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None of that should prevent us from dis- because it had the U.N. behind it. But here’s agreeing with them. Keep in mind, we’re not a case where I think we’ve got far more to asking for anything special for China here. All gain with a constructive engagement with China. we’re saying is, if you look at all the other coun- It’s a very great country with enormous poten- tries in the world that we trade with, with whom tial, that has cooperated with us in many areas we have serious disagreements, there is no prin- to make the world a safer place in the last cipled, grounded distinction between China and few years. And we have now found a forum some of the other countries that we have normal and a way in which we can honorably express trading relationships with for saying we’re not our disagreements and believe we can make going to have them with China. some progress on. This is the last time to be And I think that we had worked very hard making a U-turn and going back to a policy and had made a lot of progress over the last we know won’t work when we’ve got a policy few years in having a principled debate about that is working. We need patience and discipline Chinese policy that was unencumbered by the and determination to stay with what we’re doing. politics of the moment, and I’m afraid that has slipped up a little bit in the last few weeks. General Motors Strike But I hope we can get back to it. Q. Mr. President, are you worried about the You know, there are a lot of people who dis- economic effects of the GM strike? And what agree with me on this. But you just can’t draw is your administration strategy for possible inter- a distinction between China and a lot of other vention or at least a resolution? countries we have serious disagreements with The President. Well, I’ve been briefed on it, but we don’t have abnormal trade relations with. obviously, on a regular basis by Secretary Her- The idea that America should just stop talking man. And I’m sure you know that under the to and stop dealing with any country in the governing laws of the United States, the role world that does anything we disagree with and of the Federal Government in a strike like this that that will make them more likely to do what is limited. But I would like to encourage the we agree with, I think there is very little evi- parties to work it out. Our economy is doing dence to support that, and there’s a whole lot well; our auto industry is doing well. They have of evidence against it. We tend to get more some, apparently, very legitimate and substantial done when we work with people, when we dis- differences, but we’ve got a collective bargaining agree with them openly, when we push them, system which I support. And I think they can and when they have something to gain by work- work it out, and I hope they’ll do it in a timely ing with us. Most people don’t respond very fashion. well to threats and to isolation. And once in a while it works when you’ve NOTE: The President spoke at approximately got—in certain specific cases—I mean, the trade 10:40 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White sanctions worked in South Africa after many House. In his remarks, he referred to Prime Min- years because everybody supported them. And ister Ryutaro Hashimoto of Japan. A tape was not they helped us in Bosnia because everybody available for verification of the content of these supported them. And they helped us in Iraq remarks.

Teleconference Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session With the United States Conference of Mayors June 19, 1998

President Clinton. Thank you very much, Seriously, I want to thank you for your fine Mayor Helmke, for all your wonderful introduc- leadership of the mayors this year. And Mayor tions. I hope they didn’t hurt you too much. Corradini, I look forward to working with you This one won’t cause you as much trouble as over the next year. I also want to say hello the last one did. to your advisory board chair, Mayor Webb, who

