pd16jn97 Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval...

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<DOC>
[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page i-ii]
 
Monday, June 16, 1997
 
Volume 33--Number 24
Pages 843-870
 
Contents

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



[[Page ii]]



Addresses and Remarks

    Business Roundtable--861
    ``Cloning Prohibition Act of 1997,'' announcement of proposed 
        legislation--844
    Democratic National Committee dinner--857
    Juvenile Justice Conference--852
    National education standards--848
    Radio address--843

Bill Signings

    Emergency supplemental appropriations legislation, statement--860

Bill Vetoes

    Emergency supplemental appropriations legislation, message to the 
        House--846

Communications to Congress

    See also Bill Vetoes
    ``Cloning Prohibition Act of 1997,'' message transmitting proposed 
        legislation--845

Communications to Federal Agencies

    Burma, memorandum--867
    Youth Handgun Safety Act enforcement--856

Executive Orders

    Improving Administrative Management in the Executive Branch--851
    Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons--857

Proclamations

    Father's Day--860

Statements by the President

    See also Bill Signings
    Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Ralston's 
        withdrawal--846
    Emergency supplemental appropriations legislation, passage--859
    Federal Election Commission decision on the soft money system in 
        domestic politics--859
    Mortgage insurance premium reduction initiative--858
    North Atlantic Treaty Organization, enlargement--859

Supplementary Materials

    Act approved by the President--870
    Checklist of White House press releases--869
    Digest of other White House announcements--868
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--869


              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
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Distribution is made only by the Superintendent of Documents, Government
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There are no restrictions on the republication of material appearing in
the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.


[[Page 843]]




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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
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[Page 843-844]
 
Monday, June 16, 1997
 
Volume 33--Number 24
Pages 843-870
 
Week Ending Friday, June 13, 1997
 
The President's Radio Address


June 7, 1997

    Good morning. This morning I want to talk about one of America's 
greatest challenges and greatest opportunities: Conquering the forces of 
hatred and division that still exist in our society so that we can move 
forward into the 21st century as one America.
    We are clearly the world's most diverse democracy, bound together 
across all of our differences by a belief in the basic dignity of every 
human being's life and liberty and the right of every American who lives 
by our laws and lives up to his or her responsibilities to share in the 
full promise of the greatest nation on Earth.
    Especially as we move into a new century, with its global economy 
and its global society, our rich diversity is a powerful strength, if we 
respect it. We are clearly stronger as a nation when we use the full 
talents of all of our people, regardless of race or religious faith, 
national origin or sexual orientation, gender or disability. Much of 
America's story is really the stories of wave after wave of citizens 
struggling over our full history for full equality of opportunity and 
dignified treatment.
    We stand today in sharp contrast to the racial, ethnic, tribal, and 
religious conflicts which continue to claim so many lives all around the 
world. But we have still not purged ourselves of all bigotry and 
intolerance. We still have our ugly words and awful violence, our burned 
churches and bombed buildings.
    In a predominantly white suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, last month, an 
African-American couple was greeted with racial epithets as they moved 
into their new home. Just a week later, their home was sprayed with 
gunfire in the middle of the night. In a recent incident right here in 
Washington, DC, three men accosted a gay man in a park, forced him at 
gunpoint to go under a bridge, and beat him viciously while using 
antigay epithets. Last fall in Los Angeles, a Jewish student's dormitory 
room was bombed with a quarter stick of

dynamite, and a swastika was drawn near the door.

    Such hate crimes, committed solely because the victims have a 
different skin color or a different faith or are gays or lesbians, leave 
deep scars not only on the victims but on our larger community. They 
weaken the sense that we are one people with common values and a common 
future. They tear us apart when we should be moving closer together. 
They are acts of violence against America itself. And even a small 
number of Americans who harbor and act upon hatred and intolerance can 
do enormous damage to our efforts to bind together our increasingly 
diverse society into one nation realizing its full promise.
    As part of our preparation for the new century, it is time for us to 
mount an all-out assault on hate crimes, to punish them swiftly and 
severely, and to do more to prevent them from happening in the first 
place. We must begin with a deeper understanding of the problem itself. 
That is why I'm convening a special White House conference on hate 
crimes this November 10th. We'll bring to the White House victims of 
hate crimes and their families to understand why the impact of these 
acts runs so much deeper than the crimes themselves. We'll bring 
together law enforcement experts and leading officials from Congress and 
the Justice Department to take a serious look at the existing laws 
against hate crime and consider ways to improve enforcement and to 
strengthen them. We'll bring together community and religious leaders to 
talk about solutions that are already making a real difference in 
communities all across our Nation.
    In preparation for the conference, Attorney General Reno has begun a 
thorough review of the laws concerning hate crimes and the ways in which 
the Federal Government

