Speech Transcript:

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

Since the last time we met in this chamber, America has lost two
patriots and fine public servants. Though they sat on opposite sides
of the aisle, Representatives Walter Capps and Sonny Bono shared a
deep love for this House and an unshakable commitment to improving
the lives of all our people. In the past few weeks they've both been
eulogized. Tonight, I think we should begin by sending a message to
their families and their friends that we celebrate their lives and
give thanks for their service to our nation.

For 209 years it has been the President's duty to report to you on
the state of the Union. Because of the hard work and high purpose of
the American people, these are good times for America. We have more
than 14 million new jobs; the lowest unemployment in 24 years; the
lowest core inflation in 30 years; incomes are rising; and we have
the highest homeownership in history. Crime has dropped for a record
five years in a row. And the welfare rolls are at their lowest levels
in 27 years. Our leadership in the world is unrivaled. Ladies and
gentlemen, the state of our Union is strong.

With barely 700 days left in the 20th century, this is not a time to
rest. It is a time to build, to build the America within reach: an
America where everybody has a chance to get ahead with hard work;
where every citizen can live in a safe community; where families are
strong, schools are good and all young people can go to college; an
America where scientists find cures for diseases from diabetes to
Alzheimer's to AIDS; an America where every child can stretch a hand
across a keyboard and reach every book ever written, every painting
ever painted, every symphony ever composed; where government provides
opportunity and citizens honor the responsibility to give something
back to their communities; an America which leads the world to new
heights of peace and prosperity.

This is the America we have begun to build; this is the America we
can leave to our children -- if we join together to finish the work
at hand. Let us strengthen our nation for the 21st century.

Rarely have Americans lived through so much change, in so many ways,
in so short a time. Quietly, but with gathering force, the ground has
shifted beneath our feet as we have moved into an Information Age, a
global economy, a truly new world.

For five years now we have met the challenge of these changes as
Americans have at every turning point -- by renewing the very idea of
America: widening the circle of opportunity, deepening the meaning of
our freedom, forging a more perfect union.

We shaped a new kind of government for the Information Age. I thank
the Vice President for his leadership and the Congress for its
support in building a government that is leaner, more flexible, a
catalyst for new ideas -- and most of all, a government that gives
the American people the tools they need to make the most of their own
lives.

We have moved past the sterile debate between those who say
government is the enemy and those who say government is the answer.
My fellow Americans, we have found a third way. We have the smallest
government in 35 years, but a more progressive one. We have a smaller
government, but a stronger nation. We are moving steadily toward an
even stronger America in the 21st century: an economy that offers
opportunity, a society rooted in responsibility and a nation that
lives as a community.

First, Americans in this chamber and across our nation have pursued a
new strategy for prosperity: fiscal discipline to cut interest rates
and spur growth; investments in education and skills, in science and
technology and transportation, to prepare our people for the new
economy; new markets for American products and American workers.

When I took office, the deficit for 1998 was projected to be $357
billion, and heading higher. This year, our deficit is projected to
be $10 billion, and heading lower. For three decades, six Presidents
have come before you to warn of the damage deficits pose to our
nation. Tonight, I come before you to announce that the federal
deficit -- once so incomprehensibly large that it had 11 zeroes --
will be, simply, zero. I will submit to Congress for 1999 the first
balanced budget in 30 years. And if we hold fast to fiscal
discipline, we may balance the budget this year -- four years ahead
of schedule.

You can all be proud of that, because turning a sea of red ink into
black is no miracle. It is the product of hard work by the American
people, and of two visionary actions in Congress -- the courageous
vote in 1993 that led to a cut in the deficit of 90 percent --
(applause) -- and the truly historic bipartisan balanced budget
agreement passed by this Congress. Here's the really good news: If we
maintain our resolve, we will produce balanced budgets as far as the
eye can see.

We must not go back to unwise spending or untargeted tax cuts that
risk reopening the deficit. Last year, together we enacted targeted
tax cuts so that the typical middle class family will now have the
lowest tax rates in 20 years. My plan to balance the budget next year
includes both new investments and new tax cuts targeted to the needs
of working families: for education, for child care, for the
environment.

But whether the issue is tax cuts or spending, I ask all of you to
meet this test: Approve only those priorities that can actually be
accomplished without adding a dime to the deficit.

Now, if we balance the budget for next year, it is projected that
we'll then have a sizeable surplus in the years that immediately
follow. What should we do with this projected surplus? I have a
simple four-word answer: Save Social Security first. Thank you.

Tonight, I propose that we reserve 100 percent of the surplus --
that's every penny of any surplus -- until we have taken all the
necessary measures to strengthen the Social Security system for the
21st century. Let us say to all Americans watching tonight -- whether
you're 70 or 50, or whether you just started paying into the system --
Social Security will be there when you need it. Let us make this
commitment: Social Security first. Let's do that together.

I also want to say that all the American people who are watching us
tonight should be invited to join in this discussion, in facing these
issues squarely, and forming a true consensus on how we should
proceed. We'll start by conducting nonpartisan forums in every region
of the country -- and I hope that lawmakers of both parties will
participate. We'll hold a White House Conference on Social Security
in December. And one year from now I will convene the leaders of
Congress to craft historic, bipartisan legislation to achieve a
landmark for our generation -- a Social Security system that is
strong in the 21st century. Thank you.

In an economy that honors opportunity, all Americans must be able to
reap the rewards of prosperity. Because these times are good, we can
afford to take one simple, sensible step to help millions of workers
struggling to provide for their families: We should raise the minimum
wage.

The Information Age is, first and foremost, an education age, in
which education must start at birth and continue throughout a
lifetime. Last year, from this podium, I said that education has to
be our highest priority. I laid out a 10-point plan to move us
forward and urged all of us to let politics stop at the schoolhouse
door. Since then, this Congress, across party lines, and the American
people have responded, in the most important year for education in a
generation -- expanding public school choice, opening the way to
3,000 new charter schools, working to connect every classroom in the
country to the Information Superhighway, committing to expand Head
Start to a million children, launching America Reads, sending
literally thousands of college students into our elementary schools
to make sure all our 8-year-olds can read.

Last year I proposed, and you passed, 220,000 new Pell Grant
scholarships for deserving students. Student loans, already less
expensive and easier to repay, now you get to deduct the interest.
Families all over America now can put their savings into new tax-free
education IRAs. And this year, for the first two years of college,
families will get a $1,500 tax credit -- a HOPE Scholarship that will
cover the cost of most community college tuition. And for junior and
senior year, graduate school, and job training, there is a lifetime
learning credit. You did that and you should be very proud of it.

And because of these actions, I have something to say to every family
listening to us tonight: Your children can go on to college. If you
know a child from a poor family, tell her not to give up -- she can
go on to college. If you know a young couple struggling with bills,
worried they won't be able to send their children to college, tell
them not to give up -- their children can go on to college. If you
know somebody who's caught in a dead-end job and afraid he can't
afford the classes necessary to get better jobs for the rest of his
life, tell him not to give up -- he can go on to college. Because of
the things that have been done, we can make college as universal in
the 21st century as high school is today. And, my friends, that will
change the face and future of America.

We have opened wide the doors of the world's best system of higher
education. Now we must make our public elementary and secondary
schools the world's best as well -- (applause) -- by raising
standards, raising expectations, and raising accountability.

Thanks to the actions of this Congress last year, we will soon have,
for the very first time, a voluntary national test based on national
standards in 4th grade reading and 8th grade math. Parents have a
right to know whether their children are mastering the basics. And
every parent already knows the key: good teachers and small classes.

Tonight, I propose the first ever national effort to reduce class
size in the early grades. Thank you.

My balanced budget will help to hire 100,000 new teachers who have
passed a state competency test. Now, with these teachers -- listen --
with these teachers, we will actually be able to reduce class size in
the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades to an average of 18 students a class,
all across America.

If I've got the math right, more teachers teaching smaller classes
requires more classrooms. So I also propose a school construction tax
cut to help communities modernize or build 5,000 schools.

We must also demand greater accountability. When we promote a child
from grade to grade who hasn't mastered the work, we don't do that
child any favors. It is time to end social promotion in America's
schools.

Last year, in Chicago, they made that decision -- not to hold our
children back, but to lift them up. Chicago stopped social promotion,
and started mandatory summer school, to help students who are behind
to catch up. I propose -- (applause) -- I propose to help other
communities follow Chicago's lead. Let's say to them: Stop promoting
children who don't learn, and we will give you the tools to make sure
they do.

I also ask this Congress to support our efforts to enlist colleges
and universities to reach out to disadvantaged children, starting in
the 6th grade, so that they can get the guidance and hope they need
so they can know that they, too, will be able to go on to college.

As we enter the 21st century, the global economy requires us to seek
opportunity not just at home, but in all the markets of the world. We
must shape this global economy, not shrink from it. In the last five
years, we have led the way in opening new markets, with 240 trade
agreements that remove foreign barriers to products bearing the proud
stamp "Made in the USA." Today, record high exports account for fully
one-third of our economic growth. I want to keep them going, because
that's the way to keep America growing and to advance a safer, more
stable world.

All of you know whatever your views are that I think this a great
opportunity for America. I know there is opposition to more
comprehensive trade agreements. I have listened carefully and I
believe that the opposition is rooted in two fears: first, that our
trading partners will have lower environmental and labor standards
which will give them an unfair advantage in our market and do their
own people no favors, even if there's more business; and, second,
that if we have more trade, more of our workers will lose their jobs
and have to start over. I think we should seek to advance worker and
environmental standards around the world. I have made it abundantly
clear that it should be a part of our trade agenda. But we cannot
influence other countries' decisions if we send them a message that
we're backing away from trade with them.

This year, I will send legislation to Congress, and ask other nations
to join us, to fight the most intolerable labor practice of all --
abusive child labor. We should also offer help and hope to those
Americans temporarily left behind by the global marketplace or by the
march of technology, which may have nothing to do with trade. That's
why we have more than doubled funding for training dislocated workers
since 1993 -- and if my new budget is adopted, we will triple funding.
That's why we must do more, and more quickly, to help workers who lose
their jobs for whatever reason.

You know, we help communities in a special way when their military
base closes. We ought to help them in the same way if their factory
closes. Again, I ask the Congress to continue its bipartisan work to
consolidate the tangle of training programs we have today into one
single G.I. Bill for Workers, a simple skills grant so people can, on
their own, move quickly to new jobs, to higher incomes and brighter
futures.

We all know in every way in life change is not always easy, but we
have to decide whether we're going to try to hold it back and hide
from it or reap its benefits. And remember the big picture here:
While we've been entering into hundreds of new trade agreements,
we've been creating millions of new jobs.

So this year we will forge new partnerships with Latin America, Asia,
and Europe. And we should pass the new African Trade Act -- it has
bipartisan support. I will also renew my request for the fast track
negotiating authority necessary to open more new markets, create more
new jobs, which every President has had for two decades.

You know, whether we like it or not, in ways that are mostly
positive, the world's economies are more and more interconnected and
interdependent. Today, an economic crisis anywhere can affect
economies everywhere. Recent months have brought serious financial
problems to Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, and beyond.

Now, why should Americans be concerned about this? First, these
countries are our customers. If they sink into recession, they won't
be able to buy the goods we'd like to sell them. Second, they're also
our competitors. So if their currencies lose their value and go down,
then the price of their goods will drop, flooding our market and
others with much cheaper goods, which makes it a lot tougher for our
people to compete. And, finally, they are our strategic partners.
Their stability bolsters our security.

The American economy remains sound and strong, and I want to keep it
that way. But because the turmoil in Asia will have an impact on all
the world's economies, including ours, making that negative impact as
small as possible is the right thing to do for America -- and the
right thing to do for a safer world.

Our policy is clear: No nation can recover if it does not reform
itself. But when nations are willing to undertake serious economic
reform, we should help them do it. So I call on Congress to renew
America's commitment to the International Monetary Fund. And I think
we should say to all the people we're trying to represent here that
preparing for a far-off storm that may reach our shores is far wiser
than ignoring the thunder until the clouds are just overhead.