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joined me at the White House this week when the Cities’’ report, which Secretary Cuomo will we honored the Broncos together for winning share with you in much greater detail later, the Super Bowl. And hello to your executive shows that unemployment, crime, poverty rates, director, Tom Cochran, who does a great job all are down and falling in our central cities. for you day-in and day-out here with us. New job growth and homeownership rates are Let me also congratulate my good friend Jerry up and climbing. Our downtowns are coming Abramson on his award for distinguished public back as centers of tourism and entertainment. service. Jerry, I’ll always be grateful to you for The state of our cities is strong, and I thank a lot of things—for your friendship, your sup- you for leading this renaissance. port, and especially for your leadership for the America is enjoying the strongest economy 1994 crime bill. All across America, neighbor- in a generation, an era of sunlit prosperity and hoods are now safer because of the community abundant opportunity, but we cannot afford to police officers you helped to put on the street. sit back and bask in the glow. Instead, we must You have really made a difference. I congratu- make the most of this rare moment in our his- late you and thank you again. tory and ensure that our economic renaissance And I have some good news about one of touches every corner of every community. your alumni, the former mayor of Laredo, Saul As the ‘‘State of the Cities’’ report shows, Ramirez. Last year at this meeting I announced cities still face critical opportunity gaps when his nomination for Assistant Secretary at HUD. it comes to jobs, to education, and to housing. Well, I’m giving him a promotion and nomi- If we’re going to lift even more people out nating him now to be the agency’s new Deputy of poverty and bring more middle class families Secretary. Congratulations to him and to you. back to our cities, we must do everything we This is the third time we’ve been able to can to close these opportunity gaps. The way get together just this year, and I’m only sorry we will close our opportunity gaps is with the that I can’t join you in person. I know that new vision of government. I’ll be well represented by members of my Cabi- Over the past 51⁄2 years, we’ve moved beyond net, including our great HUD Secretary, An- the false debate between those who said govern- drew Cuomo. I send greetings also to you from ment could solve all our problems and those Mickey Ibarra, who’s with me here and who who said government was the problem. Our new runs the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and vision has been of government as partner with works hard for you. His Deputy, Lynn Cutler, business, community groups, and individual citi- is stranded in an airport, but she’ll soon be zens. It’s been a vision of government as catalyst in Reno to represent the White House. And to bring the spark of private enterprise to our I’m proud that senior representatives from a hardest-pressed neighborhoods. Whether it’s total of 22 Federal agencies are attending your putting more police officers on the streets to conference. You can tell from the breadth and fight crime or offering tax incentives to lure depth from the team I’ve sent that my adminis- businesses back to abandoned downtowns or tration is more committed than ever to working providing small business loans to inner-city resi- with you to help our great cities thrive and dents, our goal has been to empower people reach their fullest potential. with the tools to make the most of their own Last week a number of you were able to lives. join me here at the White House as I signed Secretary Cuomo’s new streamlined HUD, a transportation bill that will help cities to build which David Osborne has called the most excit- and modernize roads, bridges, and transit sys- ing reinvention in a decade, epitomizes this vi- tems for the 21st century. It encourages mass sion. Along with the Vice President, who chairs transit, protects the environment, expands op- my Community Empowerment Board, I am portunities to disadvantaged businesses, and committed to helping HUD and other Federal moves more people from welfare to work with agencies work even better for you. And I ask transportation assistance. Thank you for helping you to support our expanded community em- me pass this law. powerment agenda, that reflects our new ap- In no small part because of the innovation, proach to filling the opportunity gaps in, for commitment, and hard work of America’s may- our cities. ors, our cities are revitalized, reenergized, and First, we can fill in the jobs gap and bring back in business. The second annual ‘‘State of more businesses and credit to our central cities

