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brought their staff members who worked on the budget--I want to thank 
them for their work, as well.
    Last January, in my State of the Union Address, I asked our Congress 
to use this truly historic time of peace and prosperity to meet our 
generation's responsibilities to the new century--to extend our economic 
prosperity, improve our education system, make our streets safer, 
protect our environment, move more Americans from welfare to work, 
prepare for the aging of our Nation, and strengthen our leadership in 
the world. The first budget of the 21st century was a long time in 
coming, but it goes a very long way toward fulfilling those historic 
responsibilities.
    Though it leaves some challenges unmet, it represents real progress. 
It is a budget for a Government that lives within its means and lives up 
to the values of the American people. We value prosperity, and this 
budget will help to extend it. It maintains the fiscal discipline that 
has turned deficits into surpluses and gives us what will be in February 
the longest economic expansion in the history of the United States.
    It avoids risky tax cuts that would have spent hundreds of billions 
of dollars from the Social Security surplus and drained our ability to 
advance education and other important public purposes.
    The budget keeps us on track toward paying down the debt so that in 
15 years, our Nation will be debt-free for the first time since 1835. 
This will mean lower interest rates and greater growth for a whole 
generation of Americans.
    We value education, and this budget truly puts education first, 
continuing our commitment to hire 100,000 highly-qualified teachers to 
lower class size in the early grades--which common sense and research 
both tells us leads to improved learning.
    The budget also helps to fulfill another promise I made last winter, 
to encourage more accountability for results in our Nation's schools. 
Under this budget, for the first time we will help States and school 
districts turn around or shut down their worst-performing schools--
schools that year after year fail to give our most disadvantaged 
students

[[Page 2455]]

the learning they need to escape poverty and reach their full potential. 
And the budget provides further help for students to reach higher 
standards by doubling funds for after-school and summer school programs, 
which will enable us to reach hundreds of thousands of more students, 
and by increasing support for mentoring programs, including the GEAR UP 
program to help students go on to college.
    We value the safety of our families, and this budget will make 
America a safer place. It invests in our COPS program, which already has 
funded 100,000 community police officers and helped to give us the 
lowest crime rate in 25 years. This agreement will help to hire up to 
50,000 more community police officers, targeted in neighborhoods where 
the crime rates still are too high.
    We value the environment, and this budget protects the environment 
and preserves our precious natural heritage. It includes our historic 
lands legacy initiative to set aside more of our magnificent natural 
areas and vital green spaces, and does not include destructive, anti-
environmental riders.
    We value quality health care, and this budget includes historic 
investments in biomedical research, mental health, pediatric training, 
and other areas. And it ensures that hospitals and other medical 
providers will have the resources they need to provide the 39 million 
elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaries with the quality health care 
they need and deserve.
    Finally, we value America's role of leadership in the world, and 
this budget strengthens that role, with greater investments in our 
Nation's strong defense and our Nation's diplomacy, by paying our dues 
and arrears to the United Nations, meeting our commitments to the Middle 
East peace process, providing debt relief for the poorest countries of 
the world, and funding efforts to safeguard nuclear weapons and 
expertise in Russia.
    Let me thank the leaders of both parties for their roles in this 
agreement. We had a lot of late night, long phone calls which led to it. 
I thank the leaders of the relevant committees and subcommittees for 
their special efforts in this regard. And, of course, I want to say a 
special word of thanks to the leaders and members of my party in both 
houses who strongly supported my efforts for the 100,000 teachers, the 
50,000 police, the investments in the environment, and paying the U.N. 
dues.
    As we celebrate what we have accomplished, I ask us all to be humble 
and mindful of what we still have to accomplish. To give all Americans 
in all health plans the protections they need, we still need a strong, 
enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights. To curb gun violence and keep 
firearms out of the hands of criminals and children, we still need 
sensible gun safety legislation--to close the gun show loophole in the 
Brady law; to ban the importation of large ammunition clips; to include 
the requirement for child trigger locks in a juvenile Brady bill. To 
build one America with freedom and justice for all, we should pass the 
``Hate Crimes Prevention Act.'' To meet the challenge of the aging of 
America, we must extend the life of the Social Security Trust Fund well 
beyond the years of the baby boomers' retirement, lift the earnings 
limitations, and alleviate poverty among older women on Social Security. 
To ensure the health of our seniors in the years to come, we must secure 
and modernize Medicare, including a voluntary prescription drug benefit. 
To make sure hard-working Americans have a place at the table of our 
prosperity, we must pass a new markets initiative to give Americans the 
same incentives to invest in poor areas they have to invest in poor 
areas around the world. We must raise the minimum wage and increase our 
support for quality child care.
    In the weeks and months ahead, we can achieve these vital goals if 
we keep in mind that the disagreements we have are far less important 
than our shared values and our shared responsibility to the future. With 
this budget, we have helped to begin that future.
    Again, let me thank the leaders and the Members in Congress in both 
parties that contributed to a budget that passed with large majorities 
in both Houses and both parties. I am proud to sign a bill that I 
believe will give us a stronger, better America in the 21st century.
    I'd like to now invite the Members of Congress to come up and stand 
with me, and then I'd like to ask the police officers and

