pd06fe95 Remarks to the National Governors' Association Meeting...

	Web GovRecords.org

the country is that which is most likely to make us most safe and to 
lower the crime rate. Many of you--I'll bet even a majority of you 
here--have recorded declines in the crime rate in the last year or so 
because of the strategies that mayors are adopting with community 
policing, with prevention programs, with using citizens to work with law 
enforcement to do things that will reach people in ways that will 
prevent crime as well as catch criminals more quickly. We have to take 
these lessons into account.
    So as we enter into a second round of debate about the crime bill, I 
would say there are two or three things that we ought to keep in mind. 
First, as I said in my State of the Union Address, we should not repeal 
the assault weapons ban. We should not do that. [Applause] This issue, 
as you can hear from the response, is not a Republican-Democratic issue, 
it is not a liberal-conservative issue, it is overwhelmingly an urban-
nonurban issue. And what we have to do is to convince all the people I 
grew up with--[laughter]--that we don't--we don't want to fool with 
anybody's hunting rifles. We don't want to stop anybody from going to 
shooting contests. We don't want to interfere with anybody's legitimate 
pursuit of happiness in the exercise of their right to keep and bear 
arms. But there is nothing in the Constitution that prevents us from 
exercising common sense. And people who live in urban settings know that 
the mortality rate in the emergency rooms of urban hospitals from 
gunshot wounds has gone up dramatically in the last 15 years because the 
average body has more bullets in it when it's wheeled into the emergency 
room. You do not have to be a genius to figure out what's happening.
    And so I hope that we can put an end to this war. This is a phony 
war among the American people. And those of us that respect people's 
right to hunt and to engage in other appropriate conduct, those of us 
that enjoy it ourselves, we ought to be able to ask each other again: 
What's best for America? And what good is it to pretend that it's a 
matter of principle to maintain the right of a bunch of teenagers to 
have Uzis on the streets of our cities.
    So I hope you will talk about this in a nonpartisan, nonpolitical 
way and realize this is one of those cultural problems that's gripping 
America. We got too many of them. They're keeping us apart. But we need 
to say to the nonurban folks in our society, this is something that--
we've got to work this out. This is a fair deal. This is a balanced 
bill. There are 650 weapons enumerated in this bill that cannot be 
infringed on by the Government in any way, shape, or form. And so let's 
let this alone and go on about the business of the country.
    I also think we ought to emphasize that at least the Attorney 
General is doing her dead-level best to make sure that the 
administration of the crime bill that passed is nonbureaucratic, 
nonpolitical, and efficient. If you look at what's happened so far, in 
October, not even 2 weeks into the new fiscal year, we had already 
funded 392 policing grants that went unfunded last year. Last month, at 
your recommendation, we gave 631 larger cities the go-ahead to begin 
recruiting and training more than 4,600 new officers. So they know the 
money will be there when their applications are handed in.
    For the smaller cities, we've streamlined the application process, 
allowing them to apply more quickly for police with a simple one-page 
application. I don't know how many one-page applications we've got in 
the Government now, but I know you can ask for an SBA loan or a 
policeman with one page. You ought to be able to do more things with one 
page.
    This cops program has now helped more than 1,000 communities to put 
more than 10,000 more police officers on the street in all 50 States. 
Within a week, when the announcement is made of the winners of the COPS 
FAST program, that total will be close to 15,000, well on the way to the 
100,000 goal of the crime bill. That would be a 20 percent increase in 
the strength on the streets.

[[Page 134]]

