Home > 1997 Presidential Documents > pd17mr97 Statement on Senate Confirmation of Federico Pena as Secretary of Energy...pd17mr97 Statement on Senate Confirmation of Federico Pena as Secretary of Energy...
<DOC> [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 for $80.00 per year ($137.00 for mailing first class) and to foreign subscribers for $93.75 per year, payable to the Superintendent of 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]] <DOC> [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. <DOC> [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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