A strong nation rests on the rock of responsibility. A society rooted
in responsibility must first promote the value of work, not welfare.
We can be proud that after decades of finger-pointing and failure,
together we ended the old welfare system. And we're now we replacing
welfare checks with paychecks.

Last year, after a record four-year decline in welfare rolls, I
challenged our nation to move 2 million more Americans off welfare by
the year 2000. I'm pleased to report we have also met that goal, two
full years ahead of schedule.

This is a grand achievement, the sum of many acts of individual
courage, persistence and hope. For 13 years, Elaine Kinslow of
Indianapolis, Indiana, was on and off welfare. Today, she's a
dispatcher with the a van company. She's saved enough money to move
her family into a good neighborhood, and she's helping other welfare
recipients go to work. Elaine Kinslow and all those like her are the
real heroes of the welfare revolution. There are millions like her
all across America. And I'm happy she could join the First Lady
tonight. Elaine, we're very proud of you. Please stand up.

We still have a lot more to do, all of us, to make welfare reform a
success -- providing child care, helping families move closer to
available jobs, challenging more companies to join our
welfare-to-work partnership, increasing child support collections
from deadbeat parents who have a duty to support their own children.
I also want to thank Congress for restoring some of the benefits to
immigrants who are here legally and working hard -- and I hope you
will finish that job this year.

We have to make it possible for all hard-working families to meet
their most important responsibilities. Two years ago, we helped
guarantee that Americans can keep their health insurance when they
change jobs. Last year, we extended health care to up to 5 million
children. This year, I challenge Congress to take the next historic
steps.

One hundred sixty million of our fellow citizens are in managed care
plans. These plans save money and they can improve care. But medical
decisions ought to be made by medical doctors, not insurance company
accountants. I urge this Congress to reach across the aisle and write
into law a Consumer Bill of Rights that says this: You have the right
to know all your medical options, not just the cheapest. You have the
right to choose the doctor you want for the care you need. You have
the right to emergency room care, wherever and whenever you need it.
You have the right to keep your medical records confidential.
Traditional care or managed care, every American deserves quality
care.

Millions of Americans between the ages of 55 and 65 have lost their
health insurance. Some are retired; some are laid off; some lose
their coverage when their spouses retire. After a lifetime of work,
they are left with nowhere to turn. So I ask the Congress: Let these
hard-working Americans buy into the Medicare system. It won't add a
dime to the deficit -- but the peace of mind it will provide will be
priceless.

Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest
health threat that they face: an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by
multimillion-dollar marketing campaigns. I challenge Congress: Let's
pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that improve public
health, protect our tobacco farmers, and change the way tobacco
companies do business forever. Let's do what it takes to bring teen
smoking down. Let's raise the price of cigarettes by up to $1.50 a
pack over the next 10 years, with penalties on the tobacco industry
if it keeps marketing to our children.

Tomorrow, like every day, 3,000 children will start smoking, and
1,000 will die early as a result. Let this Congress be remembered as
the Congress that saved their lives.

In the new economy, most parents work harder than ever. They face a
constant struggle to balance their obligations to be good workers --
and their even more important obligations to be good parents. The
Family and Medical Leave Act was the very first bill I was privileged
to sign into law as President in 1993. Since then, about 15 million
people have taken advantage of it, and I've met a lot of them all
across this country. I ask you to extend that law to cover 10 million
more workers, and to give parents time off when they have to go see
their children's teachers or take them to the doctor.

Child care is the next frontier we must face to enable people to
succeed at home and at work. Last year, I co-hosted the very first
White House Conference on Child Care with one of our foremost
experts, America's First Lady. From all corners of America, we heard
the same message, without regard to region or income or political
affiliation: We've got to raise the quality of child care. We've got
to make it safer. We've got to make it more affordable.

So here's my plan: Help families to pay for child care for a million
more children. Scholarships and background checks for child care
workers, and a new emphasis on early learning. Tax credits for
businesses that provide child care for their employees. And a larger
child care tax credit for working families. Now, if you pass my plan,
what this means is that a family of four with an income of $35,000 and
high child care costs will no longer pay a single penny of federal
income tax.

