Speech Transcript:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of the 105th Congress,
distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans:

I think I should start by saying, thanks for inviting me back.
(Applause.) I come before you tonight with a challenge as great as
any in our peacetime history, and a plan of action to meet that
challenge, to prepare our people for the bold new world of the 21st
century.

We have much to be thankful for. With four years of growth, we have
won back the basic strength of our economy. With crime and welfare
rolls declining, we are winning back our optimism, the enduring faith
that we can master any difficulty. With the Cold War receding and
global commerce at record levels, we are helping to win unrivaled
peace and prosperity all across the world.

My fellow Americans, the state of our union is strong. (Applause.)
But now we must rise to the decisive moment, to make a nation and a
world better than any we have ever known. The new promise of the
global economy, the Information Age, unimagined new work,
life-enhancing technology -- all these are ours to seize. That is our
honor and our challenge. We must be shapers of events, not observers.
For if we do not act, the moment will pass -- and we will lose the
best possibilities of our future.

We face no imminent threat, but we do have an enemy -- the enemy of
our time is inaction. So, tonight, I issue a call to action -- action
by this Congress, action by our states, by our people, to prepare
America for the 21st century. Action to keep our economy and our
democracy strong and working for all our people; action to strengthen
education and harness the forces of technology and science; action to
build stronger families and stronger communities and a safer
environment; action to keep America the world's strongest force for
peace, freedom and prosperity. And above all, action to build a more
perfect union here at home.

The spirit we bring to our work will make all the difference. We must
be committed to the pursuit of opportunity for all Americans,
responsibility from all Americans, in a community of all Americans.
And we must be committed to a new kind of government -- not to solve
all our problems for us, but to give our people -- all our people --
the tools they need to make the most of their own lives.

And we must work together. The people of this nation elected us all.
They want us to be partners, not partisans. They put us all right
here in the same boat, they gave us all oars, and they told us to
row. Now, here is the direction I believe we should take.

First, we must move quickly to complete the unfinished business of
our country -- to balance our budget, renew our democracy, and finish
the job of welfare reform.

Over the last four years, we have brought new economic growth by
investing in our people, expanding our exports, cutting our deficits,
creating over 11 million new jobs, a four-year record. (Applause.) Now
we must keep our economy the strongest in the world. We here tonight
have an historic opportunity. Let this Congress be the Congress that
finally balances the budget. (Applause.)

In two days, I will propose a detailed plan to balance the budget by
2002. This plan will balance the budget and invest in our people
while protecting Medicare, Medicaid, education, and the environment.
It will balance the budget and build on the Vice President's efforts
to make our government work better, even as it costs less. It will
balance the budget and provide middle class tax relief to pay for
education and health care, to help to raise a child, to buy and sell
a home.

Balancing the budget requires only your vote and my signature. It
does not require us to rewrite our Constitution. (Applause.) I
believe it is both unnecessary and unwise to adopt a balanced budget
amendment that could cripple our country in time of crisis, and force
unwanted results, such as judges halting Social Security checks or
increasing taxes. Let us at least agree, we should not pass any
measure -- no measure should be passed that threatens Social
Security. (Applause.) Whatever your view on that, we all must concede
we don't need a constitutional amendment, we need action. (Applause.)

Whatever our differences, we should balance the budget now. And then,
for the long-term health of our society, we must agree to a bipartisan
process to preserve Social Security and reform Medicare for the long
run, so that these fundamental programs will be as strong for our
children as they are for our parents.

And let me say something that's not in my script tonight. I know this
is not going to be easy. But I really believe one of the reasons the
American people gave me a second term was to take the tough decisions
in the next four years that will carry our country through the next 50
years. I know it is easier for me than for you to say or do. But
another reason I was elected is to support all of you, without regard
to party, to give you what is necessary to join in these decisions. We
owe it to our country and to our future. (Applause.)