    Now, the crime bills now being considered in Congress have some 
things that I think may be superficially appealing but need to be 
thought through. If you scrap the $8.8 billion cops initiative, as some 
suggest, and replace it with a $10 billion block grant which also has to 
include prevention programs, the good news is you'll have a block grant. 
The bad news is there'll be a lot less money in it than was provided 
for.
    And keep in mind, to all those who say it wasn't funded, we did not 
raise one red cent in taxes to pay for the crime bill. We did not take 
one red cent away from any other program. We simply dedicated all the 
savings to be gained from reducing the size of the Federal bureaucracy 
to giving it back to local communities to use to fund the crime bill. 
That's what was done.
    Now, to make matters worse, some have suggested that the $10 billion 
block grant to fund police and prevention could only be funded if we 
first fund $10 billion in new prisons. So that's a decision that some 
would make against the unanimous advice of every police officer in the 
country who has testified. So that--if we make that decision, that would 
be like people saying, ``We don't care what lowers crime; we don't care 
what makes people safer; we don't care what people in law enforcement 
who vote Republican and Democrat say. This is what we're going to do. It 
will make us a feel better, and we can claim that it was the best thing 
to do.''
    We should not do that. This ought not to become a political issue. 
That crime bill had a balance of police and prevention and prisons. We 
shouldn't take all the prevention money away through the back door and 
put it into prisons. And we shouldn't say that the prisons are more 
important than the police and the prevention. I had no objection to 
getting into the business of helping States with their prison 
construction, even though it was totally unprecedented, but there is no 
evidence that that is the way to lower the crime rate. The American 
people want to be safer at night; they want their kids to be safer on 
the streets and at school. And we ought to be driven by what is best for 
the American people.
    I would also say, just parenthetically, that even last year I was 
concerned when the crime bill passed that the conditions on getting that 
Federal money for prison construction were so restrictive and required 
such a large State match that a lot of that money might never be used. 
We cannot permit a cruel hoax to then be written into the law saying, 
well, you can get this block grant for police and prevention but only 
after the prison money is spent and then have conditions on spending the 
prison money so strict that it will never be spent in the first place.
    So I urge you to just go up there without regard to your party or 
region and say, look, let's do what will lower the crime rate; let's do 
what will keep people safer. The American people will figure that out. 
They will trust their local leaders; they will trust their local law 
enforcement people; they will trust them. We can share responsibility 
now. There need be no characterization that is negative when this 
process is over. There need be no name-calling. There needs to be no 
anything. We just need to do what is right to lower the crime rate. And 
all of us have worked so hard on this.
    Again, I would say this is like the assault weapons issue. We've got 
big issues to deal with. This unfunded mandates is one. Welfare reform 
is another. How we're going to lower the deficit and provide tax relief 
is another. There are major positive issues that we're going to have to 
face. We don't need to reopen an issue and make it worse. So I ask you 
to help us on that.
    Now, let me say one final thing about the baseball strike, if I 
might. I asked Bill Usery, the Federal mediator, to get the sides back 
together and report to me by February 6th. Anybody know what February 
6th is? It's Babe Ruth's 100th birthday. So it struck me as a good day 
to settle the baseball strike. I identify with Babe Ruth. He's a little 
overweight. [Laughter] And he struck out a lot--[laughter]--but he hit a 
lot of home runs because he went to bat. You are the people in this 
country who go to bat. You have to deal directly with people. You have 
to be accountable, not only for the rhetoric of your speeches but the 
reality of your actions.
    And so I ask you to take this opportunity to join with us, and let's 
make the decision the American people made last November, a good 
decision by making it one of shared

[[Page 135]]

responsibility. Let's move what we can back to the State and local 
level. Let's work to empower people. Let's reduce the burden of 
Government and increase the opportunity it creates. We can do these 
things, but it is very important that we not fix what ain't broke and 
that we not become diverted by issues that can only divide us when there 
is so much we can do that will bring us together.
    Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 4:36 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Mayor Victor Ashe of 
Knoxville, TN, and Mayor Rolland R. Grant of East Providence, RI. This 
item was not received in time for publication in the appropriate issue.


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


[Page 135]
 
Monday, February 6, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 5
Pages 131-191
 
Week Ending Friday, February 3, 1995
 
Remarks on Welfare Reform

January 28, 1995

    Good morning. I am on my way to Blair House to host an all-day 
meeting that is a bipartisan working session on welfare reform. We will 
have Members of Congress, Governors, and local officials there from all 
across our country. I am determined to work with them to pass welfare 
reform. I think it is perhaps the most pressing social problem we face 
in our country, and the time has come for Congress to act.
    As I said in the State of the Union, what we need in welfare reform 
is a New Covenant of opportunity and responsibility. People on welfare 
who can work should go to work. Parents who owe child support should pay 
it. Governments don't raise children; people do. And we must have a 
national campaign against teenage pregnancy and births outside marriage.
    If we're going to end welfare, let's do it right. We should require 
work and responsibility, but we shouldn't cut people off just because 
they're poor or young or unmarried. We should promote responsibility by 
requiring young mothers to live at home or in proper supervised settings 
and to finish school. But we shouldn't put them or their children out on 
the street. I have worked on this issue since 1980. I know that the 
people who want to change welfare most are those who are trapped on it.
    Yesterday, in preparation for this meeting, I met with four former 
welfare mothers who have managed to free themselves from the system. I 
listened again to the stories of people who have had great difficulty in 
trying to get the kind of support they need to get off of welfare, 
people who did not want to go on in the first place and were anxious to 
be off of it. I know that most people who are trapped in welfare will 
gladly take the work options if we can work out the system in the proper 
way. I also know that those who don't want to do the responsible thing 
must be required to do so.
    But our job in the end is not to tear anybody down and not to use 
this issue to divide America, but to build people up, to liberate them, 
to give them the capacity they need to compete and win in this new 
economy. The American people want us to put politics aside and to get 
this done for our country. I am committed to doing it, and I believe the 
people who are coming to this meeting this morning are committed as 
well.
    Wish us well. Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 8:12 a.m. at the South Portico at the White 
House.


