pd01ja01 Statement on Signing the Consolidated Appropriations Act, FY 2001...

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<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page i-ii]
 
Monday, January 1, 2001
 
Volume 36--Number 52
Pages 3163-3215
 
 Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



[[Page ii]]


 Addresses to the Nation

     Christmas greetings--3178, 3179

 Addresses and Remarks

     See also  Bill Signings; Appointments and Nominations
    Budget--3204
    Global Food for Education, initiative--3201
    Radio address--3174

 Appointments and Nominations

    U.S. Court of Appeals, judge, remarks on recess appointment--3180

 Bill Signings

    Assistance for International Malaria Control Act, statement--3185
    Consolidated Appropriations Act, FY 2001, statement--3167
    Education Department appropriations legislation, remarks--3163
     Health and Human Services Department appropriations legislation, 
        remarks--3163
    Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001, statement--3184
    Labor Department appropriations legislation, remarks--3163
     National Moment of Remembrance Act, statement--3210
     Omnibus Indian Advancement Act, statement--3185
     Shark Finning Prohibition Act, statement--3179

 Communications to Congress

    Japanese whaling practices, letter--3212

 Communications to Federal Agencies

    International financial institutions and other international 
        organizations and programs, memorandum on funding--3201
    Puerto Rico, memorandum on resolution of status--3177

 Executive Orders

    Adjustments of Certain Rates of Pay--3176
    Establishment of the President's Task Force on Puerto Rico's 
        Status--3176
    Revocation of Executive Order 12834--3210
    To Strengthen the Federal Government-University Research 
        Partnership--3211

Interviews With the News Media

     Exchanges with reporters
         Briefing Room--3204
         Oval Office--3180
     Interview with the New York Times--3185

Statements by the President

     See also  Bill Signings
    Census 2000--3209
    Death of Jason Robards--3184
    North Korea, efforts to improve relations--3209

Supplementary Materials

     Acts approved by the President--3215
     Checklist of White House press releases--3214
     Digest of other White House announcements--3213
     Nominations submitted to the Senate--3214
  

  Editor's Note: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is 
also available on the Internet on the GPO Access service at http://
www.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html.

              WEEKLY COMPILATION OF
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Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, National 
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[[Page 3163]]




<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
 [frwais.access.gpo.gov]
                         

[Page 3163-3166]
 
Monday, January 1, 2001
 
Volume 36--Number 52
Pages 3163-3215
 
Week Ending Friday, December 29, 2000
 
Remarks on Signing the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, 
and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001


December 21, 2000

    Sit down. Thank you. You just have to do what I ask for a few more 
days. [Laughter]
    First, I'd like to thank the very large delegation from the United 
States Congress and both parties who are here: Senator Specter, Senator 
Conrad, Senator Dorgan; from the House, Chairman Goodling, 
Representative Obey, Representative Kildee, Representative Kelly, 
Representative Talent, Representative Porter, Lowey, and Clement. Did I 
get everybody? [Laughter]
    I'd like to thank the mayor of Philadelphia, John Street, for 
joining us; and our neighbor, the Prince George's County Executive, 
Wayne Curry; and the members of the Cabinet who are here: Secretaries 
Riley, Shalala, Summers, Herman, Slater; EPA Director Browner; SBA 
Director Alvarez. Did I leave anybody out? Chief of Staff Podesta and my 
Economic Adviser Gene Sperling. And I'd like to thank Jack Lew and 
Sylvia Mathews and all the people on the budget team who worked so hard 
at OMB for this.
    This is a good day for our country. For 8 years now, we have worked 
in this administration to prepare our country for the new century and a 
whole new era of human affairs by building a nation in which there is 
opportunity for every responsible citizen, a community of all Americans, 
and a nation that leads the world toward greater peace and freedom and 
prosperity. Today we have two more examples of that in implementing our 
strategy of trying to make the right, real choices for America and not 
be trapped in the old, false choices.
    Earlier today, this morning, we announced new steps to preserve our 
environment by cleaning our air, steps that will protect the health of 
all Americans by dramatically reducing pollution from trucks and buses 
powered by diesel fuel, building on the announcements last year to 
reduce pollution from cars and sports utility vehicles. Together, these 
measures will preserve our environment and protect thousands of children 
from the agony of asthma and other respiratory diseases. By the end of 
the decade, because of these steps, every new vehicle sold in the United 
States will be up to 95 percent cleaner than those rolling off the 
assembly line today.
    Again, this was the right, real choice, proving once again that we 
can grow the economy and improve the environment at the same time. And I 
want to thank Carol Browner for her work on this. She's here. Thank you.
    Now, in a few moments it will be my honor to sign the very last 
budget bill I will sign as President. And in so many ways, it could 
truly be said, we saved the best for last. This bill is called the 
Labor-HHS appropriation bill. But more than anything else, it's a bill 
about these children behind me today, about their hopes, their dreams, 
their capacity to learn, and their need to learn about their future and 
the future of our country. Again, it is further proof, as the evidence 
of these distinguished Members of Congress from both parties prove, that 
when we put progress ahead of partisanship, there's no limit to what we 
can do for America and our future.
    We are now in the longest economic expansion in our history. A 
critical part of our strategy to get there was to put our fiscal house 
in order, to replace record deficits with record surpluses. With this 
budget, in spite of the investments--and I would argue because, in part, 
of past investments--we are going to be able to pay off another $200 
billion of our national debt, on track to paying down $560 billion of 
the national debt over the last 4 years and this year. And because 
together we made the right, real choices, we

