pd08my95 Digest of Other White House Announcements...

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    Warm greetings to everyone celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
    The Fifth of May offers all of us a chance to celebrate the cultural 
diversity that helps to make our nation great. The vibrant Mexican 
culture, based on faith, family, and patriotism, has added a wealth of 
tradition to this country. Cinco de Mayo is an important part of this 
legacy, reminding us of the courage and commitment that can sustain the 
forces of freedom even when they are confronted with overwhelming 
opposition.
    The liberty won by the outnumbered Mexican army more than a century 
ago lives on today as a part of the rich heritage of the Mexican people. 
Each time we remember the victory at the Battle of Puebla, we rejoice in 
the triumph of freedom and the blessings of tradition.
    Hillary and I are pleased to extend best wishes for a most memorable 
and enjoyable holiday.
                                                  Bill Clinton


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[Page 752-753]
 
Monday, May 8, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 18
Pages 735-776
 
Week Ending Friday, May 5, 1995
 
Joint Statement With the Republic of Cuba on Normalization of Migration

May 2, 1995

    The United States of America and the Republic of Cuba have reached 
agreement on steps to normalize further their migration relationship. 
These steps build upon the September 9, 1994 agreement and seek to 
address safety and humanitarian concerns and to ensure that migration 
between the countries is safe, legal, and orderly.

Humanitarian Parole

    The United States and the Republic of Cuba recognize the special 
circumstances of Cuban migrants currently at Guantanamo Bay. 
Accordingly, the two governments have agreed that the process of 
humanitarian parole into the United States should continue beyond those 
eligible for parole under existing criteria. The two governments agree 
that if the United States carries out such paroles, it may count them 
towards meeting the minimum number of Cubans it is committed to admit 
every year pursuant to the September 9, 1994 agreement. Up to 5,000 such 
paroles may be counted towards meeting the minimum number in any one 
year period beginning September 9, 1995, regardless of when the migrants 
are paroled into the United States.

Safety of Life at Sea

    The United States and the Republic of Cuba reaffirm their common 
interest in preventing unsafe departures from Cuba. Effective 
immediately, Cuban migrants intercepted at sea by the United States and 
attempting to enter the United States will be taken to Cuba. Similarly, 
migrants found to have entered Guantanamo illegally will also be 
returned to Cuba. The United States and the Republic of Cuba will 
cooperate jointly in this effort. All actions taken will be consistent 
with the parties' international obligations. Migrants taken to Cuba will 
be informed by United States officials about procedures to apply for 
legal admission to the United States at the U.S. Interests Section in 
Havana.
    The United States and the Republic of Cuba will ensure that no 
action is taken against those migrants returned to Cuba as a consequence 
of their attempt to immigrate illegally. Both parties will work together 
to facilitate the procedures necessary to implement these measures. The 
United States and the Republic of Cuba agree to the return to Cuba of 
Cuban nationals currently at Guan- 

[[Page 753]]

tanamo who are ineligible for admission to the United States.

September 9, 1994 Agreement

    The United States and the Republic of Cuba agree that the provisions 
of the September 9, 1994 agreement remain in effect, except as modified 
by the present Joint Statement. In particular, both sides reaffirm their 
joint commitment to take steps to prevent unsafe departures from Cuba 
which risk loss of human life and to oppose acts of violence associated 
with illegal immigration.

Note: An original was not available for verification of the content of 
this joint statement.


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[Page 753]
 
Monday, May 8, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 18
Pages 735-776
 
Week Ending Friday, May 5, 1995
 
Message to the Congress Transmitting Budget Rescissions

May 2, 1995

To the Congress of the United States:

    In accordance with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 
Act of 1974, I herewith report three rescission proposals, totaling 
$132.0 million.
    The proposed rescissions affect the Departments of Justice and 
Transportation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
May 2, 1995.