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by launching a second round of empowerment like Deputy Burgess who are taking active stakes zones, renewing community development finan- in our community, and with your continued cial institutions, and supporting HUD’s Commu- leadership, I know the best is yet to come for nity Empowerment Fund. I ask you to tell Con- America’s cities. gress that America needs 50,000 new welfare- Throughout our history, our cities have always to-work housing vouchers to help hard-working been the face America shows the world. Visitors people successfully move off welfare by moving have gotten their first taste of America—our closer to their jobs. And I hope you’ll work energy, ingenuity, and promise—through our with me to ensure all Americans get the child great cities. They’ve always been the gateway care assistance they need to be good parents to opportunity for millions of Americans, places and good workers. where new immigrants have worked hard, built Second, we can begin closing the education thriving communities, and achieved the Amer- gap by helping school districts modernize and ican dream. We can, and we will, make sure build 5,000 schools, hiring more teachers, reduc- that dream thrives in our cities well into the ing class sizes in the earliest grades, and creating 21st century. education opportunity zones to help poorer Thank you for all you do, and thank you for school districts make the tough reforms they working with me. need to improve. Mayor of Fort Wayne, IN. Third, we will bridge the housing gap by Thank you, Mr. President. I understand that strengthening our efforts to fight housing dis- you have time for a few questions from some crimination, raising FHA loan limits, creating of the mayors. I had a few folks I know that more section 8 housing vouchers, helping fami- wanted to ask you questions. lies with good rental histories turn rent checks into mortgage payments, and expanding the low Millennium Activities income housing tax credit. This tax credit now has the support of a majority of Members in Mayor of Boston, MA. Mr. the House and the Senate. Let’s call on Con- President, the millennium is up in 2 years. A gress to pass the bill right away. lot of cities are preparing for the millennium Finally, I ask for your help on another critical as we go forward. What is your vision? What issue for cities: making sure that the 2000 census do you think that this country should be doing is as accurate as possible. As you know, census with the new millennium when it comes in the statistics help to determine how much Federal year 2000? aid your communities receive for roads, WIC, President Clinton. Tom, first let me say that Head Start, job training, and other services. Be- I’m very sorry about the floods in Boston. I cause of an undercount of inner-city residents know our FEMA people are there, and I hope in the last census, many of you were short- they will all work out of it and dry out of it changed when it came to Federal funds. We together. must make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Let me say to all of you, I think every mayor scientists agree: Statistical sampling is the most in America should be heavily involved in cele- accurate and most cost-effective way to get a brating the millennium. And I hope that as a full and fair count of our people in the year group you will be in close touch with Ellen 2000. Let’s work together to ensure that we Lovell, who is running this project for the First use this method in the next census. Lady and for me, so that we can coordinate All these are tough challenges, but I know what we’re doing. I think our vision should be that if we work together, we can meet them. the one that Hillary has articulated: We should Last year in San Francisco, we set ourselves honor the past and imagine the future. That a challenge of helping 1,000 police officers buy means to me that, at a minimum, every city and move into homes in the communities they should find someplace in the city important to serve. Well, I’m proud to announce that the your city’s history and heritage and make sure Officer Next Door program has met the chal- that you have restored it or protected it or en- lenge. Later today, Secretary Cuomo will hanced it for all future generations. present the program’s 1,000th key to Deputy Second, I think every city should identify Mark Burgess, a key that will unlock the door some great opportunity that you believe is there to his new home in . With citizens for your people in the new century, and elevate

