pd02se02 Remarks to the Community in Stockton, California...

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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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Monday, September 2, 2002


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Weekly Compilation of

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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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Pages 1417-1472
 
 Contents

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 Addresses and Remarks

    Arkansas
         Dinner for Senator Tim Hutchinson in Little Rock--1464
         Parkview Arts and Science Magnet High School in Little Rock--
            1458
    California
         Community in Stockton--1417
         Gubernatorial candidate Bill Simon
             Breakfast in Westwood--1433
             Reception in Dana Point--1427
         Hispanic community in Santa Ana--1423
    New Mexico
         Community in Las Cruces--1438
         Dinner for congressional candidate Steve Pearce in Las Cruces--
            1443
    Oklahoma, luncheon for gubernatorial candidate Steve Largent and 
        Senator James M. Inhofe in Oklahoma City--1453
    Radio address--1437

 Bill Signings

    Legislation on the codification of Public Buildings, Property, and 
        Works, statement--1427

 Communications to Congress

    Protection of Advanced Biotechnology, letter reporting 
        certification--1470

 Communications to Federal Agencies

    Interagency disability Web site, memorandum on development--1449

 Communications to Federal Agencies--Continued

    Refugee assistance to the Office of the United Nations High 
        Commissioner for Refugees and to the International Committee of 
        the Red Cross--1469

 Executive Orders

    Further Amending Executive Order 10173, as Amended, Prescribing 
        Regulations Relating to the Safeguarding of Vessels, Harbors, 
        Ports, and Waterfront Facilities of the United States--1452

Proclamations

    To Implement an Agreement Regarding Imports of Line Pipe Under 
        Section 203 of the Trade Act of 1974--1450
    To Modify Duty-Free Treatment Under the Generalized System of 
        Preferences for Argentina--1451
    Women's Equality Day--1432

Statements by the President

    See Bill Signings

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--1471
    Checklist of White House press releases--1471
    Digest of other White House announcements--1470
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--1471

  Editor's Note: The President was at the Bush Ranch in Crawford, TX, on 
August 30, the closing date of this issue. Releases and announcements 
issued by the Office of the Press Secretary but not received in time for 
inclusion in this issue will be printed next week.



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[Page 1417-1423]
 
Pages 1417-1472
 
Week Ending Friday, August 30, 2002
 
Remarks to the Community in Stockton, California


August 23, 2002

    The President. Thank you all. I'm glad I came, and thank you all for 
coming. I'm honored to be here in the great city of Stockton, 
California. I appreciate you coming to give me a chance to share with 
you some of my thoughts and concerns and hopes about our great Nation. I 
appreciate you being here.
    I want to thank the mayor. My only regret is the mayor didn't take 
me down to Billy Hebert Field to see the team play. [Laughter] I'm a 
baseball guy. [Laughter]
    I want to thank so very much the members of the congressional 
delegation who met me at Air Force One. I appreciate the hard work of 
Richard Pombo, who represents this district. I was so pleased that he 
found a tie for this occasion. [Laughter] Doug Ose from the next 
congressional district is here with us. Doug, thank you for coming. 
These are two fine Members of the United States Congress with whom I 
have good working relations, people with whom I can work to do what's 
right for the American people.
    I picked--I picked a fine Cabinet. You need to judge a President 
based upon the people who he listens to. I listen to some mighty fine 
people; I really do. I've got great advice, not only in the national 
security side but also on the domestic side of my job. And I picked my 
neighbor, somebody from Compton, to serve in an incredibly important 
position, particularly for the folks in this part of the world, and that 
is to serve as our Secretary of Agriculture. Ann Veneman is doing a 
fabulous job.
    Mr. Mayor, thank you very much for helping put on this occasion. I 
particularly want to thank the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce for 
their hard work in getting this all ready and inviting people to come.
    There's one friend I've got here that I've got to say something 
about. He's a great citizen from Stockton. He's been a longtime friend 
of mine and my family's, and that's, of course, Alex Spanos. I like to 
be around optimistic people. It's important to stay in touch with those 
folks who are optimistic. Once again he has told me that the San Diego 
Chargers are going to win the Super Bowl. [Laughter]
    Audience member. ----Super Bowl one last time----
    The President. That's right. [Laughter] And once again, he believes 
it. [Laughter]
    Today, at Air Force One, I met Malikah Rashied. Where is Malikah? 
Where is she? Oh, there she is. Thank you, Malikah. She is a Freedom 
Corps volunteer. She volunteers for the country. In this case, she works 
for the California Conservation Corps, assisting in fire prevention 
cleanup projects, in cleanup projects. We need, by the way, to have a 
forest policy that--[applause].
    I mention her because I want people to understand that I understand 
the true strength of America. It is not in the halls of our Governments 
but in the hearts of our people. And there are people like her all 
across the country who are willing to try to make the communities in 
which they live a better place for all of us. I appreciate your service.
    I also appreciate you working on fire prevention. And that's 
something the Federal Government needs to work on. Listen, we cannot 
allow our forests to become places where kindling piles up. It doesn't 
make any sense to me to fly over these huge fires that are consuming 
much of the West and realize our forest policy encourages--doesn't 
prevent, doesn't work to make the forest healthier and safer. The 
forest--the hands-off forest policy proposed by well-meaning people has 
failed, and now we need to do something about it.

[[Page 1418]]

    We've got a lot to do in this country. We really do. We've got some 
big hurdles, big challenges ahead of us. One of the things I've found in 
Washington is if we can get rid of all the politics and get people 
thinking about what's important for the Nation, we can get some things 
done. We really can.
    Oh, I know we'll never get rid of all the politics. But at least we 
can get people thinking and setting the right priorities on behalf of 
the American people. That's the most--one of my most important jobs, and 
we're making some progress. If you look at the record, when people 
decide to come together, we're doing some things right for the American 
people, starting with making sure the funding priorities of the 
Government is to win the war on terror.
    A new priority has been to help secure the homeland by working with 
our brave first-responders, the police, the fire, the EMS teams all 
around the country, those who work hard here in Stockton and all around 
America. It's been a priority of ours, and both Republicans and 
Democrats have come together to fund that priority for the good of the 
country.
    I proposed some tough new standards on--for corporate reform. Like 
you all, I took a look out there and saw a problem. And the problem was, 
we had some folks who were trying to fudge the numbers. We had some 
people who decided they weren't going to tell the truth when it came to 
their assets and liabilities, to the detriment of not only shareholder 
and employee but to the country itself.
    You see, a few--a few began to shatter the confidence of the 
American people. And so we decided to do something about it. Republicans 
and Democrats came together. I was honored and proud to sign the most 
comprehensive corporate reforms since Franklin Roosevelt was the 
President. This wasn't a Republican idea. It wasn't a Democrat idea. 
It's an American idea to hold people responsible who betray the public's 
trust, and that is what we're going to do.
    I remember giving a speech in New York about how I thought the 
corporate accountability bill ought to go. And at one point in the 
speech, I talked about the fact that our business schools don't teach 
right from wrong. They're unwilling to say to future business leaders, 
``There's a right way to deal with things, and there's a wrong way.'' 
And I was lamenting that fact, and I called upon our business schools to 
show leadership and to teach future leaders right from wrong.
    And I was working a ropeline afterwards, and a fellow walked up 
who's a professor at a business school. And he said, ``Thanks for saying 
that, Mr. President. We needed to hear that.'' And a large guy--I 
assumed he was one of the construction folks that was there, 
construction union leaders that was supportive of this initiative--he 
said, ``If you want to teach them right from wrong, Mr. President, the 
best lesson you can send is put them in handcuffs.''
    And that's what's happening. And that's what happening. We cannot 
let a few--and I emphasize ``a few''--set the tone for the many who are 
decent, honorable citizens of this country who take care of their 
shareholders, who are good to their employees, who tell the truth. So 
we're working together.
    The other day, I had the honor of signing a bill that both 
Republicans and Democrats supported that gives me the capacity to open 
up markets for U.S. goods. Here's my attitude about trade: If you're 
good at something, you ought to promote it. If you're good about--if 
you're good at growing crops, you ought to figure out how to sell more 
of the crops. And we're the best in the world at farming and ranching.
    I'm thrilled to be here in the breadbasket of America, because it 
gives me a chance to remind our fellow citizens that we have an 
advantage here in America: We can feed ourselves. And we've always got 
to be able to do that. It puts us in a--it gives us a strategic 
advantage, a strategic edge. Imagine if we were going around the world 
asking for food. It would put the President in a pretty tough position. 
[Laughter] They may want to bargain a little high. [Laughter]
    But fortunately, we can feed ourselves, and not only that, we 
produce more food than we need, because we're good at what we do. And 
therefore, it makes sense on behalf of the producers to open up markets. 
We ought to be feeding--feeding the world. Where people are hungry, they 
ought to be eating American food. We ought to be knocking

[[Page 1419]]

down those tariffs and those barriers. We ought to be leveling the 
playing field, and that's precisely what I'm going to do with my new 
authority.
    I told Ann--and she would testify to this--and I told Zoellick, 
who's our trade man, I said, ``I don't want our agriculture producers to 
be shunted aside when it comes to opening up markets.'' As a matter of 
fact, when you're good at something, it ought to be the cornerstone of 
your policy. So I want agriculture to be the cornerstone of good 
international trade policy, and it will be. And we made some progress.
    I don't know if you've been following this, but we had a little 

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