[[Page 2456]]

the teachers to come in behind the Members of Congress, and we'll sign 
the budget.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:25 p.m. in the Rose Garden at the White 
House. H.R. 3194, approved November 29, was assigned Public Law No. 106-
113.


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

[Page 2456-2457]
 
Monday, December 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 48
Pages 2453-2515
 
Week Ending Friday, December 3, 1999
 
Proclamation 7256--World AIDS Day, 1999

November 29, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    As this year draws to a close, the world looks with hope to a new 
century and a new millennium. But in that new century, we will still 
face a familiar and deadly enemy: HIV and AIDS. Already, more than 33 
million people around the world have been infected with HIV; by the year 
2005, that figure will likely soar to more than 100 million.
    The theme of World AIDS Day this year is ``AIDS--End the Silence. 
Listen, Learn, Live!'' This simple message challenges us all to become 
better informed about this global pandemic and to serve as strong and 
vocal advocates for HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and care. When we 
fail to tell our children the truth about how HIV is transmitted, we put 
them at risk for infection. When we are silent about the need for 
compassionate care for the ill and dying, we allow too many of those 
infected with AIDS to spend their final days unloved and alone.
    Throughout my Presidency, I have strived to break the silence 
surrounding HIV/AIDS, and my Administration has worked hard to eradicate 
this devastating global threat. We can take heart that many people with 
HIV/AIDS today are living longer and more fulfilling lives and that new 
drugs are showing promising results in halting the progression of the 
disease. However, AIDS has exposed the tremendous gulf that exits 
between those who share in the prosperity of our global economy and 
those who do not. Of the millions of people around the world coping with 
HIV and AIDS, most are living in poverty, without access to new 
treatments or even the basic care that could increase the quality and 
length of their lives.
    Nowhere is the impact of this disease more devastating than in 
Africa, where 13 million men, women, and children have already died of 
AIDS, and 11,000 more are becoming infected each day. In response to 
this health catastrophe, this year my Administration sought and attained 
the largest-ever U.S. budget commitment to the global fight against 
AIDS. This increase of $100 million will more than double our support 
for AIDS awareness and prevention, home and community-based care, care 
of children orphaned by AIDS, and development of the infrastructure 
necessary to support these efforts. I invite other G-8 nations to join 
us, and I urge other foreign governments, corporate leaders, 
nongovernmental organizations, faith communities, foundations, AIDS 
organizations, and citizens around the globe to make their own 
contributions to the crusade against HIV/AIDS.
    To fight HIV/AIDS on the home front, this year's budget includes a 
$73 million increase in funding for HIV prevention activities; an 
increase of $183 million in the Ryan White CARE Act, which helps provide 
primary care and support for those living with HIV/AIDS; an additional 
$80 million in funding to the Minority AIDS Initiative, which uses 
existing programs to reach African Americans, Latinos, and other racial 
and ethnic minorities disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS; and an 
estimated $300 million in additional funds for AIDS-related research at 
the National Institutes of Health. I have given high priority to the 
development of a vaccine for AIDS, and our scientists and researchers 
remain committed to developing a vaccine that works for all who need it.
    Until they achieve that goal, we must work together to break the 
silence and increase dialogue; to fight the stigmatization and protect 
the rights of those living with HIV and AIDS; and to help those infected 
find the care and treatment they need. As we usher in a new century, we 
must pledge to stay the course in our crusade until the world is finally 
freed from the shadow of this devastating epidemic.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America,

