pd09my94 Remarks and an Exchange With Reporters on Departure From the CNN...

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in this country, if you look at the people with disabilities who are 
surviving and having lives that are meaningful, if you look at the 
fastest growing group of Americans being people over 65, and within that 
group the fastest growing being people over 80, this is something we 
have to face as a people. We will either do it now in a rational way, or 
we will be dragged kicking and screaming into it piecemeal, Band-Aid-
like, over the next 10 years. But, make no mistake about it, we cannot 
run away from this, because we cannot afford either to have everybody in 
the world forced into a nursing home or living in abject neglect. We 
can't do one of the two things.
    So I say to you, all of you know that there is no perfect solution, 
no easy solution. All of you know that our bill, in order to pay for it, 
phases some of these services in. But it recognizes the reality of who 
we are as a people and what we need. We need the work of every American 
who can work. We need the respect, the dignity of every American. And we 
need to provide the opportunity for every American to live up to his or 
her capacity in the least restrictive environment that that person might 
choose. We need to secure for the American economy the services of every 
person who wishes to be and is capable of being a successful worker. We 
need to stop seeing Government health care expenditures go up 2 and 3 
times the rate of inflation every year to pay more for the same health 
care. We need to stop spending more money on paperwork and 
administrative costs, because of the health care financing system in 
this country, than any other country in the world.
    We can do all of that and keep the doctors, the nurses, the health 
care system we have. That's why there are so many thousands and 
thousands, indeed millions now, of nurses, health care providers, and 
physicians who have supported our cause.
    And so I ask you, the real problem with this, I am convinced, is 
that there is no way, to use the political vernacular, to ``kiss'' it, 
to ``keep it simple, stupid.'' That's what people always tell me, you 
know. [Laughter] The real problem here is that we bear the burden of 
every move, those of us who want change, because we live in a system 
that is complicated. So it is not simple to fix it.
    So I plead with you, a lot of you will contact Members of Congress 
who voted for the Americans With Disabilities Act who are not yet 
prepared to vote to make sure every American has health insurance and 
who do not understand yet that you cannot eliminate preexisting 
conditions and you cannot eliminate other discriminatory practices and 
you cannot afford to begin to provide long-term care that is community-
based and home-based unless you set up a system where everybody has 
health care insurance, where small businesses can buy on the same terms 
big business and Government can and where insurers insure in big enough 
pools so that nobody goes broke when they do insure a family where a 
member has a disability and where small businesses get a discount. Those 
are the things we try to do with the power of Government.
    It is a legitimate thing to do, but when you strip it all away, what 
we're really trying to do is to empower the families of this country to 
live in dignity, to work in dignity, and to fulfill themselves. And in a 
strange way, this is a battle that the disability community, known so 
well to the Members of Congress, being so successful in the passage of 
the Americans With Disabilities Act, this is a battle that you may be 
able to lead for the rest of America that they do not understand.
    So I ask you to do that, be an agent of change, an agent of 
empowerment, never forget that you are carrying on your shoulders now 
not only your own cause but ours as well. We cannot, in the end, fully 
unleash the forces of all human Americans until we do this. And we 
cannot do this with all the resistance and all the organized opposition, 
with the sheer intellectual difficulty of the tasks, unless people like 
you can break through. You can break through to those Members of 
Congress. You can do it. You can do it. And we need you, all the rest of 
America, we need you to do it.
    Good luck, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 9:55 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Stephanie Thomas, co-operator of 
the Austin, TX, chapter, American Disabled for

[[Page 957]]

Attendant Programs Today; Denise Figueroa, president, National Council 
on Independent Living; Tony Coelho, Chair, and Justin Dart, former 
Chair, President's Committee on the Employment of People With 
Disabilities; and Kate Miles, mother of a disabled son and advocate for 
long-term care and health care reform.