Our second piece of unfinished business requires us to commit
ourselves tonight, before the eyes of America, to finally enacting
bipartisan campaign finance reform. (Applause.)

Now, Senators McCain and Feingold, Representatives Shays and Meehan,
have reached across party lines here to craft tough and fair reform.
Their proposal would curb spending, reduce the role of special
interests, create a level playing field between challengers and
incumbents, and ban contributions from noncitizens, all corporate
sources, and the other large soft money contributions that both
parties receive.

You know and I know that this can be delayed. And you know and I know
the delay will mean the death of reform. So let's set our own
deadline. Let's work together to write bipartisan campaign finance
reform into law and pass McCain-Feingold by the day we celebrate the
birth of our democracy -- July the 4th. (Applause.)

There is a third piece of unfinished business. Over the last four
years, we moved a record 2.25 million people off the welfare rolls.
Then last year, Congress enacted landmark welfare reform legislation,
demanding that all able-bodied recipients assume the responsibility of
moving from welfare to work.

Now each and every one of us has to fulfill our responsibility --
indeed, our moral obligation -- to make sure that people who now must
work, can work. (Applause.) Now we must act to meet a new goal: 2
million more people off the welfare rolls by the year 2000.

Here is my plan: Tax credits and other incentives for businesses that
hire people off welfare; incentives for job placement firms and states
to create more jobs for welfare recipients; training, transportation,
and child care to help people go to work.

Now I challenge every state: Turn those welfare checks into private
sector paychecks. I challenge every religious congregation, every
community nonprofit, every business to hire someone off welfare. And
I'd like to say especially to every employer in our country who ever
criticized the old welfare system, you can't blame that old system
anymore, we have torn it down. Now do your part. Give someone on
welfare the chance to go to work. (Applause.)

Tonight, I am pleased to announce that five major corporations --
Sprint, Monsanto, UPS, Burger King and United Airlines -- will be the
first to join in a new national effort to marshal America's
businesses, large and small, to create jobs so that people can move
from welfare to work. (Applause.)

We passed welfare reform. All of you know I believe we were right to
do it. But no one can walk out of this chamber with a clear
conscience unless you are prepared to finish the job. (Applause.)

And we must join together to do something else, too -- something both
Republican and Democratic governors have asked us to do -- to restore
basic health and disability benefits when misfortune strikes
immigrants who came to this country legally, who work hard, pay taxes
and obey the law. To do otherwise is simply unworthy of a great nation
of immigrants. (Applause.)

Now, looking ahead, the greatest step of all -- the high threshold of
the future we now must cross -- and my number one priority for the
next four years is to ensure that all Americans have the best
education in the world. (Applause.)

Let's work together to meet these three goals: Every 8-year-old must
be able to read; every 12-year-old must be able to log on to the
Internet; every 18-year-old must be able to go to college; and every
adult American must be able to keep on learning for a lifetime.
(Applause.)

My balanced budget makes an unprecedented commitment to these goals
-- $51 billion next year. But far more than money is required. I have
a plan, a Call to Action for American Education, based on these 10
principles.

First, a national crusade for education standards -- not federal
government standards, but national standards, representing what all
our students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the
21st century. Every state and school must shape the curriculum to
reflect these standards, and train teachers to lift students up to
them. To help schools meet the standards and measure their progress,
we will lead an effort over the next two years to develop national
tests of student achievement in reading and math.

Tonight, I issue a challenge to the nation: Every state should adopt
high national standards, and by 1999, every state should test every
4th grader in reading and every 8th grader in math to make sure these
standards are met. (Applause.)

Raising standards will not be easy, and some of our children will not
be able to meet them at first. The point is not to put our children
down, but to lift them up. Good tests will show us who needs help,
what changes in teaching to make, and which schools need to improve.
They can help us to end social promotion. For no child should move
from grade school to junior high, or junior high to high school until
he or she is ready.

