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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
[frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page i-ii]
Monday, March 17, 1997
Volume 33--Number 11
Pages 319-371
Contents
[[Page i]]
Weekly Compilation of
Presidential
Documents
[[Page ii]]
Addresses and Remarks
See also Meetings With Foreign Leaders
Democratic National Committee dinner--340
District of Columbia economic plan--335
Florida
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee dinner in Aventura--362
Lighthouse Elementary School in Jupiter, telephone remarks--367
Saxophone Club in Miami--366
Free TV and political reform conference--330
Israeli schoolchildren, attack--350
``National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act,''
announcement of proposed legislation--343
North Carolina joint session of legislature in Raleigh--351
Radio address--319
Senator Byron Dorgan, reception--339
``Straight Talk on Drugs'', ABC radio town meeting--345
Communications to Congress
Peacekeeping operations, letter transmitting report--330
Communications to Federal Agencies
Defense Department schools participation in national testing,
memorandum--361
Government employment for welfare recipients, memorandum--320
Executive Orders
Advisory Committee on the Public Interest Obligations of Digital
Television Broadcasters--338
Executive Orders--Continued
Exclusion of the Naval Special Warfare Development Group From the
Federal Labor-Management Relations Program--343
Interviews With the Media
Exchanges with reporters
National Press Club--330
Oval Office--321
South Lawn--350
News conference with President Mubarak of Egypt, March 10 (No.
138)--322
Meetings With Foreign Leaders
Egypt, President Mubarak--321, 322
Statements by the President
Mexico, House action on narcotics certification--361
Senate confirmation of Federico Pena as Secretary of Energy--350
Senator Wendell H. Ford, decision not to seek reelection--330
White House Conference on Early Childhood Development and Learning,
announcement--360
Supplementary Materials
Acts approved by the President--371
Checklist of White House press releases--370
Digest of other White House announcements--369
Nominations submitted to the Senate--370
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
Presidential Documents will be furnished by mail to domestic subscribers
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Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. The charge
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 319]]
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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
[frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page 319-320]
Monday, March 17, 1997
Volume 33--Number 11
Pages 319-371
Week Ending Friday, March 14, 1997
The President's Radio Address
March 8, 1997
Good morning. This week we learned that America's economy continues
to grow steady and strong, creating almost 600,000 new jobs in the first
2 months of this year alone and about 12 million in the last 4 years. We
can make this time one of enormous promise for America, but only if we
make sure that all Americans who are willing to work have the chance to
reap the rewards of our prosperity.
This morning I want to talk to you about what we can do to lift the
permanent underclass into a thriving and growing middle class and to
announce new steps the National Government will take to move people from
welfare to work.
Four years ago, when I became President, I pledged to end welfare as
we know it. We worked with States to launch welfare reform experiments
to require work. We cracked down on child support enforcement,
increasing child support payments by 50 percent. We required teen
mothers to stay at school and live at home if they wanted to receive
welfare. Today I'm pleased to report that due to these efforts and our
growing economy, we've already moved 2.6 million people off the welfare
rolls, a record number.
Last summer, we took the most dramatic step of all when I signed the
bipartisan welfare reform legislation that imposed time limits, required
work, and extended child care and health care so that people can move
from welfare to work without hurting their children. The new law ended
the old welfare system when we said to those on welfare: Responsibility
is not an option; it must be a way of life.
Now, all the rest of us have our responsibility, indeed, our moral
obligation, to make welfare reform work, to make sure that those who now
must work, can work. We must move another 2 million more people off the
welfare rolls in the next 4 years. And frankly, we must recognize that
many of these people will be harder to reach and will need more help
than those who moved off the rolls in the past 4 years.
This cause must engage the energy and the commitment of everyone in
our society, of business, houses of worship, labor unions, universities,
civic organizations, as well as government at every level. Above all, we
must harness the private sector to bring jobs and hope to our hardest
pressed neighborhoods. We are working with leaders of American business
to help mobilize other businesses to hire people off welfare. My
balanced budget plan would give businesses tax incentives to hire people
and would give job placement firms a bonus for every person they place
from welfare into a job.