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[Page 753-758]
 
Monday, May 8, 1995
 
Volume 31--Number 18
Pages 735-776
 
Week Ending Friday, May 5, 1995
 
Remarks to the White House Conference on Aging

May 3, 1995

    Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Thank you for your 
remarks, and thank you for doing such a good job for America. Thank you, 
Secretary Shalala, Secretary Brown, Mr. Flemming, Mr. Blancato, Fernando 
Torres-Gil. Hugh Downs, thank you for being master of ceremonies. I wish 
I could sit here and watch you work the whole time. I'm delighted to see 
you. To Congressman Martinez and Congresswoman Morella, the former 
Members of Congress who are here; the Senators who have gone because 
they have to vote. I want to say a special word of thanks to the 
Conference Chair and one of the best friends I ever had in my life, 
David Pryor. I think he is a wonderful man.
    As all of you know, Senator Pryor is now retiring from the Senate. I 
can remember when, as a young Congressman, he once volunteered as an 
orderly in Washington area nursing homes to document the conditions 
under which seniors were then living. And when he couldn't get the 
Members of Congress to listen, he conducted hearings out of a trailer in 
a parking lot. The trailer led to the creation of Claude Pepper's House 
Aging Committee. And as chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on 
Aging, David Pryor has led fight after fight after fight for the 
interests of the seniors in this country, especially in his efforts to 
expand the availability and limit the cost of prescription drugs. We 
will miss him, and we should be grateful to him.
    I'm glad to see all of you in such good spirits. I hope you will 
stay that way. [Laughter] I hope you'll stay that way because I am 
identifying more and more with you and--[laughter]--and I understand 
Secretary Shalala read the letter we got from the child that said old 
people are smart and Bill Clinton is old. [Laughter]
    I remember very clearly about 6 or 7 years ago when I had 2 events 
occur within 2 days, when I knew I was getting older. My hair had begun 
to gray, but I thought I was still in reasonably good shape. I felt 
fairly chipper. And I was making the rounds in my State, and this 
beautiful young girl, whose parents were very close friends of mine, and 
therefore I felt that I'd almost had a hand in her upbringing from the 
time she was born--she was 18 or 19 years old and she was nearly 6 feet 
tall. And she was just beautiful. And she came up to me--I was so 
pleased to see her--she came up to me and threw her arm around me, 
looked me straight in the eye, and she said, ``Governor, you look so 
good for a man your age.'' [Laughter]
    And then, the very next day I was in a different part of the State, 
and I saw this wonderful retired schoolteacher, who was then 80 years 
old, who had worked in every single campaign I had ever run. And I was 
so happy to see her. And she said, ``Governor,

[[Page 754]]

