Remarks at a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Gala
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1330 Sept. 13 / Administration of William J. Clinton, 1997 been blocked in the Congress by a filibuster Remarks at a Congressional Black in the United States Senate, a procedure by Caucus Foundation Gala which only 41 of the 100 Senators can stop September 13, 1997 a bill from coming to a vote. Now the special interests and their allies in Congress are Thank you. Thank you very much. Con- poised to strike again, waiting to quietly gresswoman Waters, every time you get up smother reform with another filibuster. But to speak I'm always all ears. When you intro- this year they won't get away with it, at least duce me, I'm certainly all ears. I'm never quietly, because Senators John McCain, a quite sure what you're going to sayÐ[laugh- Republican, and Russ Feingold, a Democrat, ter]Ðbut I'm absolutely sure you will say have pledged to bring their reform legislation what you think. Maxine Waters is my kind to a vote in the Senate this month, and all of public official. I've been to her district sev- America will be watching. eral times with her. She knows the people On Thursday, all 45 Democratic Sen- in the street, the people on the corners. She atorsÐevery single Democrat in the Sen- cares about the people that other people for- ateÐwrote to the Senate leadership in sup- get. Her district is the first one where I met port. I'm very proud of them. I'm also proud young men who had been in gangs, who were that citizens' groups, spurred by business ex- walking the streets with her to save the lives ecutives and civic leaders, have gathered one of other young people. That's the kind of million signatures on a petition to Congress thing she's done, and America owes Maxine advocating campaign finance reform. I'm Waters a debt of gratitude, and I thank her. grateful to Presidents Ford and Carter and I want to congratulate Congressman Bush, all of whom have called for reform. Clyburn and LeBaron Taylor and all of you They are being joined by dozens of former who are responsible for this event tonight. lawmakers. And the American public clearly I was glad to be here, too, with Congressman wants action. Gephardt and with all the distinguished members of the audience. I see Kweisi This is a time of testing for Members of Mfume there and Mrs. King and Mayor the United States Senate. The opponents of Barry, Dr. Height. Reverend Jackson, I'm al- reform are gearing up to keep it from coming ways glad to see you. And I think I speak to a vote at all. Let's be clear: A vote to fili- for many of us here when we say that you buster campaign reform is a vote to keep spe- and your family and your mother are in our cial interest money and kill reform; a vote prayers, sir. God bless you. And thank you to filibuster is a vote for the status quo. A for the magnificent job you did leading, along Senator who votes ``yes'' on a filibuster is vot- with Secretary Slater, the American delega- ing ``yes'' to soft money and ``yes'' to keep tion to the African economic summit in the cost of campaigns exploding and ``no'' on Zimbabwe. reform. That vote will be hard to explain to Let me also congratulate the award win- the American people. ners: Major Owens and Eva Clayton, Bill This year, despite all the odds, we've got Lucy and Danny Bakewell, Laura Murphy the best chance in a generation for reform. and William Brooks, Myrlie Evers-Williams, Throughout our history, the American peo- Coretta Scott King, the late Dr. Betty ple have overcome the resistance of en- Shabazz, and my good friend, the chairman trenched interests to expand our democracy of our racial reconciliation advisory board, and to keep it strong in changing times. Let's Dr. John Hope Franklin. make this autumn a season of reform in our And finally, let me say one other word of campaign finance laws. introduction. One of your members is not Thanks for listening. here tonight because he had to go home to dedicate his new cathedral. But I want to NOTE: The address was recorded at 6:36 p.m. on wish Congressman Floyd Flake well as he September 12 in the Roosevelt Room at the White leaves the United States Congress and goes House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on September home to his mission, where his heart is. Floyd 13. Flake, in his church, has helped to start 11 VerDate 22-AUG-97 07:34 Sep 24, 1997 Jkt 010199 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 1244 Sfmt 1244 W:\DISC\P38SE4.016 p38se4 Administration of William J. Clinton, 1997 / Sept. 13 1331 businesses, employing hundreds of people in to thank them for helping me to be a better inner-city neighborhoods who would not President. have jobs otherwise. That's the sort of part- I also want to thank the CBC for its strong nership I'd like to see us make with African- support of the man who will be the next As- American churches all across the United sistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Bill States of America, so everybody who wants Lee. He's here tonight, and I thank you for a job has one. So, even though he's going sticking by him. For much of his career, Bill home, I want him to be a model that all of Lee's been a civil rights lawyer with the us here in Washington can continue to fol- NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He was not low. born into a position of leadership. Instead, I want to say one serious thing. If you don't he's a Chinese-American who worked his way remember anything else tonight, remember out of poverty in Harlem to become a na- this one sentence: I am profoundly grateful tional leader in the fight for social justice. to the Congressional Black Caucus for mak- We need your support to ensure his con- ing a dream of a lifetime come true; I am firmation. He will do a magnificent job. the opening act for James Brown. [Laughter] I also want to ask your support for the man In one of James Brown's songs he says, ``I whom I nominated this week to be the next don't want nobody to give me nothing. Just Surgeon General and Assistant Secretary of open up the door. I'll get it myself.'' I think Health, Dr. David Satcher. Finally, let me say, as the Congress comes that's the motto of the CBC. And for 41¤2 years, we've been working together to open back after its recess, I ask for your support up those doors. to get from this Congress the money that was promised for the priorities we fought so hard Today we see the results: unemployment for in the balanced budget agreement: the below 5 percent, lowest African-American largest increase in aid to education since unemployment in 24 years; 13 million new 1965, the biggest increase opening the doors jobs; family incomes up, African-American to college for allÐand aid to collegeÐsince family income is up $3,000 in 3 years; the 1945, and the biggest increase in health care lowest poverty rate among African-Ameri- for poor people and children since 1965. cans ever recorded; violent crime down 5 Now we've got to make good on the promises years in a row; record drops in welfare. That of that agreement, and I need your help to is the progress that I could not have possibly do that. made if it had not been for the support of Finally, let me say that as we approach a the Congressional Black Caucus, and I thank new millennium, we must decide that we can you very much for that. never be what we ought to be unless we get And let me say that progress should spur there together. I was, just the other day, at us on, for there is still too much poverty, still American University in Washington. There too much lack of economic and educational are students from 140 different national and opportunity. There is still too much discrimi- ethnic groups at American University. We nation. There is too much to do. And I come don't have time for, or room for, discrimina- here today to say that, down to the last day tion. And we can no longer ignore the unfin- of my Presidency, I will be there with you, ished business of our past. We cannot con- working with you, fighting for a tomorrow tinue to grow economically as long as there's that we can all share together. a single soul in this country who needs a good I also want to thank the members of my quality education who can't get it and who administration who are here. Many have is denied access to a job for which he or she been noticed, but I'd like to say a special is plainly qualified. We cannot do that. word of thanks to all the African-Americans And we have to decide, as a country, that who work in the White House. And to Bob we can't afford our past baggage or our Nash, Goody Marshall, Ben Johnson, Minyon present blinders. We've got to embrace a fu- Moore, Terry Edmonds, Ann Walker, Tracey ture in which we're all going forward to- Thornton, and Andy BlockerÐI know gether.