Last year this Congress applied to itself the laws it applies to everyone
else. This Congress banned gifts and meals from lobbyists. This Congress
forced lobbyists to disclose who pays them and what legislation they are
trying to pass or kill. This Congress did that, and I applaud you for it.
Now I challenge Congress to go further--to curb special interest influence
in politics by passing the first truly bipartisan campaign reform bill in a
generation. You, Republicans and Democrats alike, can show the American
people that we can limit spending and open the airwaves to all candidates.
I also appeal to Congress to pass the line-item veto you promised the
American people.
Our administration is working hard to give the American people a government
that works better and costs less. Thanks to the work of Vice President
Gore, we are eliminating 16,000 pages of unnecessary rules and regulations,
shifting more decision-making out of Washington, back to states and local
communities.
As we move into the era of balanced budgets and smaller government, we must
work in new ways to enable people to make the most of their own lives. We
are helping America's communities, not with more bureaucracy, but with more
opportunities. Through our successful Empowerment Zones and Community
Development Banks, we are helping people to find jobs, to start businesses.
And with tax incentives for companies that clean up abandoned industrial
property, we can bring jobs back to places that desperately, desperately
need them.
But there are some areas that the federal government should not leave and
should address and address strongly. One of these areas is the problem of
illegal immigration. After years of neglect, this administration has taken
a strong stand to stiffen the protection of our borders. We are increasing
border controls by 50 percent. We are increasing inspections to prevent the
hiring of illegal immigrants. And tonight, I announce I will sign an
executive order to deny federal contracts to businesses that hire illegal
immigrants.
Let me be very clear about this: We are still a nation of immigrants; we
should be proud of it. We should honor every legal immigrant here, working
hard to become a new citizen. But we are also a nation of laws.
I want to say a special word now to those who work for our federal
government. Today our federal government is 200,000 employees smaller than
it was the day I took office as President.
Our federal government today is the smallest it has been in 30 years, and
it's getting smaller every day. Most of our fellow Americans probably don't
know that. And there is a good reason: The remaining federal work force is
composed of Americans who are now working harder and working smarter than
ever before, to make sure the quality of our services does not decline.
I'd like to give you one example. His name is Richard Dean. He is a 49
year-old Vietnam veteran who's worked for the Social Security
Administration for 22 years now. Last year he was hard at work in the
Federal Building in Oklahoma City when the blast killed 169 people and
brought the rubble down all around him. He reentered that building four
times. He saved the lives of three women. He's here with us this evening,
and I want to recognize Richard and applaud both his public service and his
extraordinary personal heroism.
But Richard Dean's story doesn't end there. This last November, he was
forced out of his office when the government shut down. And the second time
the government shut down he continued helping Social Security recipients,
but he was working without pay.
On behalf of Richard Dean and his family, and all the other people who are
out there working every day doing a good job for the American people, I
challenge all of you in this Chamber: Never, ever shut the federal
government down again.
On behalf of all Americans, especially those who need their Social Security
payments at the beginning of March, I also challenge the Congress to
preserve the full faith and credit of the United States--to honor the
obligations of this great nation as we have for 220 years; to rise above
partisanship and pass a straightforward extension of the debt limit and
show people America keeps its word.
I know that this evening I have asked a lot of Congress, and even more from
America. But I am confident: When Americans work together in their homes,
their schools, their churches, their synagogues, their civic groups, their
workplace, they can meet any challenge.
I say again, the era of big government is over. But we can't go back to the
era of fending for yourself. We have to go forward to the era of working
together as a community, as a team, as one America, with all of us reaching
across these lines that divide us--the division, the discrimination, the
rancor--we have to reach across it to find common ground. We have got to
work together if we want America to work.
I want you to meet two more people tonight who do just that. Lucius Wright
is a teacher in the Jackson, Mississippi, public school system. A Vietnam
veteran, he has created groups to help inner-city children turn away from
gangs and build futures they can believe in. Sergeant Jennifer Rodgers is a
police officer in Oklahoma City. Like Richard Dean, she helped to pull her
fellow citizens out of the rubble and deal with that awful tragedy. She
reminds us that in their response to that atrocity the people of Oklahoma
City lifted all of us with their basic sense of decency and community.
Lucius Wright and Jennifer Rodgers are special Americans. And I have the
honor to announce tonight that they are the very first of several thousand
Americans who will be chosen to carry the Olympic torch on its long journey
from Los Angeles to the centennial of the modern Olympics in Atlanta this
summer--not because they are star athletes, but because they are star
citizens, community heroes meeting America's challenges. They are our real
champions.
Now, each of us must hold high the torch of citizenship in our own lives.
None of us can finish the race alone. We can only achieve our destiny
together--one hand, one generation, one American connecting to another.
There have always been things we could do together--dreams we could make
real--which we could never have done on our own. We Americans have forged
our identity, our very union, from every point of view and every point on
the planet, every different opinion. But we must be bound together by a
faith more powerful than any doctrine that divides us--by our belief in
progress, our love of liberty, and our relentless search for common
ground.
America has always sought and always risen to every challenge. Who would
say that, having come so far together, we will not go forward from here?
Who would say that this age of possibility is not for all Americans?
Our country is and always has been a great and good nation. But the best is
yet to come, if we all do our part.
Thank you, God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Thank
you.
***
State of the Union Address
William J. Clinton
February 4, 1997
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 105th Congress,
distinguished guests, my fellow Americans: