pd04ja99 Letter to Congressional Leaders Transmitting a Plan and Report on...

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[Page i-ii]
 
Monday, January 4, 1999
 
Volume 34--Number 53
Pages 2531-2540
 
Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents







[[Page ii]]

  

  
Addresses and Remarks

    Children Exposed to Violence Initiative, announcement--2535
    Iraq--2532
    Radio address--2531
    Social Security system compliance with year 2000 computer problem 
        safeguards, announcement--2532

Communications to Congress

    Foreign affairs agencies, reorganization, letter transmitting 
        report--2537
    Former Eastern Bloc states, normal trade relations, letter 
        transmitting report--2536
    Libya
        Continuation of emergency, letter transmitting notice--2537
        Economic sanctions, letter reporting--2538

Notices

    Continuation of Libyan emergency--2537

Statements by the President

    Child support collections, efforts to increase--2539
    National Crime Victimization Survey--2532

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--2540
    Checklist of White House press releases--2540
    Digest of other White House announcements--2540
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--2540

  

  

  

Editor's Note: In order to meet publication and distribution deadlines 
during the New Year's holiday weekend, the cutoff time for this issue 
has been advanced to 5 p.m. on Thursday, December 31, 1998. Documents 
released after that time will appear in the next issue.




              WEEKLY COMPILATION OF
          ------------------------------
              PRESIDENTIAL DOCUMENTS

Published every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, National 
Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC 20408, the Weekly 
Compilation of Presidential Documents contains statements, messages, and
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[[Page 2531]]




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[Page 2531-2532]
 
Monday, January 4, 1999
 
Volume 34--Number 53
Pages 2531-2540
 
Week Ending Friday, January 1, 1999
 
The President's Radio Address


December 26, 1998

    Good morning. December is a month for families, a season of 
celebration and anticipation, especially for our children. But with 
alcohol flowing at parties and millions of families taking to the road 
to see friends and relatives, the holiday season can also be a season of 
tragedy. Last December more than 1,300 Americans lost their lives in 
alcohol-related crashes. Who knows how many presents under the Christmas 
tree were left unopened, presents for a child killed by a drunk driver.
    Today I want to talk about how we can work together to make our 
roads safer for our families. For a generation, drunk driving has been 
one of America's greatest public safety challenges. The sight of a car 
weaving through traffic is an all too familiar and frightening one for 
many Americans. Over the past decade, spurred to action by grassroots 
activists such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and with the leadership 
of the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic 
Safety Administration, America has worked hard to keep drunk drivers off 
our roads with increased public awareness, stronger laws, and stricter 
enforcement.
    My administration has made safety our number one transportation 
priority. In 1995 we helped States make it illegal for anyone under 21 
to drive with any amount of alcohol in their system. We put young people 
on notice: just one drink before driving--one beer, one glass of wine, 
one shot--and you can lose your license.
    There's good news to report. Last year the number of people killed 
in alcohol-related crashes dropped to an all-time low. For the first 
time since we started keeping track in 1975, alcohol-related deaths 
accounted for less than 40 percent of all traffic deaths and dropped by 
5 percent among 15- to 20-year-olds. But we have much more to do.
    In a report I'm releasing today, the Department of Health and Human 
Services estimates that in 1996 more than a quarter of all drivers--46.5 
million--used drugs, alcohol, or both within 2 hours of driving. Ask any 
parent, any family, anyone who has lost a loved one to an alcohol 
related crash; one impaired driver is one too many.
    So today I'm announcing that the Justice and Transportation 
Departments will strengthen their efforts in the new year, through 
grants to States and other incentives, to enforce underage drinking 
laws, to carry out alcohol impaired driving prevention programs, and to 
pass and enforce strong State highway safety legislation.
    The most effective action we can take to make our roads even safer 
is to set the national impaired driving standard at .08 percent blood 
alcohol content. No one will ever doubt that a person with that much 
blood alcohol is unfit to drive after meeting Brenda Frazier. This 
spring at the White House she described the horror of watching a drunk 
driver run over her 9-year-old daughter at a school bus stop. The 
driver's blood alcohol content: .08 percent.
    This year I worked with Members of Congress to make .08 the law of 
the land. Tragically, the special interests blocked this lifesaving 
measure. I am determined to succeed in setting a .08 standard in the new 
year. It's the right thing to do. In the meantime, I've asked 
Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater to work to make .08 the rule on 
Federal property. I commend the 16 States and the District of Columbia, 
who have already adopted the stricter standard.
    But every American family also must take responsibility for safer 
roads for all our families. Tell your neighbors and teach your own 
children about the dangers of drunk driving. And as we gather this week 
to ring in a new year, stop and think before getting behind the wheel. 
If you've had too much to drink,

