H.Doc.105-4 CONTINUATION OF THE NATIONAL EMERGENCY WITH RESPECT TO SIGNIFICANT ...

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105th Congress, 1st Session - - - - - - - - - - - House Document 105-1


 
                      STATE OF THE UNION MESSAGE

                               __________

                                MESSAGE

                                  from

                   THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

                              transmitting

                   A REPORT ON THE STATE OF THE UNION

<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>


February 4, 1997.--Message referred to the Committee of the Whole House 
          on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
To the Congress of the United States:
    Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of the 105th 
Congress, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans:
    I think I should start by saying thanks for inviting me 
back.
    I come before you tonight with a challenge as great as any 
in our peacetime history, and a plan of action to meet that 
challenge, to prepare our people for the bold new world of the 
21st century.
    We have much to be thankful for. With 4 years of growth, we 
have won back the basic strength of our economy. With crime and 
welfare rolls declining, we are winning back our optimism, the 
enduring faith that we can master any difficulty. With the Cold 
War receding and global commerce at record levels, we are 
helping to win an unrivaled peace and prosperity all across the 
world.
    My fellow Americans, the state of our union is strong, but 
now we must rise to the decisive moment, to make a Nation and a 
world better than any we have ever known. The new promise of 
the global economy, the information age, unimagined new work, 
life-enhancing technology, all these are ours to seize. That is 
our honor and our challenge. We must be shapers of events, not 
observers. For if we do not act, the moment will pass, and we 
will lose the best possibilities of our future.
    We face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy: The 
enemy of our time is inaction.
    So tonight I issue a call to action, action by this 
Congress, action by our States, by our people, to prepare 
America for the 21st century. Action to keep our economy and 
our democracy strong and working for all our people; action to 
strengthen education and harness the forces of technology and 
science; action to build stronger families and stronger 
communities and a safer environment; action to keep America the 
world's strongest force for peace, freedom, and prosperity. And 
above all, action to build a more perfect union here at home.
    The spirit we bring to our work will make all the 
difference. We must be committed to the pursuit of opportunity 
for all Americans, responsibility from all Americans, in a 
community of all Americans. And we must be committed to a new 
kind of government, not to solve all our problems for us, but 
to give our people, all our people, the tools they need to make 
the most of their own lives.
    And we must work together. The people of this Nation 
elected us all. They want us to be partners, not partisans. 
They put us all right here in the same boat. They gave us all 
oars, and they told us to row. Now, here is the direction I 
believe we should take. First we must move quickly to complete 
the unfinished business of our country, to balance the budget, 
renew our democracy, and finish the job of welfare reform.
    Over the last 4 years, we have brought new economic growth 
by investing in our people, expanding our exports, cutting our 
deficits, creating over 11 million new jobs, a 4-year record. 
Now we must keep our economy the strongest in the world. We 
here tonight have an historic opportunity. Let this Congress be 
the Congress that finally balances the budget.
    In two days, I will propose a detailed plan to balance the 
budget by 2002. This plan will balance the budget and invest in 
our people while protecting Medicare, Medicaid, education and 
the environment. It will balance the budget and build on the 
Vice President's efforts to make our government work better 
even as it costs less.
    It will balance the budget and provide middle class tax 
relief to pay for education and health care, to help to raise a 
child, to buy and sell a home.
    Balancing the budget requires only your vote and my 
signature. It does not require us to rewrite our Constitution.
    I believe it is both unnecessary and unwise to adopt a 
balanced budget amendment that could cripple our country in 
time of economic crisis and force unwanted results, such as 
judges halting Social Security checks or increasing taxes. Let 
us at least agree we should not pass any measure, no measure 
should be passed that threatens Social Security. Whatever your 
view on that, we all must concede, we do not need a 
constitutional amendment; we need action.
    Whatever our differences, we should balance the budget now. 
And then for the long-term health of our society, we must agree 
to a bipartisan process to preserve Social Security and reform 
Medicare for the long run so that these fundamental programs 
will be as strong for our children as they are for our parents.
    And let me say something that is not in my script tonight: 
I know this is not going to be easy, but I really believe one 
