Home > 1999 Presidential Documents > pd24my99 Statement on Withdrawal of the Nomination of Brian Atwood To Be...pd24my99 Statement on Withdrawal of the Nomination of Brian Atwood To Be...
<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 Other Popular 1999 Presidential Documents Documents:
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