pd24my99 Statement on Withdrawal of the Nomination of Brian Atwood To Be...

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

[Page i]
 
Monday, May 24, 1999
 
Volume 35--Number 20

[[Page i]]

Weekly Compilation of

Presidential

Documents



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

[Page i-iii]
 
Pages 895-960
 
Contents

[[Page ii]]

  

  


Addresses and Remarks

    See also Meetings With Foreign Leaders
    Armed Forces Day, radio remarks--908
    California
        Democratic Congressional and Senatorial Campaign Committees 
            dinner in Beverly Hills--909
        Democratic National Committee dinner in Portola Valley--901
        Democratic National Committee luncheon in San Diego--915
    Colorado
        Columbine High School community in Littleton--952
        Departure for Littleton--951
    Elementary and Secondary Education Act, reauthorization--935
    Nevada
        Democratic National Committee dinner in Las Vegas--925
        Democratic National Committee reception in Las Vegas--922
    New York City
        Democratic National Committee luncheon--938
        Departure for--935
        Pennsylvania Station Redevelopment Corporation, launching--936
    1999 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, radio remarks on 
        disaster relief provisions--956

Addresses and Remarks--Continued

    Radio address--907
    Washington, Democratic National Committee luncheon in Seattle--895

Bill Signings

    Peace Corps, statement on legislation authorizing appropriations--
        957

Communications to Congress

    Burma, continuation of the national emergency, message transmitting 
        notice --935
    Iraq, compliance with United Nations Security Council resolution, 
        letter reporting--945

Communications to Federal Agencies

    Korean Energy Development Organization, memorandum--934
    Kosovar refugees, memorandum on assistance--933
    Space launch vehicles, memorandum on assessment--945

Interviews With the News Media

    Exchange with reporters in the Oval Office--931

Meetings With Foreign Leaders

    Jordan, King Abdullah II--931
  
(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 
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 iii]]

Contents--Continued

Notices

    Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Burma--934

Proclamations

    National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation 
        Week--930
    National Safe Boating Week--957
    World Trade Week--929

Statements by the President

    See also Bill Signings
    Armed Forces Day--909
    Brazil, withdrawal of the nomination of Brian Atwood to be 
        Ambassador--932
    Budget surplus--958
    Heritage High School, shooting in Conyers, GA--955

Statements by the President--Continued

    House Commerce Committee action on the proposed ``Work Incentives 
        Improvement Act''--945
    Israel, election of Ehud Barak as Prime Minister--929
    National crime statistics--921
    Senate action
        Approving the 1999 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act--
            955
        Legislation requiring child safety locks for guns--933
    Sierra Leone, cease-fire agreement--933

Supplementary Materials

    Acts approved by the President--960
    Checklist of White House press releases--960
    Digest of other White House announcements--958
    Nominations submitted to the Senate--959

[[Page 895]]




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

[Page 895-901]
 