I think this is such a big issue with me because of my own personal
experience. I have often wondered how my mother, when she was a young
widow, would have been able to go away to school and get an education
and come back and support me if my grandparents hadn't been able to
take care of me. She and I were really very lucky. How many other
families have never had that same opportunity? The truth is, we don't
know the answer to that question. But we do know what the answer
should be: Not a single American family should ever have to choose
between the job they need and the child they love.

A society rooted in responsibility must provide safe streets, safe
schools, and safe neighborhoods. We pursued a strategy of more
police, tougher punishment, smarter prevention, with crime-fighting
partnerships with local law enforcement and citizen groups, where the
rubber hits the road. I can report to you tonight that it's working.
Violent crime is down, robbery is down, assault is down, burglary is
down -- for five years in a row, all across America. We need to
finish the job of putting 100,000 more police on our streets.

Again, I ask Congress to pass a juvenile crime bill that provides
more prosecutors and probation officers, to crack down on gangs and
guns and drugs, and bar violent juveniles from buying guns for life.
And I ask you to dramatically expand our support for after-school
programs. I think every American should know that most juvenile crime
is committed between the hours of 3:00 in the afternoon and 8:00 at
night. We can keep so many of our children out of trouble in the
first place if we give them someplace to go other than the streets,
and we ought to do it.

Drug use is on the decline. I thank General McCaffrey for his
leadership. And I thank this Congress for passing the largest
antidrug budget in history. I ask you to join me in a ground-breaking
effort to hire 1,000 new border patrol agents and to deploy the most
sophisticated available new technologies to help close the door on
drugs at our borders.

Police, prosecutors, and prevention programs, as good as they are,
they can't work if our court system doesn't work. Today there are
large number of vacancies in the federal courts. Here is what the
Chief Justice of the United States wrote: Judicial vacancies cannot
remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality
of justice. I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea,
and vote on the highly qualified judicial nominees before you, up or
down.

We must exercise responsibility not just at home, but around the
world. On the eve of a new century, we have the power and the duty to
build a new era of peace and security. But, make no mistake about it,
today's possibilities are not tomorrow's guarantees. America must
stand against the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism. We must
combat an unholy axis of new threats from terrorists, international
criminals and drug traffickers. These 21st century predators feed on
technology and the free flow of information and ideas and people. And
they will be all the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall
into their hands.

To meet these challenges, we are helping to write international rules
of the road for the 21st century, protecting those who join the family
of nations and isolating those who do not. Within days, I will ask the
Senate for its advice and consent to make Hungary, Poland, and the
Czech Republic the newest members of NATO. For 50 years, NATO
contained communism and kept America and Europe secure. Now these
three formerly communist countries have said yes to democracy. I ask
the Senate to say yes to them -- our new allies.

By taking in new members and working closely with new partners,
including Russia and Ukraine, NATO can help to assure that Europe is
a stronghold for peace in the 21st century.

Next, I will ask Congress to continue its support for our troops and
their mission in Bosnia. This Christmas, Hillary and I traveled to
Sarajevo with Senator and Mrs. Dole and a bipartisan congressional
delegation. We saw children playing in the streets, where two years
ago they were hiding from snipers and shells. The shops are filled
with food; the cafes were alive with conversation. The progress there
is unmistakable -- but it is not yet irreversible.

To take firm root, Bosnia's fragile peace still needs the support of
American and allied troops when the current NATO mission ends in
June. I think Senator Dole actually said it best. He said, "This is
like being ahead in the 4th quarter of a football game. Now is not
the time to walk off the field and forfeit the victory."

I wish all of you could have seen our troops in Tuzla. They're very
proud of what they're doing in Bosnia. And we're all very proud of
them. One of those brave soldiers is sitting with the First Lady
tonight -- Army Sergeant Michael Tolbert. His father was a decorated
Vietnam vet. After college in Colorado, he joined the Army. Last
year, he led an infantry unit that stopped mob of extremists from
taking over a radio station that is a voice of democracy and
tolerance in Bosnia. Thank you very much, Sergeant, for what you
represent.