States can do more, too. I have called upon every State to use the
power that has now been given to them under the new welfare law, to turn
welfare checks into private sector paychecks. And the National
Government must do its part and set an example. Our National Government
is now the smallest it has been in three decades, but it is still the
Nation's largest employer. We must do our part. So today I am committing
a National Government action plan to hire people off welfare.
I am formally directing the heads of each agency and department of
our Federal Government to do everything they can to hire people off the
welfare rolls into available jobs in Government, consistent with the
laws already on the books for hiring Federal workers. Because this
effort is so important, I am asking Vice President Gore, who has led our
reinventing Government effort and done so much to make our Government
work better as it costs less, to oversee this endeavor.
I want these agencies to use the worker-trainee program, which the
Government already has in place, to train workers quickly and move them
into entry-level jobs. Then if the people do well for 3 years, they can
[[Page 320]]
join the civil service. And I am asking every member of my Cabinet to
prepare a detailed plan for hiring welfare recipients, what jobs they
will fill, how they will recruit welfare recipients, how they will make
sure these people have the chance to work hard, perform well and,
thereby, deserve to keep their jobs. The members of the Cabinet will
present these plans to me in one month at a special Cabinet meeting.
The job of moving people from welfare to work as the law requires
will not be easy. But we must help them as they help themselves. And we
need to help all low income Government workers. We need to make sure
they take advantage of the earned-income tax credit, the tax cut that
already has helped 15 million of our hardest pressed working families.
We should give these workers help with transportation to work, and we
must help them to find affordable child care.
Government can help to move people from welfare to work by acting
the way we want all employers to act, demanding high performance from
workers but going the extra mile to offer opportunity to those who have
been on welfare and want to do something more with their lives. If we
all do that, we can move into the 21st century strong, united, and with
the American dream alive for all our people.
Thanks for listening.
Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the
White House.
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[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents]
[frwais.access.gpo.gov]
[Page 320-321]
Monday, March 17, 1997
Volume 33--Number 11
Pages 319-371
Week Ending Friday, March 14, 1997
Memorandum on Government Employment for Welfare Recipients
March 8, 1997
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies
Subject: Government Employment for Welfare Recipients
Since I signed the historic welfare reform law, I have urged
businesses, nonprofit organizations, and religious groups across the
Nation to help make its promise of opportunity real by offering jobs to
welfare recipients. We are making great progress, but there is more to
do. And today, I take action to ensure that the Federal Government, as
the Nation's largest employer, contributes to the greatest extent
possible to this national effort.
I therefore direct each of you, as head of an agency or department,
to use all available hiring authorities, consistent with statute and
prior executive memoranda, to hire people off the welfare rolls into
available job positions in the Government.
In particular, I direct you to expand the use of the Worker-Trainee
Program and other excepted service hiring authorities. The Worker-
Trainee Program allows agencies to quickly and easily hire entry-level
persons for up to 3 years, with the ability to convert the appointment
to career status if the employee has performed satisfactorily. Though
recently underutilized, the program allows agencies to bypass complex
Federal personnel hiring rules and procedures to bring people into the
junior grades of the work force.
I further direct you, in recognition of the different
characteristics of the various agencies' work forces, to prepare an
individualized plan for hiring welfare recipients and to submit that
plan to me within 30 days. This plan should have three principal
components:
<bullet> The plan should contain a survey indicating in which
divisions and for which categories of positions your agency
can most easily hire welfare recipients, both in the
Washington, D.C. area, and in the field.
<bullet> The plan should describe in detail how the agency intends to
recruit and hire qualified welfare recipients. This
description should include a proposed local outreach
program, and utilize Federal Executive Boards and Federal
Executive Agencies to bring Federal job opportunities to the
attention of welfare offices, State and private employment
offices, nonprofit organizations, and others that work with
welfare recipients on a regular basis. This program should
build upon the Government's existing nationwide employment
information systems.
<bullet> The plan should describe in detail how the agency will
assist welfare recipients, once hired, to perform well and
to keep their jobs. The agency should include in this aspect
of the plan proposals for
[[Page 321]]
on-the-job training and/or mentoring programs.
I expect each agency head to report to me about his or her plan at a
special cabinet meeting called for that purpose. Following this meeting,
Other Popular 1997 Presidential Documents Documents:
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