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


[Page i-iii]
 
Monday, May 11, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 19
Pages 755-836
 
Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents







[[Page ii]]


Addresses and Remarks

    See also Meetings With Foreign Leaders
    Arab American Institute conference--819
    California
        California Labor Initiative breakfast in Los Angeles--777
        Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dinner in Beverly 
            Hills--774
        Democratic National Committee dinner in Portola Valley--765
        Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing in San 
            Fernando--779
        Representative Loretta Sanchez, reception in Westwood--771
        Therma, Inc., roundtable discussion with employees in San Jose--
            755
    Delaware
        Delaware State Legislature in Dover--823
        Dover Air Force Base--832
    Illinois, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dinner in 
        Chicago--790
    Mayors Conference on Public Schools--812
    Radio address--770
    Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, dedication--
        793

Bill Signings

    1998 Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions Act, statement--764

Communications to Congress

    ``Class-Size Reduction and Teacher Quality Act of 1998,'' message 
        transmitting proposed legislation--831
    Pemigewasset River, message transmitting report--795
    Small business, message transmitting report--796
    Sudan, message reporting--799
    Ukraine-U.S. agreement for cooperation on the peaceful uses of 
        nuclear energy and documentation, message transmitting--810

Interviews With the News Media

    Interview with Al Hunt for CNBC and the Wall Street Journal--784
    News conference with Prime Minister Prodi of Italy, May 6 (No. 
        158)--801

Joint Statements

    The United States and the Republic of Italy: A New Partnership for a 
        New Century--808

Letters and Messages

    Cinco de Mayo, message--800

Meetings With Foreign Leaders

    Italy, Prime Minister Prodi--801, 808, 811
  
  
(Continued on the inside of the back cover.)
  
  

Editor's Note: The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is also 
available on the Internet on the GPO Access service at http://
www.gpo.gov/nara/nara003.html.



              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
other Presidential materials released by the White House during the 
preceding week.

The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents is published pursuant to
the authority contained in the Federal Register Act (49 Stat. 500, as 
amended; 44 U.S.C. Ch. 15), under regulations prescribed by the 
Administrative Committee of the Federal Register, approved by the 
President (37 FR 23607; 1 CFR Part 10).

Distribution is made only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government
Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The Weekly Compilation of 
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for a single copy is $3.00 ($3.75 for foreign mailing).

There are no restrictions on the republication of material appearing in 
the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.





[[Page iii]]

Contents--Continued

Proclamations

    Mother's Day--818
    Older Americans Month--782
    See also Bill Signings
    Annie E. Casey Foundation report on child care--795
    Drug offenders, coerced abstinence--810
    European Economic and Monetary Union--771
    Methamphetamines, funding to fight--810
    Minnesota tobacco settlement and tobacco legislation--835
    Northern Ireland, new initiatives in support of peace--817

Statements by the President--Continued

    Senate action on legislation

        Internal Revenue Service reform--818

        Job training reform--795
    Tobacco legislation, proposed--810

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--836

    Checklist of White House press releases--836

    Digest of other White House announcements--835

    Nominations submitted to the Senate--836

[[Page 755]]




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


[Page 755-764]
 
Monday, May 11, 1998
 
Volume 34--Number 19
Pages 755-836
 
Week Ending Friday, May 8, 1998
 
Remarks at a Roundtable Discussion With Employees of Therma, Inc., in 
San Jose, California