In Bosnia and around the world, our men and women in uniform always
do their mission well. Our mission must be to keep them well-trained
and ready, to improve their quality of life, and to provide the 21st
century weapons they need to defeat any enemy.

I ask Congress to join me in pursuing an ambitious agenda to reduce
the serious threat of weapons of mass destruction. This year, four
decades after it was first proposed by President Eisenhower, a
comprehensive nuclear test ban is within reach. By ending nuclear
testing we can help to prevent the development of new and more
dangerous weapons and make it more difficult for non-nuclear states
to build them.

I'm pleased to announce four former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff -- Generals John Shalikashvili, Colin Powell, and David Jones,
and Admiral William Crowe -- have endorsed this treaty. And I ask the
Senate to approve it this year.

Together, we also must also confront the new hazards of chemical and
biological weapons, and the outlaw states, terrorists and organized
criminals seeking to acquire them. Saddam Hussein has spent the
better part of this decade, and much of his nation's wealth, not on
providing for the Iraqi people, but on developing nuclear, chemical,
and biological weapons -- and the missiles to deliver them. The
United Nations weapons inspectors have done a truly remarkable job,
finding and destroying more of Iraq's arsenal than was destroyed
during the entire Gulf War. Now Saddam Hussein wants to stop them
from completing their mission.

I know I speak for everyone in this chamber, Republicans and
Democrats, when I say to Saddam Hussein: You cannot defy the will of
the world. And when I say to him: You have used weapons of mass
destruction before; we are determined to deny you the capacity to use
them again.

Last year, the Senate ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention to
protect our soldiers and citizens from poison gas. Now we must act to
prevent the use of disease as a weapon of war and terror, The
Biological Weapons Convention has been in effect for 23 years now.
The rules are good, but the enforcement is weak. We must strengthen
it with a new international inspection system to detect and deter
cheating.

In the months ahead, I will pursue our security strategy with old
allies in Asia and Europe, and new partners from Africa to India and
Pakistan, from South America to China. And from Belfast, to Korea to
the Middle East, America will continue to stand with those who stand
for peace.

Finally, it's long past time to make good on our debt to the United
Nations. More and more, we are working with other nations to achieve
common goals. If we want America to lead, we've got to set a good
example. As we see so clearly in Bosnia, allies who share our goals
can also share our burdens. In this new era, our freedom and
independence are actually enriched, not weakened, by our increasing
interdependence with other nations. But we have to do our part.

Our founders set America on a permanent course toward "a more perfect
union." To all of you I say it is a journey we can only make together
-- living as one community. First, we have to continue to reform our
government -- the instrument of our national community. Everyone
knows elections have become too expensive, fueling a fundraising arms
race. This year, by March 6th, at long last the Senate will actually
vote on bipartisan campaign finance reform proposed by Senators
McCain and Feingold. Let's be clear: A vote against McCain and
Feingold is a vote for soft money and for the status quo. I ask you
to strengthen our democracy and pass campaign finance reform this
year.

At least equally important, we have to address the real reason for
the explosion in campaign costs -- the high cost of media
advertising. To the folks watching at home, those were the groans of
pain in the audience. (Laughter.) I will formally request that the
Federal Communications Commission act to provide free or reduced-cost
television time for candidates who observe spending limits
voluntarily. The airwaves are a public trust, and broadcasters also
have to help us in this effort to strengthen our democracy.

Under the leadership of Vice President Gore, we've reduced the
federal payroll by 300,000 workers, cut 16,000 pages of regulation,
eliminated hundreds of programs and improved the operations of
virtually every government agency. But we can do more. Like every
taxpayer, I'm outraged by the reports of abuses by the IRS. We need
some changes there -- new citizen advocacy panels, a stronger
taxpayer advocate, phone lines open 24 hours a day, relief for
innocent taxpayers. Last year, by an overwhelming bipartisan margin,
the House of Representatives passed sweeping IRS reforms. This bill
must not now languish in the Senate. Tonight I ask the Senate: follow
the House, pass the bipartisan package as your first order of
business.