Last month, our Secretary of Education Dick Riley and I visited
Northern Illinois, where 8th grade students from 20 school districts,
in a project aptly called "First in the World," took the Third
International Math and Science Study. That's a test that reflects the
world-class standards our children must meet for the new era. And
those students in Illinois tied for first in the world in science and
came in second in math. Two of them, Kristin Tanner and Chris Getsla,
are here tonight, along with their teacher, Sue Winski; they're up
there with the First Lady. And they prove that when we aim high and
challenge our students, they will be the best in the world. Let's
give them a hand. Stand up, please. (Applause.)

Second, to have the best schools, we must have the best teachers.
Most of us in this chamber would not be here tonight without the help
of those teachers. I know that I wouldn't be here. For years, many of
our educators, led by North Carolina's Governor Jim Hunt and the
National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, have worked very
hard to establish nationally accepted credentials for excellence in
teaching. Just 500 of these teachers have been certified since 1995.
My budget will enable 100,000 more to seek national certification as
master teachers. We should reward and recognize our best teachers.
(Applause.) And as we reward them, we should quickly and fairly
remove those few who don't measure up, and we should challenge more
of our finest young people to consider teaching as a career.

Third, we must do more to help all our children read. Forty percent
-- forty percent -- of our 8-year-olds cannot read on their own.
That's why we have just launched the America Reads initiative -- to
build a citizen army of one million volunteer tutors to make sure
every child can read independently by the end of the 3rd grade. We
will use thousands of AmeriCorps volunteers to mobilize this citizen
army. We want at least 100,000 college students to help. And tonight
I am pleased that 60 college presidents have answered my call,
pledging that thousands of their work-study students will serve for
one year as reading tutors. (Applause.)

This is also a challenge to every teacher and every principal. You
must use these tutors to help students read. And it is especially a
challenge to our parents. You must read with your children every
night.

This leads to the fourth principle: Learning begins in the first days
of life. Scientists are now discovering how young children develop
emotionally and intellectually from their very first days, and how
important it is for parents to begin immediately talking, singing,
even reading to their infants. The First Lady has spent years writing
about this issue, studying it. And she and I are going to convene a
White House Conference on Early Learning and the Brain this spring,
to explore how parents and educators can best use these startling new
findings.

We already know we should start teaching children before they start
school. That's why this balanced budget expands Head Start to one
million children by 2002. (Applause.) And that is why the Vice
President and Mrs. Gore will host their annual family conference this
June on what we can do to make sure that parents are an active part of
their children's learning all the way through school.

They've done a great deal to highlight the importance of family in
our life, and now they're turning their attention to getting more
parents involved in their children's learning all the way through
school. And I thank you, Mr. Vice President, and I thank you
especially, Tipper, for what you do. (Applause.)

Fifth, every state should give parents the power to choose the right
public school for their children. Their right to choose will foster
competition and innovation that can make public schools better. We
should also make it possible for more parents and teachers to start
charter schools, schools that set and meet the highest standards, and
exist only as long as they do. Our plan will help America to create
3,000 of these charter schools by the next century -- nearly seven
times as there are in the country today -- so that parents will have
even more choices in sending their children to the best schools.

Sixth: Character education must be taught in our schools. We must
teach our children to be good citizens. (Applause.) And we must
continue to promote order and discipline, supporting communities that
introduce school uniforms, impose curfews enforce truancy laws, remove
disruptive students from the classroom, and have zero tolerance for
guns and drugs in school. (Applause.)

Seventh: We cannot expect our children to raise themselves up in
schools that are literally falling down. With the student population
at an all-time high, and record numbers of school buildings falling
into disrepair, this has now become a serious national concern.
Therefore, my budget includes a new initiative --$5 billion to help
communities finance $20 billion in school construction over the next
four years. (Applause.)

Eighth: We must make the 13th and 14th years of education -- at least
two years of college -- just as universal in America by the 21st
century as a high school education is today, and we must open the
doors of college to Americans. (Applause.)

To do that, I propose America's HOPE Scholarship, based on Georgia's
pioneering program: two years of a $1,500 tax credit for college
tuition, enough to pay for the typical community college. I also
propose a tax deduction of up to $10,000 a year for all tuition after
high school; an expanded IRA you can withdraw from tax free for
education; and the largest increase in Pell Grant scholarships in 20
years. (Applause.) Now, this plan will give most families the ability
to pay no taxes on money they save for college tuition. I ask you to
pass it -- and give every American who works hard the chance to go to
college.

Ninth: In the 21st century, we must expand the frontiers of learning
across a lifetime. All our people, of whatever age, must have a
chance to learn new skills. Most Americans live near a community
college. The roads that take them there can be paths to a better
future. My G.I. Bill for America's Workers will transform the
confusing tangle of federal training programs into a simple skill
grant to go directly into eligible workers' hands. For too long, this
bill has been sitting on that desk there without action -- I ask you
to pass it now. Let's give more of our workers the ability to learn
and to earn for a lifetime. (Applause.)

Tenth: We must bring the power of the Information Age into all our
schools. Last year, I challenged America to connect every classroom
and library to the Internet by the year 2000, so that, for the first
time in our history, children in the most isolated rural towns, the
most comfortable suburbs, the poorest inner city schools, will have
the same access to the same universe of knowledge. (Applause.) That
is my plan -- a Call to Action for American Education. Some may say
that it is unusual for a President to pay this kind of attention to
education. Some may say it is simply because the President and his
wonderful wife have been obsessed with this subject for more years
than they can recall. That is not what is driving these proposals.

We must understand the significance of this endeavor: One of the
greatest sources of our strength throughout the Cold War was a
bipartisan foreign policy; because our future was at stake, politics
stopped at the water's edge. Now I ask you -- and I ask all our
nation's governors; I ask parents, teachers, and citizens all across
America -- for a new nonpartisan commitment to education -- because
education is a critical national security issue for our future, and
politics must stop at the schoolhouse door. (Applause.)

To prepare America for the 21st century we must harness the powerful
forces of science and technology to benefit all Americans. This is
the first State of the Union carried live in video over the Internet.
But we've only begun to spread the benefits of a technology revolution
that should become the modern birthright of every citizen.

Our effort to connect every classroom is just the beginning. Now, we
should connect every hospital to the Internet, so that doctors can
instantly share data about their patients with the best specialists
in the field. And I challenge the private sector tonight to start by
connecting every children's hospital as soon as possible, so that a
child in bed can stay in touch with school, family and friends. A
sick child need no longer be a child alone. (Applause.)

We must build the second generation of the Internet so that our
leading universities and national laboratories can communicate in
speeds 1,000 times faster than today, to develop new medical
treatments, new sources of energy, new ways of working together.

But we cannot stop there. As the Internet becomes our new town
square, a computer in every home -- a teacher of all subjects, a
connection to all cultures -- this will no longer be a dream, but a
necessity. And over the next decade, that must be our goal.
(Applause.)

We must continue to explore the heavens -- pressing on with the Mars
probes and the international space station, both of which will have
practical applications for our everyday living.

We must speed the remarkable advances in medical science. The human
genome project is now decoding the genetic mysteries of life.
American scientists have discovered genes linked to breast cancer and
ovarian cancer, and medication that stops a stroke in progress and
begins to reverse its effect, and treatments that dramatically
lengthen the lives of people with HIV and AIDS.

Since I took office, funding for AIDS research at the National
Institutes of Health has increased dramatically -- to $1.5 billion.
With new resources, NIH will now become the most powerful discovery
engine for an AIDS vaccine, working with other scientists to finally
end the threat of AIDS. (Applause.) Remember that every year -- every
year we move up the discovery of an AIDS vaccine will save millions of
lives around the world. We must reinforce our commitment to medical
science.