[[Page 844]]

can make a difference to help us to build a more vigorous plan of 
action. But of course, the fight against hatred and intolerance must be 
waged not just through our laws but in our hearts as well.
    A newborn child today does not know how to hate or stereotype 
another human being; that behavior must be learned. And intolerance does 
not generally begin with criminal acts. Instead, it begins with quiet 
acts of indignity: the bigoted remark, the African-American who is 
followed around the grocery store by a suspicious clerk, the gay or 
lesbian who is denied a job, the Hispanic or Asian who is targeted 
because of unfair stereotypes. To truly move forward as one community, 
it is just not enough to prevent acts of violence to our bodies, we must 
prevent acts of violence to our spirits.
    By convening the very first White House conference on hate crimes 
this November, America can confront the dark forces of division that 
still exists. We can shine the bright light of justice, humanity, and 
harmony on them. We'll take a serious look at the laws and remedies that 
can make a difference in preventing hate crimes. We'll have the frank 
and open dialog we need to build one America across all difference and 
diversity. And together, we will move closer to the day when acts of 
hatred are no longer a stain on our community or our conscience, closer 
to the day when we can redeem for ourselves and show to the world the 
220-year-old promise of our Founders, that we are ``One Nation under 
God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.''
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 11:47 a.m. on June 5 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on June 7.


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[Page 844-845]
 
Monday, June 16, 1997
 
Volume 33--Number 24
Pages 843-870
 
Week Ending Friday, June 13, 1997
 
Remarks Announcing the Proposed ``Cloning Prohibition Act of 1997''

June 9, 1997

    Thank you very much, Dr. Shapiro, for that fine set of remarks and 
for your report. I thank all the members of the President's Committee of 
Advisers. I'd also like to thank Secretary Shalala and Dr. Varmus for 
being here today, along with the President's Adviser on Science and 
Technology, Dr. Jack Gibbons. And I thank Congressman Brown and 
Congresswoman Morella for being here and for their interest in this 
important issue. But mostly let me say again, I am profoundly grateful 
to the National Bioethics Advisory Commission and to Dr. Harold Shapiro 
for preparing this report on a difficult topic in a short period of 
time, requiring an extensive inquiry. Your commitment and your courage 
in breaking new ground in policy is deeply appreciated.
    As the Vice President has said and all of us know, we live in an era 
of breathtaking scientific discovery. More and more, our future in the 
world depends upon advances in science and technology. And more and 
more, the scientific community will influence the course of the future 
and the lives that our children will lead in the new century that is 
upon us.
    As I said in my commencement address at Morgan State University last 
month, our scientific explorations must be guided by our commitment to 
human values, to the good of society, to our basic sense of right and 
wrong. Nothing makes the necessity of that moral obligation more clear 
than the troubling possibility that these new animal-cloning techniques 
could be used to create a child. That is why I acted in March to ban the 
use of Federal funds for cloning human beings and to urge the private 
sector to observe the ban voluntarily while we initiated a national 
dialog on the risks and the responsibilities of such a possibility, and 
why I asked this Commission to issue this report.
    For 3 months, the Commission has rigorously explored the scientific, 
moral, and spiritual dimensions of human cloning. It has talked to 
leading scientists and religious leaders, to philosophers and families, 
to patient advocates and to the general public. From many opinions and 
beliefs, as Dr. Shapiro said, one unanimous conclusion has emerged: 
Attempting to clone a human being is unacceptably dangerous to the child 
and morally unacceptable to our society.
    I believe strongly that this conclusion reflects a national 
consensus, and I believe personally that it is the right thing to do. 
Today I am sending legislation to the Congress that prohibits anyone in 
either public or private

[[Page 845]]

sectors from using these techniques to create a child. Until the day I 
sign the legislation into law, the ban on Federal funding I declared in 
March will remain in effect. And once again, I call upon the private 
sector to refrain voluntarily from using this technology to attempt to 
clone a human being.
    I want to make clear that there is nothing inherently immoral or 
wrong with these new techniques--used for proper purposes. In fact, they 
hold the promise of revolutionary new medical treatments and life-saving 
cures to diseases like cystic fibrosis, diabetes, and cancer, to better 
crops and stronger livestock. This legislation, therefore, will not 
prohibit the use of these techniques to clone DNA in cells, and it will 
not ban the cloning of animals. What the legislation will do is to 

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