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


[Page 135-136]
 
Monday, February 6, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 5
Pages 131-191
 
Week Ending Friday, February 3, 1995
 
The President's Radio Address

January 28, 1995

    Good morning. I want to talk to you today about the New Covenant I 
discussed in the State of the Union. My mission as President is to 
restore the American dream to all of our people. In the new economy of 
the 21st century, that requires a New Covenant between the people and 
their Government and among the people themselves.
    This is something I've been talking about for many years, since I 
ran for President. The New Covenant is grounded in an old idea that all 
Americans have not just a right but a responsibility to do the hard work 
needed to rise as far as their talents and determination can take them 
and to give something back to their community and to their country in 
return.
    Opportunity and responsibility, they go hand in hand. We can't have 
one without the other, and we can't have a strong community without 
both. We've worked hard to create

[[Page 136]]

more economic opportunity for our people in the last 2 years, bringing 
the deficit down, investing in education and new technology, expanding 
trade. We've gotten more than 6 million--or almost 6 million new jobs, 
the fastest growth in 10 years, and the lowest combined rate of 
unemployment and inflation in 25 years. That's good news.
    But America's still got a lot of problems. There are still interests 
of people and values of people that are not being furthered. And there's 
really no better example of the need for us to build a New Covenant 
together than the failed welfare system. Today's welfare system doesn't 
provide enough opportunity, and it certainly doesn't require enough 
responsibility. It's a system so badly broken that it undermines the 
very values, work, family, and responsibility, people must have to put 
themselves back on track. We've got to return those values front and 
center.
    Our job in Government is to expand opportunity, not bureaucracy, and 
then to empower people to make the most of their own lives. We must not 
ask, and Government should not provide, what we really must do for 
ourselves.
    I've worked on this issue of welfare reform for a very long time 
now, since I first became Governor of Arkansas over 15 years ago. I know 
there are a lot of different ideas about what we should do. But everyone 
agrees the system is broken and it needs to be fixed. I'm committed to 
making welfare what it was meant to be, a second chance, not a way of 
life. I'm committed to making sure that the only goal of the welfare 
system is to help people get off of it, into a job where they can 
support themselves and their families. I believe we should give people 
the opportunity to move from dependence to independence, providing job 
training and child care if that's what they need for up to 2 years. At 
the same time, we must demand that people accept responsibility for 
themselves. After 2 years, anyone who can work must work. And if a 
parent doesn't pay child support, that person should be forced to pay. 
People who have children must be prepared to take responsibility for 
them.
    We should require work and responsibility, but we shouldn't cut 
people off just because they're poor or young or unmarried. We should 
promote responsibility by requiring young mothers to live at home with 
their parents or in appropriate supervised settings and to finish 
school, but we shouldn't put them and their children on the street. I 
don't believe we should punish people because they happen to be poor or 
because of past mistakes. And absolutely, we shouldn't punish children 
for their parents' mistakes. All of us have made our mistakes, and none 
of us can change our yesterdays. But every one of us can change our 
tomorrows. That's what welfare reform should be all about.
    And one more thing, Washington doesn't have all the answers. In 
fixing welfare, as on so many other issues, we have to shift resources 
and decisionmaking back to States and local communities. The welfare 
system shouldn't be centralized in Washington, dispensing services 
through large bureaucracies. We've got to shift more responsibilities 
back to the citizens of this country.
    We've made a good start on this over the last 2 years. We've already 
given 23 States the right to slash through Federal rules and regulations 
to reform their own welfare systems. Last year, we introduced the most 
sweeping welfare reform plan ever presented by an administration. Today 
at the White House, I'm hosting an all-day working session on welfare 
reform including Governors, Members of Congress, Democrats and 
Republicans, people on welfare, and people who have worked their way 

Other Popular 1995 Presidential Documents Documents:

Other Documents:

1995 Presidential Documents Records and Documents