To prepare America for the 21st century, we must build stronger
families. Over the past four years, the Family and Medical Leave law
has helped millions of Americans to take time off to be with their
families. With new pressures on people in the way they work and live,
I believe we must expand family leave so that workers can take time
off for teacher conferences and a child's medical checkup. We should
pass flex-time, so workers can choose to be paid for overtime in
income or trade it in for time off to be with their families.
(Applause.)

We must continue -- we must continue, step by step, to give more
families access to affordable, quality health care. Forty million
Americans still lack health insurance. Ten million children still
lack health insurance -- 80 percent of them have working parents who
pay taxes. That is wrong. (Applause.)

My balanced budget will extend health coverage to up to 5 million of
those children. Since nearly half of all children who lose their
insurance do so because their parents lose or change a job, my budget
will also ensure that people who temporarily lose their jobs can still
afford to keep their health insurance. No child should be without a
doctor just because a parent is without a job. (Applause.)

My Medicare plan modernizes Medicare, increases the life of the trust
fund to 10 years, provides support for respite care for the many
families with loved ones afflicted with Alzheimer's. And for the
first time, it would fully pay for annual mammograms. (Applause.)

Just as we ended drive-through deliveries of babies last year, we
must now end the dangerous and demeaning practice of forcing women
home from the hospital only hours after a mastectomy. (Applause.) I
ask your support for bipartisan legislation to guarantee that a woman
can stay in the hospital for 48 hours after a mastectomy. With us
tonight is Dr. Kristen Zarfos, a Connecticut surgeon whose outrage at
this practice spurred a national movement and inspired this
legislation. I'd like her to stand so we thank her for her efforts.
Dr. Zarfos, thank you. (Applause.)

In the last four years, we have increased child support collections
by 50 percent. Now we should go further and do better by making it a
felony for any parent to cross a state line in an attempt to flee
from this, his or her most sacred obligation. (Applause.)

Finally, we must also protect our children by standing firm in our
determination to ban the advertising and marketing of cigarettes that
endanger their lives. (Applause.)

To prepare America for the 21st century, we must build stronger
communities. We should start with safe streets. Serious crime has
dropped five years in a row. The key has been community policing. We
must finish the job of putting 100,000 community police on the
streets of the United States. (Applause.) We should pass the Victims
Rights Amendment to the Constitution.

And I ask you to mount a full-scale assault on juvenile crime, with
legislation that declares war on gangs, with new prosecutors and
tougher penalties; extends the Brady Bill so violent teen criminals
will not be able to buy handguns; requires child safety locks on
handguns to prevent unauthorized use; and helps to keep our schools
open after hours, on weekends, and in the summer, so our young people
will have someplace to go and something to say yes to. (Applause.)

This balanced budget includes the largest antidrug effort ever: to
stop drugs at their source, punish those who push them, and teach our
young people that drugs are wrong, drugs are illegal, and drugs will
kill them. I hope you will support it. (Applause.)

Our growing economy has helped to revive poor urban and rural
neighborhoods. But we must do more to empower them to create the
conditions in which all families can flourish and to create jobs
through investment by business and loans by banks.

We should double the number of empowerment zones. They've already
brought so much hope to communities like Detroit, where the
unemployment rate has been cut in half in four years. We should
restore contaminated urban land and buildings to productive use. We
should expand the network of community development banks. And
together we must pledge tonight that we will use this empowerment
approach -- including private sector tax incentives -- to renew our
Capital City, so that Washington is a great place to work and live,
and once again the proud face America shows to world. (Applause.)

We must protect our environment in every community. In the last four
years, we cleaned up 250 toxic waste sites, as many as in the
previous 12. Now, we should clean up 500 more, so that our children
grow up next to parks, not poison. I urge you to pass my proposal to
make big polluters live by a simple rule: If you pollute our
environment, you should pay to clean it up. (Applause.)