[[Page 2532]]

hand your keys to a designated driver. Together, we can make sure the 
new year is, indeed, a safe and happy one for all Americans.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 11:04 a.m. on December 24 in the 
Roosevelt Room at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on 
December 26. The transcript was made available by the Office of the 
Press Secretary on December 24 but was embargoed for release until the 
broadcast.


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[Page 2532]
 
Monday, January 4, 1999
 
Volume 34--Number 53
Pages 2531-2540
 
Week Ending Friday, January 1, 1999
 
Statement on the 1997 National Crime Victimization Survey

December 27, 1998

    The 1997 National Crime Victimization Survey released by the 
Department of Justice today shows that violent crime fell 7 percent last 
year and 21 percent since I took office. With the violent crime rate now 
its lowest level since 1973, Americans are safer today than they have 
been in many years. These new figures again show that our strategy of 
more police, stricter gun laws, and better crime prevention is working. 
But we are not yet done. Working together, both in Washington and in 
communities across our Nation, we must redouble our efforts to make our 
streets, homes, and schools safer for all Americans.

Note: This statement was made available by the Office of the Press 
Secretary at 8 a.m. on December 27 but was embargoed for release until 9 
a.m.


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[Page 2532-2535]
 
Monday, January 4, 1999
 
Volume 34--Number 53
Pages 2531-2540
 
Week Ending Friday, January 1, 1999
 
Remarks Announcing Social Security System Compliance With Year 2000 
Computer Problem Safeguards

December 28, 1998

    Good morning. Let me say, one of the things that she might have told 
you is that before she volunteered for the National Council of Senior 
Citizens for 20 years, she was an employee until 1972, when she retired, 
of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Therefore, she worked for the 
Treasury Department. And on New Year's Eve, she will be 90 years old. 
[Applause] So we thank her.

Situation in Iraq

    Ladies and gentlemen, before I get into my remarks, because this is 
the only opportunity I will have to appear before the press today, I 
think I should say a few words about an incident early this morning over 
the skies of Iraq, where American and British aircrews were enforcing a 
no-fly zone in northern Iraq. They were fired on by Iraq surface-to-air 
missiles. They took evasive action, returned fire on the missile site, 
and returned safely to their base in Turkey.
    We enforce two no-fly zones in Iraq: one in the north, established 
in 1991; another in the south, established in 1992, which now stretches 
from the southern suburbs of Baghdad down to the Kuwaiti border. The no-
fly zones have been and will remain an important part of our containment 
policy. Because we effectively control the skies over much of Iraq, 
Saddam has been unable to use air power to repress his own people or to 
lash out again at his neighbors. Our pilots have the authority to 
protect themselves if they're threatened or attacked. They took 
appropriate action today in responding to Iraq's actions.
    Once again, I want to tell you I am very proud of the work they do, 
the risks they take, the skill and the professionalism with which they 
do it. They attacked because they were attacked. And they did the 
appropriate thing. We will continue to enforce the no-fly zones.

Social Security and Year 2000 Computer Problem

    Now, let me say, this is a very happy announcement today. And I want 
to thank Secretary Rubin, who most people associate with saving the 
economy, not saving Social Security, but that's an important part of his 
job, too. I want to thank Kathy Adams, who is one of those people in the 
Government that makes it go and never gets enough credit for it. So I'm 
delighted to see her up here and, through her, all the other people who 
work every day to make America work.
    I've already told you about Pauline Johnson Jones. And I want to 

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