we face a challenge, we will rise to that 
challenge on an individual basis and a collective basis.
    This is a fabulous country called America, and I'm proud to be your 
President. Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:27 a.m. in the Ernst Community Cultural 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Robert Templin, president, 
Northern Virginia Community College; and former President Saddam Hussein 
of Iraq. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.