In the last four years, we strengthened our nation's safe food and
clean drinking water laws; we protected some of America's rarest,
most beautiful land in Utah's Red Rocks region; created three new
national parks in the California desert; and began to restore the
Florida Everglades. Now we must be as vigilant with our rivers as we
are with our lands. Tonight, I announce that this year I will
designate 10 American Heritage Rivers, to help communities alongside
them revitalize their waterfronts and clean up pollution in the
rivers, proving once again that we can grow the economy as we protect
the environment. (Applause.)

We must also protect our global environment, working to ban the worst
toxic chemicals and to reduce the greenhouse gases that challenge our
health even as they change our climate.

Now, we all know that in all of our communities, some of our children
simply don't have what they need to grow and learn in their own homes,
or schools or neighborhoods. And that means the rest of us must do
more, for they are our children, too. That's why President Bush,
General Colin Powell, former Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros will
join the Vice President and me to lead the President's Summit of
Service in Philadelphia in April.

Our national service program, AmeriCorps, has already helped 70,000
young people to work their way through college as they serve America.
Now we intend to mobilize millions of Americans to serve in thousands
of ways. Citizen service is an American responsibility which all
Americans should embrace, and I ask your support for that endeavor.
(Applause.)

I'd like to make just one last point about our national community.
Our economy is measured in numbers and statistics, and it's very
important. But the enduring worth of our nation lies in our shared
values and our soaring spirit. So instead of cutting back on our
modest efforts to support the arts and humanities, I believe we
should stand by them and challenge our artists, musicians, and
writers -- (applause) -- challenge our museums, libraries and
theaters -- (applause) -- we should -- we should challenge all
Americans in the arts and humanities to join with our fellow citizens
to make the year 2000 a national celebration of the American spirit in
every community -- a celebration of our common culture in the century
that has passed, and in the new one to come in a new millennium, so
that we can remain the world's beacon not only of liberty, but of
creativity, long after the fireworks have faded.

To prepare America for the 21st century we must master the forces of
change in the world and keep American leadership strong and sure for
an uncharted time.

Fifty years ago, a farsighted America led in creating the
institutions that secured victory in the Cold War and built a growing
world economy. As a result, today more people than ever embrace our
ideals and share our interests. Already, we have dismantled many of
the blocs and barriers that divided our parents' world. For the first
time, more people live under democracy than dictatorship, including
every nation in our own hemisphere, but one -- and its day, too, will
come. (Applause.)

Now, we stand at another moment of change and choice --and another
time to be farsighted, to bring America 50 more years of security and
prosperity. In this endeavor, our first task is to help to build, for
the first time, an undivided, democratic Europe. When Europe is
stable, prosperous and at peace, America is more secure.

To that end, we must expand NATO by 1999, so that countries that were
once our adversaries can become our allies. At the special NATO summit
this summer, that is what we will begin to do. We must strengthen
NATO's Partnership for Peace with non-member allies. And we must
build a stable partnership between NATO and a democratic Russia.
(Applause.) An expanded NATO is good for America. And a Europe in
which all democracies define their future not in terms of what they
can do to each other, but in terms of what they can do together for
the good of all -- that kind of Europe is good for America.

Second, America must look to the East no less than to the West. Our
security demands it. Americans fought three wars in Asia in this
century. Our prosperity requires it. More than two million American
jobs depend upon trade with Asia.

There, too, we are helping to shape an Asian Pacific community of
cooperation, not conflict. Let our progress there not mask the peril
that remains. Together with South Korea, we must advance peace talks
with North Korea and bridge the Cold War's last divide. And I call on
Congress to fund our share of the agreement under which North Korea
must continue to freeze and then dismantle its nuclear weapons
program. (Applause.)

We must pursue a deeper dialogue with China -- for the sake of our
interests and our ideals. An isolated China is not good for America.
A China playing its proper role in the world is. I will go to China,
and I have invited China's President to come here, not because we
agree on everything, but because engaging China is the best way to
work on our common challenges like ending nuclear testing, and to
deal frankly with our fundamental differences like human rights.
(Applause.)