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that opportunity, highlight it, literally enshrine that have had good experiences with these pro- it as a mission of your city for the future. grams could take the lead. And thirdly, of course, I think there should But again I say that if the Republican and be a great celebration on New Year’s Eve 1999/ Democratic mayors could do this together and 2000, that all the cities in the country participate say, this is a grassroots American issue, this has in, that is tied in with a national celebration nothing to do with partisan politics, that this and that involves as many Americans as humanly part of the President’s budget should prevail, possible. then I think we have a good chance to win. So I’d say on two out of three we’re in good Education Initiatives shape. Whether the States get some more money that then can be used for aid to edu- Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago, IL. Mr. cation to hire those extra teachers depends on President, where are we on achieving your edu- whether we can get the tobacco legislation back cation goals, whether it’s smaller classrooms or on track. I’m still hopeful that we can. Anything school construction or after-school programs? you can do to encourage Congress not on this How can we as an organization be more helpful point, but on the larger point, to pass legislation to you? to protect our children from the dangers of to- President Clinton. Well, you can do a lot. bacco and pass something comprehensive that Let me deal with each of them in turn. will have credibility in the public health commu- The only part of the education program that nity, that we know will work, will make us closer is imperiled by the present setback to the to- to that goal as well. bacco bill is the funds that we wanted to give the States which would enable them to dis- Violence in Schools tribute them to communities to hire the teachers Mayor Lee R. Clancey of Cedar Rapids, IA. necessary to reduce class size to an average of Mr. President, I have a question that’s a side 18 in the first 3 grades. issue related to education concerns. In the next The school construction initiative, which couple of weeks, I’m going to be hosting a meet- would allow us to build or repair 5,000 schools, ing with city and school officials on the issue is still very much alive; it’s in my budget; the of school violence and how we can prevent it, Congress can approve it. There is some bipar- how we can cope with it, what we can do to tisan support for it. And so I think if the mayors, address it. And I know it’s an issue that concerns particularly the Republicans and the Democrats many of us in our cities. What is being done together, could really press this, then when we at the Federal level, and do you have any sug- get down to the appropriations in the month gestions for us to take back to our community? of July and in the month of September, we’ve President Clinton. Well, let me first of all, got a good chance to get the construction money Mayor, say that I applaud you for doing this, out. And that would make a huge difference, all of you, and I applaud your leadership in not only in repairing a lot of older schools that doing it. I think the first thing I would say need to be repaired but in providing the needed is, that in the last couple of years when we’ve classroom space, without which we can’t have had all these horrible instances of school vio- the smaller class sizes. lence and killing in our schools, we should not On the after-school funds, we have funds in lose sight of the fact that, ironically, that has both the Justice Department budget and in the occurred when we’ve finally seen the first drop Education Department budget; it’s just going in juvenile crime in many, many years. to be a question of fighting for those things So I think it’s important to keep pushing the and making sure that they’re priorities in the larger issue of the after-school funds and the Congress, just as they are priorities for you and other kinds of programs that we’ve seen work for me. so well in Boston and elsewhere to drive juve- And again, there shouldn’t be any politics in nile crime down. this. The evidence is so overwhelming—as you Then I think we have to say, no matter how know, in Chicago, where you have tens of thou- low we get juvenile crime, we’re going to be sands of kids eating three meals a day in the at risk of these violent instances in schools be- schools, that this increases learning and lowers cause there will always be a small number of juvenile crime—that I would think that the cities children who will be profoundly disturbed,

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where some incident at home or at school can who is now charged with all these killings was set them off, and they live in a culture where sent home the day before with a gun in the the access to guns is too easy and where they’re school. too exposed from their earliest years to repeated Now, presently that’s about all that happens, barrages of almost casual violence in the media because most cities and most school districts that they see. So, too many children become don’t have a system for dealing with that. I numb to violence and, I think, take guns in think you should make sure that your schools their hands and pull the triggers, often without do have a system—and maybe not just when really feeling and knowing the consequences. a person is found with a gun and sent home Now, there are, I believe, two things that but when threats are made or when people say we can do at the Federal level that we’re work- they’re going to do something—maybe ing on. First, as I said when I was in Springfield, unspecific threats but give evidence of that. We Oregon, I’ve asked the Attorney General and need some sort of intervention that can get the Secretary of Education to prepare a manual these kids analyzed and then get them quickly to train teachers, parents, and hopefully other to some sort of comprehensive program if nec- students as well, on early warning signs of chil- essary, to try to give them the help they need dren in trouble, so that we’ll be better at picking and to take them out of the pressure-cooker this up. situation for a couple of days in the hope that In every case where we’ve had a killing over this can be avoided. the last year, there have been some indication I believe that we can do a lot more on the that there was something wrong with the young prevention front. And we now know, just looking person involved, that something has happened, at the facts of all these cases, that there were or the young person said something or friends significant early warnings in at least several of knew something, that did not lead to preemptive them that might have permitted, with the right action. So I think we need to really focus on kind of intervention, circumstances to develop this prevention. that would have avoided the tragedies. Secondly, we’re going to be working on what So that’s what I would ask you to look at. can be done to get some more police officers Everybody should know: What does your school out there in and around the schools, just as district do with a child that makes a threat? we have on the streets. What does your school district do with a child Thirdly, there is a big debate going on in that has a gun? Does the school have a system Springfield, Oregon, and in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where they encourage other kids to talk to re- and I’m sure in all the other communities about sponsible adults if they hear some child making what can be done if children are found in trou- a threat? Most of these children, if they could ble, to try to do something before they go over just get 4 or 5 or 6 years down the road, would the edge. look back in horror that they ever entertained The two Senators from Oregon have intro- such a thought—if we can avoid it happening duced legislation which would require of any in the first place. child who was sent home from school because So I think we can do better. We’re deter- he or she had a gun in school—and there were mined to do our part. And after you have your 6,100 children who had guns in schools and meeting, if the mayors and the others from had the guns taken away and were sent home whom you hear have any other ideas, for good- because of our zero tolerance for guns in schools ness’ sakes, give them to us. This is something just last year. The Senators think that—their we’ve got to do more on. legislation, I think, calls for some sort of manda- Mayor Helmke. I want to thank you, Mr. tory 72-hour examination period, including a President. I know your time is short, but we psychiatric exam. appreciate you taking the time this afternoon Whether this is everything that should be to talk to us and taking the time again this done, exactly what should be done, or not is past year. You’ve worked collaboratively with us, something we’re going to debate up here. But consistently with us. We know you’re concerned it’s not too soon for every mayor and every about the city issues and you’re always willing school leader in the country to determine what to listen to us and we thank you for that. should be done if a case occurs like the case In particular, I wanted to thank you for work- in Springfield, Oregon, where the young man ing closely with us this last year while I’ve been