of the reasons the American people gave me a second term was to 
take the tough decisions in the next four years that will carry 
our country through the next 50 years. I know it is easier for 
me than for you to say or do, but another reason I was elected 
is to support all of you without regard to party to give you 
what is necessary to join in these decisions. We owe it to our 
country and to our future.
    Our second piece of unfinished business requires us to 
commit ourselves tonight before the eyes of America to finally 
enacting bipartisan campaign finance reform. Senators McCain 
and Feingold, Representatives Shays and Meehan have reached 
across party lines here to craft tough and fair reform. Their 
proposal would curb spending, reduce the role of special 
interests, create a level playing field between challengers and 
incumbents and ban contributions from noncitizens, all 
corporate sources and the other large soft money contributions 
that both parties receive.
    You know and I know that this can be delayed, and you know 
and I know that delay will mean the death of reform. So let us 
set our own deadline. Let us work together to write bipartisan 
campaign finance reform into law and pass McCain-Feingold by 
the day we celebrate the birth of our democracy, July 4th.
    There is a third piece of unfinished business. Over the 
last four years, we moved a record two and a quarter million 
people off the welfare rolls. Then last year, Congress enacted 
landmark welfare reform legislation demanding that all able-
bodied recipients assume the responsibility of moving from 
welfare to work. Now each and every one of us has to fulfill 
our responsibility, indeed our moral obligation, to make sure 
that people who now must work can work.
    Now we must act to meet a new goal, 2 million more people 
off the welfare rolls by the year 2000.
    Here is my plan: Tax credits and other incentives for 
businesses that hire people off welfare; incentives for job 
placement firms and States to create more jobs for welfare 
recipients; training, transportation and child care to help 
people go to work.
    Now I challenge every State: Turn those welfare checks into 
private sector paychecks. I challenge every religious 
congregation, every community nonprofit, every business to hire 
someone off welfare. And I would like to say especially to 
every employer in our country, whoever criticized the old 
welfare system, you cannot blame that old system anymore. We 
have torn it down. Now do your part. Give someone on welfare 
the chance to go to work.
    Tonight I am pleased to announce that five major 
corporations, Sprint, Monsanto, UPS, Burger King and United 
Airlines, will be the first to join in a new national effort to 
marshal America's businesses, large and small, to create jobs 
so that people can move from welfare to work. We passed welfare 
reform. All of you know I believe we were right to do it. But 
no one can walk out of this Chamber with a clear conscience 
unless you are prepared to finish the job.
    And we must join together to do something else, too, 
something both Republican and Democratic governors have asked 
us to do, to restore basic health and disability benefits when 
misfortune strikes immigrants who came to this country legally, 
who work hard, pay taxes and obey the law. To do otherwise is 
simply unworthy of a great Nation of immigrants.
    Now, looking ahead, the greatest step of all, the high 
threshold of the future we must now cross and my number one 
priority for the next four years is to ensure that all 
Americans have the best education in the world.
    Let us work together to meet these three goals: Every 8-
year-old must be able to read; every 12-year-old must be able 
to log on to the Internet; every 18-year-old must be able to go 
to college; and every adult American must be able to keep on 
learning for a lifetime.
    My balanced budget makes an unprecedented commitment to 
these goals, $51 billion next year. But far more than money is 
required.
    I have a plan, a call to action for American education 
based on these 10 principles.
    First, a national crusade for education standards, not 
Federal Government standards, but national standards 
representing what all of our students must know to succeed in 
the knowledge economy of the 21st century.
    Every State and school must shape the curriculum to reflect 
these standards and train teachers to lift students up to them. 
To help schools meet the standards and measure their progress, 
we will lead an effort over the next 2 years to develop 
national tests of student achievement in reading and math.
    Tonight I issue a challenge to the Nation: Every State 
should adopt high national standards, and by 1999 every State 
should test every fourth grader in reading and every eighth 
grader in math to make sure these standards are met.
    Raising standards will not be easy, and some of our 
children will not be able to meet them at first. The point is 
not to put our children down, but to lift them up. Good tests 
will show us who needs help, what changes in teaching to make, 
and which schools need to improve. They can help us to end 
social promotion, for no child should move from grade school to 
junior high or junior high to high school until he or she is 
ready.
    Last month, our Secretary of Education Dick Riley and I 
visited northern Illinois where eighth grade students from 20 