The American people must prosper in the global economy. We've worked
hard to tear down trade barriers abroad so that we can create good
jobs at home. I am proud to say that today, America is once again the
most competitive nation and the number one exporter in the world.
(Applause.)

Now we must act to expand our exports, especially to Asia and Latin
America -- two of the fastest growing regions on Earth -- or be left
behind as these emerging economies forge new ties with other nations.
That is why we need the authority now to conclude new trade agreements
that open markets to our goods and services even as we preserve our
values. (Applause.)

We need not shrink form the challenge of the global economy. After
all, we have the best workers and the best products. In a truly open
market, we can out-compete anyone, anywhere on Earth.

But this is about more than economics. By expanding trade, we can
advance the cause of freedom and democracy around the world. There is
no better example of this truth than Latin America where democracy and
open markets are on the march together. That is why I will visit there
in the spring to reinforce our important tie.

We should all be proud that America led the effort to rescue our
neighbor, Mexico, from its economic crises. And we should all be
proud that last month Mexico repaid the United States -- three full
years ahead of schedule -- with half a billion dollar profit to us.
(Applause.)

America must continue to be an unrelenting force for peace --- from
the Middle East to Haiti, from Northern Ireland to Africa. Taking
reasonable risks for peace keeps us from being drawn into far more
costly conflicts later.

With American leadership, the killing has stopped in Bosnia. Now the
habits of peace must take hold. The new NATO force will allow
reconstruction and reconciliation to accelerate. Tonight, I ask
Congress to continue its strong support for our troops. They are
doing a remarkable job there for America, and America must do right
by them. (Applause.)

Fifth, we must move strongly against new threats to our security. In
the past four years, we agreed to ban -- we led the way to a
worldwide agreement to ban nuclear testing. With Russia, we
dramatically cut nuclear arsenals and we stopped targeting each
others citizens. We are acting to prevent nuclear materials from
falling into the wrong hands and to rid the world of land mines.
(Applause.) We are working with other nations with renewed intensity
to fight drug traffickers and to stop terrorists before they act, and
hold them fully accountable if they do. (Applause.)

Now, we must rise to a new test of leadership: ratifying the Chemical
Weapons Convention. (Applause.) Make no mistake about it, it will make
our troops safer from chemical attack; it will help us to fight
terrorism. We have no more important obligations -- especially in the
wake of what we now know about the Gulf War. This treaty has been
bipartisan from the beginning -- supported by Republican and
Democratic administrations and Republican and Democratic members of
Congress -- and already approved by 68 nations.

But if we do not act by April the 29th -- when this Convention goes
into force, with or without us -- we will lose the chance to have
Americans leading and enforcing this effort. Together we must make
the Chemical Weapons Convention law, so that at last we can begin to
outlaw poison gas from the Earth. (Applause.)

Finally, we must have the tools to meet all these challenges. We must
maintain a strong and ready military. We must increase funding for
weapons modernization by the year 2000, and we must take good care of
our men and women in uniform. They are the world's finest.
(Applause.)

We must also renew our commitment to America's diplomacy, and pay our
debts and dues to international financial institutions like the World
Bank, and to a reforming United Nations. (Applause.) Every dollar we
devote to preventing conflicts, to promoting democracy, to stopping
the spread of disease and starvation, brings a sure return in
security and savings. Yet international affairs spending today is
just one percent of the federal budget -- a small fraction of what
America invested in diplomacy to choose leadership over escapism at
the start of the Cold War. If America is to continue to lead the
world, we here who lead America simply must find the will to pay our
way.

A farsighted America moved the world to a better place over these
last 50 years. And so it can be for another 50 years. But a
shortsighted America will soon find its words falling on deaf ears
all around the world. (Applause.)