[[Page 2457]]

by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of 
the United States, do hereby proclaim December 1, 1999, as World AIDS 
Day. I invite the Governors of the States and the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico, officials of the other territories subject to the jurisdiction of 
the United States, and the American people to join me in reaffirming our 
commitment to defeating HIV and AIDS. I encourage every American to 
participate in appropriate commemorative programs and ceremonies in 
workplaces, houses of worship, and other community centers, to reach out 
to protect and educate our children, and to help and comfort all people 
who are living with HIV and AIDS.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth 
day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 1, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
December 2.


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

[Page 2457-2458]
 
Monday, December 6, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 48
Pages 2453-2515
 
Week Ending Friday, December 3, 1999
 
Memorandum on Facilitating the Growth of Electronic Commerce

November 29, 1999

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Subject: Facilitating the Growth of Electronic Commerce

    The rapid growth of the Internet and its increasing use throughout 
the world for electronic commerce holds great promise for American 
consumers and for the Nation. Consumers will have significantly greater 
choice and convenience and will benefit from enhanced competition for 
their businesses.
    It is essential for consumers and the health of the economy that 
government facilitate not only retail activity, which has increased 
substantially, but also the movement to the online environment of other 
categories of transactions. We must update laws and regulations 
developed before the advent of the Internet that may have the unintended 
effect of impeding business-to-business and business-to-consumer online 
transactions. Impediments may include regulatory or licensing 
requirements and technical standards and other policies that may hinder 
electronic commerce in particular goods or services. While some of these 
legal restrictions are the subject of pending legislation, other 
potential barriers are outside the scope of those legislative proposals.
    Under the Government Paperwork Elimination Act, Federal agencies are 
addressing issues regarding electronic transactions within the Federal 
Government and between the Federal Government and other parties. We 
should provide for similar consideration of laws and regulations 
governing electronic commerce in the private sectors.
    In adapting laws and regulations to the electronic environment, it 
is critical that consumers and the public at large be assured of a level 
of protection in electronic commerce equivalent to that which they now 
enjoy in more traditional forms of commerce. Any disparity in protection 
may undermine consumer confidence in electronic commerce and impede the 
growth of this important new trade medium. At the same time, we must 
recognize that different media may require different approaches and that 
public interest protections designed for the physical world may not fit 
in the electronic commerce arena. We should attempt to develop an 
equivalent level of protection, recognizing that different means may be 
necessary to accomplish that goal.
    The United States Government Working Group on Electronic Commerce 
(the Working Group) shall establish a subgroup, led by the Department of 
Commerce, to: (1) identify Federal, State, and local laws and 
regulations that impose barriers to the growth of electronic commerce, 
and (2) recommend how these laws and regulations should be revised to 
facilitate the development of electronic commerce, while ensuring that 
protection of the public interest (including consumer protection) is 
equivalent to that provided with respect to offline commerce. This 
subgroup shall carry out the responsibilities identified below on behalf 
of the Working

[[Page 2458]]

Group, with the exception of reporting to the President.
    Within 60 days of the date of this memorandum, the Working Group 
shall invite the public to identify laws or regulations that may 
obstruct or hinder electronic commerce, including those laws and 
regulations that should be modified on a priority basis because they are 
currently inhibiting electronic commerce that is otherwise ready to take 
place. The Working Group also shall invite the public to recommend how 
governments should adapt public interest regulations to the electronic 
environment. These recommendations should discuss ways to ensure that 
public interest protections for online transactions will be equivalent 

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