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[Page 957-958]
 
Monday, May 9, 1994
 
Volume 30--Number 18
Pages 941-1005
 
Week Ending Friday, May 6, 1994
 
Remarks on Legislation To Ban Assault Weapons

May 2, 1994

    Thank you very much, Chief. He's come a long way from Wisconsin to 
bring a little Middle Western common sense to the Nation's Capital.
    When the House of Representatives votes this week on Thursday, they 
shouldn't forget the tragedy that the Chief just talked about. Think 
about it, a 30-year veteran of the police department killed by an M1-A1 
assault rifle after a bank robbery, two other police officers and a 
hostage also wounded. These things can be prevented.
    I also want to thank John Magaw for what he's said. He's done a fine 
job as Director of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division. And 
before that he was the Director of the Secret Service. I think you could 
tell his heartfelt concern there. He has two sons and a son-in-law, all 
in law enforcement. They deserve a chance to do their job with less 
danger, not more.
    I thank Secretary Bentsen for his sterling leadership. We joked a 
lot of times about whether there will be somebody blocking his entrance 
to his ranch when he goes quail hunting this fall--[laughter]--but I 
don't really think so.
    One of the things that I've learned since I've been here, even more 
than when I was a Governor, is that very often a lot of these organized 
interest groups don't always represent the members, their unorganized 
members, and what they really feel in their heart of hearts.
    I want to thank the leaders of the law enforcement organizations 
that are here today: Bob Scully, the Director of the National 
Association of Police Organizations; Sylvester Daughtry, the President 
of the International Association of Chiefs of Police; John Pitta, the 
Vice President of the Federal Law Enforcement Association; Mark 
Spurrier, the Director of the Major City Chiefs; and Chuck Wexler, who's 
with the Police Executives Research Forum.
    I want you all to think about what all you've heard. There are a lot 
of people in this audience today who have experienced a loss of life in 
their own family. And I realize that here today, in a fundamental way, 
we're sort of preaching to the saved. But what we hope to do here is to 
energize you to talk to those last few Members of the House. We need to 
put this bill over the top, to tell them this is not about gun control; 
it's about crime control.
    You know, I would never do anything to infringe on the rights of 
sportsmen and women in this country. I have--I guess I was 12 years old 
the first time I fired a .22 or a .410. But I think to hide behind the 
rights of sports people to justify the kind of unconscionable behavior 
that takes place every single day on the streets of this country is an 
unforgivable abuse of our common right to be hunters. It is an abuse of 
that.
    All over the world today, all you have to do is pick up the 
newspaper, any given day, and you see how we are worried about the 
disintegration of civic life in other countries. We read about the 
horror of Bosnia, and we say, my God, why can't the Muslims and the 
Serbs and the Croats just get along? We read about bodies being thrown 
into the river in Rwanda and say, Good Lord, why are those people doing 
that to each other? We read now about the rise of organized crime in 
Russia, and it breaks our heart. They finally get rid of communism and 
they try to go to a more entrepreneurial society, and a new group of 
dark organizations springs up and commits murder. We worry about what's 
happening in our neighboring country south of our border, especially to 
our friends in Mexico, when we hear about what's being done there by 
people running drugs.
    And we worry, we worry, we worry, and we don't look around and see 
we have more people behind bars already in this country, a higher 
percentage of our population, than any country in the world, already. 
And when we come up with a bill like this, they say you ought to put 
more people in jail and keep them there longer. Well, some people ought

[[Page 958]]