Almost exactly 50 years ago, in the first winter of the Cold War,
President Truman stood before a Republican Congress and called upon
our country to meet its responsibilities of leadership. This was his
warning -- he said, "If we falter, we may endanger the peace of the
world, and we shall surely endanger the welfare of this nation." That
Congress, led by Republicans like Senator Arthur Vandenberg, answered
President Truman's call. Together, they made the commitments that
strengthened our country for 50 years.

Now let us do the same. Let us do what it takes to remain the
indispensable nation -- to keep America strong, secure and prosperous
for another 50 years. (Applause.)

In the end, more than anything else, our world leadership grows out
of the power of our example here at home, out of our ability to
remain strong as one America.

All over the world, people are being torn asunder by racial, ethnic,
and religious conflicts that fuel fanaticism and terror. We are the
world's most diverse democracy, and the world looks to us to show
that it is possible to live and advance together across those kinds
of differences.

America has always been a nation of immigrants. From the start, a
steady stream of people, in search of freedom and opportunity, have
left their own lands to make this land their home. We started as an
experiment in democracy fueled by Europeans. We have grown into an
experiment in democratic diversity fueled by openness and promise.

My fellow Americans, we must never, ever believe that our diversity
is a weakness -- it is our greatest strength. (Applause.) Americans
speak every language, know every county. People on every continent
can look to us and see the reflection of their own great potential --
and they always will, as long as we strive to give all of our
citizens, whatever their background, an opportunity to achieve their
own greatness.

We're not there yet. We still see evidence of abiding bigotry and
intolerance, in ugly words and awful violence, in burned churches and
bombed buildings. We must fight against this, in our country and in
our hearts.

Just a few days before my second Inauguration, one of country's best
known pastors, Reverend Robert Schuller, suggested that I read Isaiah
58:12. Here's what it says: "Thou shalt raise up the foundations of
many generations, and thou shalt be called, the repairer of the
breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in." I placed my hand on that
verse when I took the oath of office, on behalf of all Americans. For
no matter what our differences -- in our faiths, our backgrounds, our
politics -- we must all be repairers of the breach.

I want to say a word about two other Americans who show us how.
Congressman Frank Tejeda was buried yesterday, a proud American whose
family came from Mexico. He was only 51 years old. He was awarded the
Silver Star, the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart, fighting for his
country in Vietnam. And he went on to serve Texas and America
fighting for our future in this chamber. We are grateful for his
service and honored that his mother, Lillie Tejeda, and his sister,
Mary Alice, have come from Texas to be with us here tonight. And we
welcome you. (Applause.)

Gary Locke, the newly elected Governor of Washington State, is the
first Chinese-American governor in the history of our country. He's
the proud son of two of the millions of Asian-American immigrants who
have strengthened America with their hard work, family values and good
citizenship. He represents the future we can all achieve. Thank you,
Governor, for being here. Please stand up. (Applause.)

Reverend Schuller, Congressman Tejeda, Governor Locke, along with
Kristin Tanner and Chris Getsla, Sue Winski and Dr. Kristen Zarfos --
they're all Americans from different roots, whose lives reflect the
best of what we can become when we are one America. We may not share
a common past, but we surely do share a common future.

Building one America is our most important mission -- "the foundation
for many generations," of every other strength we must build for this
new century. Money cannot buy it. Power cannot compel it. Technology
cannot create it. It can only come from the human spirit.

America is far more than a place. It is an idea, the most powerful
idea in the history of nations. And all of us in this chamber, we are
now the bearers of that idea, leading a great people into a new world.
A child born tonight will have almost no memory of the 20th century.
Everything that child will know about America will be because of what
we do now to build a new century.

We don't have a moment to waste. Tomorrow there will be just over
1,000 days until the year 2000. One thousand days to prepare our
people. One thousand days to work together. One thousand days to
build a bridge to a land of new promise. My fellow Americans, we have
work to do. Let us seize those days and the century.