[[Page 3164]]

were able to increase investment in the things that matter most. That's 
what this budget bill does today.
    And let me just begin with education. Under Secretary Riley's 
leadership, we have worked hard to make the right, real choice--to have 
more investment and higher standards, more accountability, and spend the 
money on the things that the educators tell us work best. Test scores 
are up today, with some of the greatest gains coming in some of the most 
disadvantaged communities. Two-thirds of our high school graduates are 
going on to college; that's up 10 percent from 1993. In the last few 
years, there has been a 300-percent increase in the number of Hispanic 
students taking advanced placement courses and a 500-percent increase in 
the number of African-American students doing so.
    With the largest student enrollment in our entire history, and the 
most diverse student body in our entire history, education must be 
priority number one for any administration. With this budget, while 
turning the largest deficits in history into the largest surpluses, we 
also will have more than doubled funding for education during the life 
of this administration. This clearly is the biggest and best education 
budget in our Nation's history, and it will make a difference in the 
lives of millions of young people. Let me just give a couple of 
examples.
    Our first-ever initiative to renovate classrooms will mean that, 
over time, millions of children will attend more modern, more dignified, 
more functional schools. This is about moving out of housetrailers, and 
it's about going to school in old buildings that provide modern 
education.
    With $1.6 billion on its way to help communities with smaller 
classrooms, we will help roughly 2 million children learn in smaller 
classes, with more individualized attention in the early grades. With 
nearly $1 billion more for Head Start, the largest increase in history, 
we'll have more than doubled the program, adding 60,000 more kids to 
this quality preschool program this year alone.
    There is a dramatic increase in child care in this budget that, 
along with the child care funds provided in welfare reform, will help 
more than 2.2 million kids next year, an increase in nearly a million 
just since 1997. By over doubling funding for after-school programs, we 
are providing 650,000 more students with a safe place to learn, bringing 
to 1.3 million the number of young people benefiting from this after-
school initiative, something that did not even exist 4 years ago.
    With another major increase in the GEAR UP program, 1.2 million 
disadvantaged children will now be preparing for college as early as the 
sixth grade. Together with one of the largest increases in the TRIO 
program ever, we are building greater pathways to college for 
economically disadvantaged young people.
    This bill has the largest increase ever in Pell grants. We've now 
increased the maximum grant by nearly $1,500 since 1993, for 4 million 
young people every year from low and moderate income families. This 
significant expansion of Pell grants is part of the biggest expansion in 
college aid since the GI bill, including the direct student loan 
program, which has saved students $8 billion already in loan repayment 
costs, and the HOPE scholarship tax cut, which 10 million families are 
benefiting from this year.
    I want to say to all of you who worked on this--to Chairman Goodling 
and Mr. Kildee, Mr. Obey, all the other Members of the House; and to 
you, Senator Specter, and the other Senators who are here; and most of 
all to you, Secretary Riley, who is now the longest serving and, I 
believe, clearly the finest Education Secretary our country ever had--I 
thank you all very much. Thank you. This education budget is a real 
tribute to the bipartisan work of this Congress, and I am very grateful.
    The budget also makes good on our commitment to help every community 
share in our Nation's prosperity. This is a big deal to me, and also to 
America's future. About 18 months ago, I began the first of what I 
called new markets tours, to shine a spotlight on people and places that 
had been left behind in this long and remarkable recovery. I wanted 
every American investor to see the potential of these communities and 
the promise of the people who live there.
    I knew that government couldn't do it alone and that, in fact, we 
would have to find

[[Page 3165]]

a way to get more private investment into these communities. But I also 
knew that business could not be expected to go it alone, that we had to 
find some way to bring hope and opportunity home to these communities.
    Now, at the same time, to be fair, there were people in the Congress 
who were interested in this who were struggling for some bipartisan 
consensus to bring free enterprise to parts of America that have been 
left behind. Among them, in the House, were Representative Talent, who 
is here, and J.C. Watts and Danny Davis, who represents Chicago but, 
like me, was born in Arkansas. And there were other groups that were 
looking at this.
    So we all worked together to give you a budget that delivers 
something that I believe is truly unique and significant. It includes 
the landmark new markets and community renewal initiative. It's the most 
significant effort ever to help hard-pressed areas, both rural and 
urban, to lift themselves up through private investment and 
entrepreneurship. It is a triumph of bipartisanship. And again, I want 
to thank those whom I just mentioned--especially you, Mr. Talent--and I 

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