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president of the mayors group. It’s been an ex- NOTE: The President spoke by satellite at 5:20 perience, and we appreciate all of your efforts p.m. from Room 459 of the Old Executive Office this past year. And you’ve outlined a number Building to the meeting in Reno, NV. In his re- of things that we need to continue to work marks, he referred to Mayor Paul Helmke of Fort with in the future, and we plan to do that with Wayne, IN, president, Mayor Deedee Corradini you, too. of Salt Lake City, UT, president-elect, and J. So again, thank you very much. We thank Thomas Cochran, executive director, U.S. Con- you or all of your efforts and for your staff ference of Mayors; Mayor Wellington E. Webb members and Cabinet officers that are here, of Denver, CO; Mayor Jerry E. Abramson of Lou- too. Thank you, Mr. President. isville, KY; and David Osborne, president, Public President Clinton. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Strategies Group, Inc. Thank you all, and I’ll turn it over to Secretary Cuomo and the rest of our crowd. Have a great meeting.

Statement on Internal Revenue Service Reform Legislation June 19, 1998

I am very pleased that our efforts to reform ganization of the IRS along customer service the IRS took a major step forward today with lines and addressed our concerns about earlier a bipartisan agreement reconciling the House versions of this reform by correcting provisions and Senate legislation. I have worked very hard that would have inadvertently allowed non- to give the American people an IRS that is compliant taxpayers to avoid paying their fair fairer and more responsive to their needs. En- share of taxes. The Congress also made sure actment of this compromise reform will build that the Treasury Secretary and the IRS Com- on our initiative to give Americans a modern, missioner will serve on the board overseeing customer-friendly IRS. the IRS. Our new IRS Commissioner, Charles Rossotti, Under the leadership of the Vice President has brought forceful leadership and the best and Secretary Rubin, we have made great strides management techniques from the private sector in our efforts to revamp customer service at to the agency. This bipartisan compromise will the IRS. We have expanded phone and office give him the tools he needs to succeed, while hours, created popular new problem-solving expanding taxpayer rights. It will allow the IRS days, and launched independent citizen advocacy to bring in talent and expertise from the private panels. We cannot solve every problem at the sector, strengthen the Taxpayer Advocate’s of- IRS at once, but we are committed to correcting fice, and expand the convenient and popular problems when they arise, and this bill will help practice of filing tax returns electronically and us do that. I urge Congress to send me this over the phone. We are pleased that Congress compromise legislation quickly, but to make sure incorporated the Commissioner’s sweeping reor- that it is fully and properly funded.

Statement on Signing the Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation Protection Act June 19, 1998

I was very pleased to sign today S. 1244, and charitable contributions made by people the Religious Liberty and Charitable Donation who later declare bankruptcy. Protection Act. This bill protects the religious

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