school districts in a project aptly called ``First in the 
World'' took the Third International Math and Science Study. 
That is a test that reflects the world class standards our 
children must meet for the new era. And those students in 
Illinois tied for first in the world in science and came in 
second in math.
    Two of them, Kristin Tanner and Chris Getsla, are here 
tonight, along with their teacher, Sue Winski. They are up 
there with the First Lady, and they prove that when we aim high 
and challenge our students, they will be the best in the world. 
Let us give them a hand. Stand up, please.
    Second, to have the best schools, we must have the best 
teachers. Most of us in this Chamber would not be here tonight 
without the help of those teachers. I know that I would not be 
here.
    For years, many of our educators, led by North Carolina's 
Governor Jim Hunt and the National Board for Professional 
Teaching Standards, have worked very hard to establish 
nationally accepted credentials for excellence in teaching. 
Just 500 of these teachers have been certified since 1995. My 
budget will enable 100,000 more to seek national certification 
as master teachers.
    We should reward and recognize our best teachers. And as we 
reward them, we should quickly and fairly remove those few who 
do not measure up, and we should challenge more of our finest 
young people to consider teaching as a career.
    Third, we must do more to help all our children read. Forty 
percent, 40 percent, of our 8-year-olds cannot read on their 
own. That is why we have just launched the America Reads 
Initiative, to build a citizen army of 1 million volunteer 
tutors to make sure every child can read independently by the 
end of the third grade. We will use thousands of AmeriCorps 
volunteers to mobilize this citizen army. We want at least 
100,000 college students to help.
    And tonight I am pleased that 60 college presidents have 
answered my call, pledging that thousands of their work/study 
students will serve for 1 year as reading tutors.
    This is also a challenge to every teacher and every 
principal: You must use these tutors to help your students 
read. And it is especially a challenge to our parents: You must 
read with our children every night.
    This leads to the fourth principle: Learning begins in the 
first days of life. Scientists are now discovering how young 
children develop emotionally and intellectually from their very 
first days and how important it is for parents to begin 
immediately talking, singing, even reading, to their infants.
    The First Lady has spent years writing about this issue, 
studying it, and she and I are going to convene a White House 
Conference on Early Learning and the Brain this spring to 
explore how parents and educators can best use these startling 
new findings.
    We already know we should start teaching children before 
they start school. That is why this balanced budget expands 
Head Start to 1 million children by 2002. That is why the Vice 
President and Mrs. Gore will host their annual family 
conference this June on what we can do to make sure that 
parents are an active part of their children's learning all the 
way through school.
    They have done a great deal to highlight the importance of 
family in our life, and now they are turning their attention to 
getting more parents involved in their children's learning all 
the way through school. And I thank you, Mr. Vice President, 
and I thank you especially, Tipper, for what you are doing.
    Fifth, every State should give parents the power to choose 
the right public school for their children. Their right to 
choose will foster a competition and innovation that can make 
public schools better. We should also make it possible for more 
parents and teachers to start charter schools, schools that set 
and meet the highest standards and exist only as long as they 
do. Our plan will help America to create 3,000 of these charter 
schools by the next century, nearly seven times as many as 
there are in the country today, so that parents will have even 
more choices in sending their children to the best schools.
    Sixth, character education must be taught in our schools. 
We must teach our children to be good citizens, and we must 
continue to promote order and discipline, supporting 
communities that introduce school uniforms, impose curfews, 
enforce truancy laws, remove disruptive students from the 
classroom, and have zero tolerance for guns and drugs in 
schools.
    Seventh, we cannot expect our children to raise themselves 
up in schools that are literally falling down. With the student 
population at an all-time high and record numbers of school 
buildings falling into disrepair, this has now become a serious 
national concern.
    Therefore, my budget includes a new initiative: $5 billion 
to help communities finance $20 billion in school construction 
over the next 4 years.
    Eighth, we must make the 13th and 14th years of education, 
at least 2 years of college, just as universal in America by 
the 21st century as a high school education is today, and we 
must open the doors of college to all Americans.
    To do that, I propose America's HOPE scholarship, based on 
Georgia's pioneering program, 2 years of a $1,500 tax credit 
for college tuition, enough to pay for the typical community 
college.

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