to go to jail longer, and our crime bill does that.
    But our disintegration, my fellow Americans, is in the streets of 
our cities where, as John Magaw says, we have suffered a breakdown of 
family and work and community, and where that vacuum has been filled by 
guns like this and people who use them in a very well organized way.
    Will this solve all of the problems in America? No. Like John said, 
this is a puzzle. We're trying to fill in the puzzle with the crime 
bill. And in the end, the puzzle has to be filled by people like this 
fine chief out there on the streets of our cities, and whether the 
people who live in his community will work with it to take their streets 
back. But I'm telling you: This is an amazing--it's amazing to me that 
we even have to have this debate. I mean, how long are we going to let 
this go on?
    San Francisco last summer, a gunman carrying two TEK-9's killed 
eight people and wounded six others. Last week, when we had an event for 
this bill, I'm sure a lot of you saw the husband of one of the women who 
was killed in that tragedy, Steve Sposato, who now is raising his 
beautiful daughter by himself.
    Yes, that guy was crazy, and maybe he'd have gone in there with that 
old six-shooter and killed somebody, but Steve Sposato would like to 
have his wife's chances back.
    Five years ago, a gunman using an AK-47 killed five elementary 
school kids. This happens every day. We lost two people and had three 
more wounded outside the CIA headquarters last year. Remember that, with 
a gunman with an AK-47.
    So I say to you, I'm sorry to be so frustrated, but sometimes it 
seems that the President's job ought to be dealing with things that are 
not obvious. I mean, at least health care is a complex subject. It's 
obvious we need to do something about it, but it's complicated. I 
concede that; I welcome these debates.
    How can we walk away from this? Especially when this bill protects 
over 650 specific hunting weapons? I mean, I don't understand why the 
organizations aren't saying, ``Well, hallelujah, this is the first 
Federal explicit protection we ever had for the means of hunting.''
    And I really--I was proud of what Mr. Magaw said, talking about the 
only color--I mean, I have heard people with a straight face saying, 
``Well, there are some adults that like to go target practice with these 
things.'' Well, they need to read a good book--[laughter]--or take up 
bowling or just follow--or, you know, you can hunt nearly 12 months out 
of the year if you hunt everything. [Laughter] This is--it is 
imperative. We just have a few days left.
    And I urge you to spend less time with each other and more time 
putting the hammer of your feelings into the deliberations in the House 
of Representatives. And something else: No good Member of the House or 
Senate, no Republican or Democrat, no rural legislator should ever fear 
losing their seat for voting for this bill. And something else you ought 
to do is tell every office you call: ``If you do this, I will fight for 
you for voting for this; I will--there may be differences over other 
issues, but I will do everything I can to see that nothing diminishes 
your standing because of this.''
    This is not a complicated issue. And we will have more issues like 
this. Every great society is going to face, for the foreseeable future, 
these incredible tensions between our freedom and our abuse of our 
freedom, between the need for liberty and the need for order, between 
our desire to have an entrepreneurial, free-flowing society and the 
absolute need for some discipline that enables us to live as human 
beings civilly together and give our children a chance to grow up.
    And some of the decisions we'll have to make will be more difficult 
than this. But this is a lay-down no-brainer--[laughter]--and the 
Congress must not walk away from it. Please help us to pass it.
    Thank you.

Note: The President spoke at 12:37 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive 
Office Building. In his remarks, he referred to Chief David Steingraber, 
head of the Wisconsin Police Chiefs Association.

[[Page 959]]


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[Page 959]
 
Monday, May 9, 1994
 
Volume 30--Number 18
Pages 941-1005
 
Week Ending Friday, May 6, 1994
 
Executive Order 12913--Revocation of Executive Order No. 12582

May 2, 1994

    By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States of America, including section 1440 of title 8, 
United States Code, and in consideration of Matter of Reyes, 910 F.2d 
611 (9th Cir. 1990), I hereby order as follows:
    Section 1. Executive Order No. 12582 is revoked and shall be treated 
as void, effective February 2, 1987.
    Sec. 2. Revocation of Executive Order No. 12582 is not intended to 
affect the status of anyone who was naturalized pursuant to the terms of 
that order prior to the date of publication of this order in the Federal 
Register.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
May 2, 1994.

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:40 a.m., May 3, 1994]

Note: This Executive order was published in the Federal Register on May 
4.


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[Page 959]
 
Monday, May 9, 1994
 
Volume 30--Number 18
Pages 941-1005
 
Week Ending Friday, May 6, 1994
 
Message to the Congress Reporting a Budget Deferral

May 2, 1994

To the Congress of the United States:

    In accordance with the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control 
Act of 1974, I herewith report one revised deferral of budget authority, 
totaling $7.3 million.
    The deferral affects the Department of Health and Human Services. 
The details of the revised deferral is contained in the attached report.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
May 2, 1994.


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