I'm so glad to see you. You're aging gracefully.'' [Laughter]
    But I think the right thing about this, you know, is to have a good 
attitude about it. All of you have a good attitude. That's a big part of 
this.
    I just want to tell you one more story that illustrates the right 
attitude. It's a true story. We had a man in north Arkansas in a little 
rural county who ran a tiny phone company back when there were lots of 
these little phone companies. And he was about 92 years old. And they 
decided to give--actually, he was 96. And the people in the town decided 
they'd give him a banquet. And everybody got up and said nice things 
about him, you know, and the time came for him to speak. And he said, 
``The very first thing I want to do is to thank my secretary.'' And he 
introduced her, and she was 72. He introduced her and said, ``I want to 
thank my secretary. She has been with me for 40 years. She has been 
wonderful. I don't know what I'm going to do when she passes on.'' 
[Laughter] So you've got to have the right attitude. Now, if you're all 
in the right attitude, let's get after it.
    I am proud to convene this 1995 White House Conference on Aging. 
This is the fourth of these Conferences in the history of our country, 
the first to be held since 1981, the last of the 20th century. I thank 
the Members of Congress and the citizens of this country from both 
parties who have supported this endeavor. These Conferences have a 
productive history, from the establishment of Medicare, Medicaid, and 
the Older Americans Act, as a result of the 1961 Conference, to the 
creation of the House Select Committee on Aging, coming out of the 1971 
Conference.
    But this Conference must be about looking forward, not looking back. 
All across our country we have seen a dramatic reversal in the way we 
think about older Americans. We have, after all, twice as many older 
Americans as we had 30 years ago. And 30 years from now, we'll have 
twice as many again. People over 55 are younger, healthier, better 
educated than ever before, and beginning entirely new careers and 
endeavors in life as they grow older.
    Your job here, more than anything else, is to help determine how to 
use the accumulated experience and judgment of older Americans to make 
all of our country stronger in the future. That is the purpose of our 
National Senior Corps, which works with AmeriCorps, our national service 
initiative in which--[applause]--thank you. The Ameri- Corps program is 
a national service program in which young people earn money for their 
education by doing community service. And not all of them are young. 
I've met retired naval officers in Texas doing work in AmeriCorps and 
intending to go back to college.
    But the Senior Corps, like the AmeriCorps volunteers, are a new 
source of energy for American social problems and challenges. And they 
make sure that, as the poet said, the best is yet to be. Your conference 
agenda confirms your concern with the future. Issues such as crime, 
ethics, and ways to inspire a renewed sense of community affect all 
Americans, regardless of their age. To be honest, seniors are in a 
better position than ever before to help us address these concerns.
    I want to mention just a couple of things that have happened since 
1981 that are very important with reference to your agenda. First, 
briefly, since 1981, you and your generation won the cold war and the 
battle against communism, and you can be very proud of that. And we are 
now trying to finish that work so that for the first time since the dawn 
of the nuclear age there are no Russian missiles pointing at the 
American people.
    But we know there are still threats to our security, and we were 
reminded of it very painfully in the last few days. So I ask all of you 
as you focus on crime to remember that we need to continue the fight to 
lower the crime rate. And with a strategy of punishment, police, and 
prevention, we can do that. But we must focus on the special problems of 
terrorism to which all open societies are vulnerable. I have sent 
legislation to the Congress to address this terrorism problem. It has 
broad bipartisan support. The leaders of the Congress are working with 
me on it. We must pass it and pass it this month. And I urge you to take 
a stand for that on behalf of all Americans.

[[Page 755]]

    The other truly remarkable thing that's happened since 1981 affects 
you particularly. Just one year after the last Conference in 1982, for 
the first time in the history of the United States, older Americans were 
less likely to be poor than Americans under 65. In the full span of our 
country's history, that is a stunning change and a remarkable 
achievement. We have seen it happening over the course of the past 
several decades. Since 1960, the poverty rate among elderly people has 
declined by 65 percent. It did not happen by accident. It happened 
because the American people kept faith with the social compact first 
forged 60 years ago when President Roosevelt signed the Social Security 
Act.
    That compact has then been strengthened over the last three decades 
with Medicare, with Medicaid, with the cost-of-living adjustments to 
Social Security, with community-based services under the Older Americans 
Act like Meals on Wheels, transportation, and with efforts to prevent 
abuse of the elderly. This is a remarkable record, and you should be 
proud of it. It happened because people understood that their Government 
could be made to work for them in a positive and strong way. And it is 
something our country should be very proud of.
    Now, our administration is committed to continuing that work--first, 
to the core principles that have made Social Security work. America has 
a solemn commitment to every person still working, no matter what their 
age, that Social Security will be there for them and their families when 
they need it.
    We have also worked to strengthen retirement and to make it safer 
through strengthening private pensions. The Retirement Protection Act 
signed late last year reformed the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation 
and secured 8\1/2\ million pensions that were at risk in this country, 
stabilizing 40 million others. It was a remarkable bipartisan 
achievement.
    So every American should be proud that we have completely altered 
the way our people live their lives as they grow older, providing new 
hope for an entire lifetime of purpose and dignity. But we must remember 
that with this kind of opportunity in a democracy goes continued 
responsibility. Our job today is to preserve this progress not only for 
you during your lifetimes but for all generations of Americans to come.
    You are here to look ahead to the next 10 years and beyond, and not 
just to the past or to your personal concerns. We know that with regard 
to seniors, our country has been moving in the right direction. But the 
truth is, we know that too many younger Americans are not. We have to 
think about this: How are we going to pass along the next century with 
the American dream alive and well for our children and grandchildren?
    From the year I was born, right after the war, well into the 
seventies, almost to the end of the decade, people at all levels of our 
country grew economically, and they grew together. Prosperity was 
unprecedented. Without regard to income groups, people's incomes rose. 

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