I hope to goodness before I finish I can think of something to say,
"follow the Senate" on, so I'll be out of trouble. (Laughter.)

A nation that lives as a community must value all its communities.
For the past five years, we have worked to bring the spark of private
enterprise to inner city and poor rural areas -- with community
development banks, more commercial loans in the poor neighborhoods,
cleanup of polluted sites for development. Under the continued
leadership of the Vice President, we propose to triple the number of
empowerment zones, to give business incentives to invest in those
areas.

We should also should give poor families more help to move into homes
of their own, and we should use tax cuts to spur the construction of
more low-income housing.

Last year, this Congress took strong action to help the District of
Columbia. Let us renew our resolve to make our capital city a great
city for all who live and visit here. Our cities are the vibrant hubs
of great metropolitan areas. They are still the gateways for new
immigrants, from every continent, who come here to work for their own
American Dreams. Let's keep our cities going strong into the 21st
century. They're a very important part of our future.

Our communities are only as healthy as the air our children breathe,
the water they drink, the Earth they will inherit. Last year, we put
in place the toughest-ever controls on smog and soot. We moved to
protect Yellowstone, the Everglades, Lake Tahoe. We expanded every
community's right to know about the toxins that threaten their
children. Just yesterday, our food safety plan took effect, using new
science to protect consumers from dangers like E. coli and
salmonella.

Tonight, I ask you to join me in launching a new Clean Water
Initiative, a far-reaching effort to clean our rivers, our lakes, our
coastal waters for our children.

Our overriding environmental challenge tonight is the worldwide
problem of climate change, global warming, the gathering crisis that
requires worldwide action. The vast majority of scientists have
concluded unequivocally that if we don't reduce the emission of
greenhouse gases, at some point in the next century we'll disrupt our
climate and put our children and grandchildren at risk. This past
December, America led the world to reach a historic agreement
committing our nation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through
market forces, new technologies, energy efficiency. We have it in our
power to act right here, right now. I propose $6 billion in tax cuts
and research and development to encourage innovation, renewable
energy, fuel-efficient cars, energy-efficient homes.

Every time we have acted to heal our environment, pessimists have
told us it would hurt the economy. Well, today our economy is the
strongest in a generation, and our environment is the cleanest in a
generation. We have always found a way to clean the environment and
grow the economy at the same time. And when it comes to global
warming, we'll do it again.

Finally, community means living by the defining American value -- the
ideal heard round the world that we are all created equal. Throughout
our history, we haven't always honored that ideal and we've never
fully lived up to it. Often it's easier to believe that our
differences matter more than what we have in common. It may be
easier, but it's wrong.

What we have to do in our day and generation to make sure that
America becomes truly one nation -- what do we have to do? We're
becoming more and more and more diverse. Do you believe we can become
one nation? The answer cannot be to dwell on our differences, but to
build on our shared values. We all cherish family and faith, freedom
and responsibility. We all want our children to grow up in a world
where their talents are matched by their opportunities.

I've launched this national initiative on race to help us recognize
our common interests and to bridge the opportunity gaps that are
keeping us from becoming one America. Let us begin by recognizing
what we still must overcome. Discrimination against any American is
un-American. We must vigorously enforce the laws that make it
illegal. I ask your help to end the backlog at the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission. Sixty thousand of our fellow citizens are
waiting in line for justice, and we should act now to end their
wait.

We also should recognize that the greatest progress we can make
toward building one America lies in the progress we make for all
Americans, without regard to race. When we open the doors of college
to all Americans, when we rid all our streets of crime, when there
are jobs available to people from all our neighborhoods, when we make
sure all parents have the child care they need, we're helping to build
one nation.

We, in this chamber and in this government, must do all we can to
address the continuing American challenge to build one America. But
we'll only move forward if all our fellow citizens -- including every
one of you at home watching tonight -- is also committed to this
cause.