Pages 895-960
 
Week Ending Friday, May 21, 1999
 
Remarks at a Democratic National Committee Luncheon in Seattle,
Washington


May 14, 1999

    Thank you. I couldn't help but thinking when Jack was up here 
talking and saying all those wonderful things, that Joe Andrew had just 
said that we would win every election in 2000, from dog catcher to 
President. And my immediate reaction was, that's not such a great 
distance. [Laughter] That's because I spend too much time in 
Washington--[laughter]--now, when I'm in Seattle, it feels great.
    Let me first of all say how grateful I am that the Governor and the 
mayor are here. Thank you both for coming. Our State party chair; your 
former mayor and my good friend, Norm Rice, and his fine wife. I thank 
our officers for coming out here to Washington. And Jack, to you and 
Ron, my long-time friend, and Ted and Ben and the others who are here 
who have helped so much--Mr. Marshall and others, I thank you all.
    I was thinking when I got on the airplane today--you know, when a 
politician tells you a true story, your immediate reaction is, it 
couldn't be true--[laughter]--but this is a true story. The first time I 
ever came to Washington, when I was running for President in 1992, I 
came rather late. I'd been out there running for quite some time, and I 
was nervous as a cat. And I knew that Senator Tsongas had been here a 
lot and had built a lot of support. And I really wanted to make a good 
impression and there was this event planned and we had a very nice 
crowd.
    And I came into the airport in my modest little plane, and, 
coincidentally, the Seattle police force, under Mayor Rice, who has been 
trying to pay me back ever since--[laughter]--they were practicing how 
to provide security and rapid transportation to dignitaries. So here I 
arrived, you know, as President Bush used to say, a Governor of a small 
Southern State--[laughter]--in an airplane not quite as grand as the 
Boeing I fly in today. [Laughter] And I look up--I swear, there were 
more than 50 motorcycle police officers there. [Laughter]
    And we go, and you know, I know how MacArthur felt with his ticker 
tape parade in New York City now at the end of the war. And we're going 
in, you know, and I've got this little two-car motorcade--[laughter]--
and 50 motorcycles. I mean, I couldn't breathe. I thought, my God, there 
won't be a person in this town that votes for me. [Laughter] And sure 
enough, I lost the primary in Washington State. [Laughter] And I've 
often thought it was because of those--it was quite a grand thing, you 
know. I don't have 50 motorcycles today when I go anywhere. [Laughter]
    But the Seattle police were well-trained and they've always been 
very polite to me, and I never will forget it, though. Every time I land 
on the tarmac, I get a little nervous. [Laughter]
    Let me seriously say the people of Washington State have been very 
good to Hillary and me and the Vice President, to our administration, in 
two elections, in 1992 and 1996. We suffered a terrible setback here in 
the congressional elections in 1994, and then made up a great deal of 
ground in 1996 and 1998. And I think we will more than make up the rest 
of the ground in the year 2000, thanks to people like you.
    I would like to just--you know, I just made myself a few notes here 
on the way in. Sometimes I don't even do that. But I've got some 
things--I don't get to come here as much as I'd like, and I would like 
to say a few things.
    When I made the long trip out here the first time in 1992, I did so 
with some mixed feelings, because I had a job I loved in a place I loved 
and my family was doing well and things were going great for us. But I 
was

[[Page 896]]

very concerned that our country was drifting and divided, that we had 
all kinds of problems and that no one seemed to be offering a clear 
vision about what kind of country we were going to be in the 21st 
century and how we proposed to get there.
    And I had in my own mind a very simple idea of the world I wanted 
our daughter to grow up to live in. I wanted 21st century America to be 
a place where there was opportunity for every responsible citizen, where 
we were joined together, across all the lines that divide us, into an 
American community united by our common humanity and where my country 
was still the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and 
prosperity.
    In short, I wanted to find a way to take advantage of the two great 
things that are happening in the world today: the explosion of 
technology and the increasing interdependence of people across national 
lines, both of which are perfectly embodied in this room, in this city, 
and in this State, in a way that would give everybody a chance to 
participate in it and give us a chance to let go of the problems that 
besiege us.
    And it seemed to me in order to do that we had to move beyond the 
old political debate in Washington. And so I went around the country 
saying, ``I believe if we're committed to opportunity and responsibility 
and community and to being a 21st century democracy, then we have to 
find a way to reward entrepreneurship and build the middle class and 
help the poor work themselves into it. I believe we have to find a way 
to grow the economy and protect the environment.
    ``I believe we have to find a way to help people succeed at work and 
at home, because everybody's most important work is still raising good 
children. I believe that we have to find a way to reform welfare that 
requires able-bodied people who can work, to work; but doesn't require 
them to sacrifice their responsibilities as parents because they can't 
afford child care or health care.
    ``I believe we have to find a way to reduce the crime rate, not 
simply by better enforcement but also by better prevention. I believe 
that we have to find a way not only to increase the quantity but the 
quality of education. I believe we can expand trade and lift the 
environmental and labor standards of the world instead of driving them 
lower. I believe that we can be a force for peace in the world and still 
be willing to use force if it is the only way to achieve legitimate, 
indeed, compelling objectives.''
    I believed all that. I also believed that we could do it with a 
Government that was markedly smaller, but more active, if we focused on 
what a 21st century mission would be. And for me, it is overwhelmingly 
the mission of establishing the conditions and then giving people the 
tools to solve their own problems, but not alone--working together.
    Now, all the work that those of us in our administration have done 
in the last 6 years has been a labor of love to try to take those basic 
ideas and make them real, working facts of life in America. And I am 
profoundly grateful for the results. I literally get up and try to live 
with the spirit of gratitude every day for the good things that many of 

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