May 1, 1998

    The President. Thank you very much. I want to thank Joe and Nicki 
for welcoming me here. I want to thank Dan Kirby for the tour through 
the operations. He did a great job. Thanks to Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren 
and Mayor Susan Hammer, my good friends, for joining me here today. I 
thank the labor leaders that are here--Amy Dean, Ray Lancaster, Mark Van 
Den Heuvel, Steve Preminger. But most of all, I thank all of you for 
giving me a chance to leave Washington and come out and visit the real 
world. It's great. Thank you very much.
    Before I say a little more about why I came here today, I'd like to 
make a brief comment on something very important to your future that did 
happen in Washington, DC, late last night. Last night an overwhelming 
bipartisan majority of 80 Members of the United States Senate voted for 
a treaty that will permit us to bring Poland, Hungary, and the Czech 
Republic into the NATO military alliance.
    Now, why does this matter to you out here on this factory floor? I 
think it's very important to you and to every American. We fought two 
World Wars and lost a lot of Americans and waged a long cold war in a 
deeply divided Europe. The Berlin Wall fell, communism dissipated, 
giving us the chance for the first time in history, ever, to deal with a 
Europe that is free, democratic, and undivided. That's important. If we 
can do that, that means you will know that you'll have stable partners 
for trading purposes. You can sell them things; you can buy things from 
them; you can be a part of growing.
    Even more important, it means you know that your children will 
likely never have to go there to fight and die in a war. And 
furthermore, you know that we'll be able to work together on the 
problems that do exist in the world to contain them.
    Now, just in the last few years since I've been President, we have 
used NATO for those purposes. We've brought in two dozen other countries 
in a Partnership For Peace, and they work with us all over the world, 
training, working with our militaries together. We made a special 
agreement with Russia and with Ukraine. And together, we went into 
Bosnia and stopped the bloodiest war in Europe since the end of World 
War II, with no conflicts, no shooting, no deaths.
    So that's why this is important. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech 
Republic--three more partners that will make our alliance stronger. If 
we have to do something in the future, that's three more countries that 
will be contributing people, sharing our burden, and building a future 
of strong partnership based on trade and commerce and travel and 
visitation, not on conflict. It's a big deal.
    And I would like to thank the Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott; 
the Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle; Senator Jesse Helms; Senator 
Joe Biden--all of them. This was an unusual coalition of people--
[laughter]--who worked together to do something that a lot of people 
didn't think we could do. And it's going to make a better world for our 
children. Ten years from now it will look like an even bigger vote than 
it does this morning. So I thank them.
    I'd also like, before I begin, to offer my condolences to the family 
of the police officer, David Chetcuti, who was killed in the line of 
duty last Saturday, and express my gratitude for the bravery he showed 
when he lost his life. And in that connection, I'd like to thank the 
police officers from the motorcycle crew from Santa Clara County, 
because they had to accompany me on this visit, and they're missing his 
memorial service that is going on this morning. So I thank them for 
doing that.

[[Page 756]]

    Now, let me tell you why I came here. Because, to me, you guys 
represent the future. You're good at what you do; you're changing all 
the time; you're committed to getting better; you're operating in a 
global economy; you have a good management-labor partnership; you have 
apprenticeships for new workers; you have training for veteran workers 
to make sure they learn new skills and master new technologies. You're 
proving that Silicon Valley's economic revolution does not just include 
computer programmers; it can include all the workers of America if we're 
all well-trained, highly competitive, and the best in the world at what 
we do.
    You're evidence of that. I thank you for it. I wanted America to see 
it. And mostly, I wanted to talk to you and your representatives behind 
me about how we can do this all over America, in every part of America, 
and set the processes in motion that will keep it going year in and year 
out.
    You are a very important part of this wonderful economic renaissance 
going on in America now. Yesterday we saw that the economic strategy 
that we put in place over 5 years ago in Washington did, in fact, work 
to unleash the competitive capacities of America. We said we were going 
to reduce the deficit and balance the budget. We were going to invest in 
our people, in education, in technology, in scientific research, in 
environmental investment. And we were going to trade more with the rest 
of the world. We were going to open more avenues to trade our goods and 
services.
    Yesterday we saw more evidence that it's working. The economy grew 
in the last quarter at over 4 percent. Unemployment was the lowest in 28 
years; inflation the lowest in 30 years; consumer confidence the highest 
in a generation. For 5 years in a row now, our country has been rated 
the most competitive economy in the world. You did that, you and people 
like you all over America, and you should be very, very proud of 
yourselves.
    Another reason I wanted to come here was because this company proves 
that even in Silicon Valley opportunity to participate in that new 
economy embraces more than those who work directly with computers or in 
laboratories or in offices; and also shows, as this gentleman 
demonstrated, that computer technology has revolutionized every aspect 
of American labor, and therefore, that we all must become more familiar 
with it.
    I couldn't believe it--I told the folks that were going around with 
me that at one point during my long service as Governor of my State, I 
would go out about once a month and spend a shift working in different 
kinds of factories. And I was around a lot of sheet metal workers. I've 
seen a lot of welding in my life, and it was a long time ago now, a few 
years--that's light years as fast as things are changing--but the 
machines I saw today and the level of the work I saw, it's just so 
breathtakingly different than just 10 years ago, it's almost 
unimaginable. You, of course, understand that better than I do. But for 
somebody like me who hasn't seen this work in a few years--I don't have 
as much time as I used to, to do these sort of things--[laughter]--it 
was quite shocking in a very positive way.
    And again, I say I think it's important that all of America see that 
these kinds of things are going on, and that all American workers in all 

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