We must work together, learn together, live together, serve together.
On the forge of common enterprise Americans of all backgrounds can
hammer out a common identity. We see it today in the United States
military, in the Peace Corps, in AmeriCorps. Wherever people of all
races and backgrounds come together in a shared endeavor and get a
fair chance, we do just fine. With shared values and meaningful
opportunities and honest communication and citizen service, we can
unite a diverse people in freedom and mutual respect. We are many; we
must be one.

In that spirit, let us lift our eyes to the new millennium. How will
we mark that passage? It just happens once every thousand years. This
year, Hillary and I launched the White House Millennium Program to
promote America's creativity and innovation, and to preserve our
heritage and culture into the 21st century. Our culture lives in
every community, and every community has places of historic value
that tell our stories as Americans. We should protect them. I am
proposing a public-private partnership to advance our arts and
humanities, and to celebrate the millennium by saving American's
treasures, great and small.

And while we honor the past, let us imagine the future. Think about
this -- the entire store of human knowledge now doubles every five
years. In the 1980s, scientists identified the gene causing cystic
fibrosis -- it took nine years. Last year, scientists located the
gene that causes Parkinson's Disease -- in only nine days. Within a
decade, "gene chips" will offer a road map for prevention of
illnesses throughout a lifetime. Soon we'll be able to carry all the
phone calls on Mother's Day on a single strand of fiber the width of
a human hair. A child born in 1998 may well live to see the 22nd
century.

Tonight, as part of our gift to the millennium, I propose a 21st
Century Research Fund for path-breaking scientific inquiry -- the
largest funding increase in history for the National Institutes of
Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Cancer
Institute.

We have already discovered genes for breast cancer and diabetes. I
ask you to support this initiative so ours will be the generation
that finally wins the war against cancer, and begins a revolution in
our fight against all deadly diseases.

As important as all this scientific progress is, we must continue to
see that science serves humanity, not the other way around. We must
prevent the misuse of genetic tests to discriminate against any
American. And we must ratify the ethical consensus of the scientific
and religious communities, and ban the cloning of human beings.

We should enable all the world's people to explore the far reaches of
cyberspace. Think of this -- the first time I made a State of the
Union speech to you, only a handful of physicists used the World Wide
Web. Literally, just a handful of people. Now, in schools, in
libraries, homes and businesses, millions and millions of Americans
surf the Net every day. We must give parents the tools they need to
help protect their children from inappropriate material on the
Internet. But we also must make sure that we protect the exploding
global commercial potential of the Internet. We can do the kinds of
things that we need to do and still protect our kids.

For one thing, I ask Congress to step up support for building the
next generation Internet. It's getting kind of clogged, you know. And
the next generation Internet will operate at speeds up to a thousand
times faster than today.

Even as we explore this inner space in a new millennium we're going
to open new frontiers in outer space. Throughout all history,
humankind has had only one place to call home -- our planet Earth.
Beginning this year, 1998, men and women from 16 countries will build
a foothold in the heavens -- the international space station. With its
vast expanses, scientists and engineers will actually set sail on an
unchartered sea of limitless mystery and unlimited potential.

And this October, a true American hero, a veteran pilot of 149 combat
missions and one, five-hour space flight that changed the world, will
return to the heavens. Godspeed, John Glenn. John, you will carry
with you America's hopes. And on your uniform, once again, you will
carry America's flag, marking the unbroken connection between the
deeds of America's past and the daring of America's future.

Nearly 200 years ago, a tattered flag, its broad stripes and bright
stars still gleaming through the smoke of a fierce battle, moved
Francis Scott Key to scribble a few words on the back of an envelope
-- the words that became our national anthem. Today, that Start
Spangled Banner, along with the Declaration of Independence, the
Constitution and the Bill of Rights, are on display just a short walk
from here. They are America's treasures and we must also save them for
the ages.

I ask all Americans to support our project to restore all our
treasures so that the generations of the 21st century can see for
themselves the images and the words that are the old and continuing
glory of America; an America that has continued to rise through every
age, against every challenge, of people of great works and greater
possibilities, who have always, always found the wisdom and strength
to come together as one nation -- to widen the circle of opportunity,
to deepen the meaning of our freedom, to form that "more perfect
union." Let that be our gift to the 21st century.

God bless you, and God bless the United States.