THE WHITE HOUSE

                    Office of the Press Secretary

_____________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                             June 20, 1996

                      REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
                  TO THE WOMEN'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
	     
                        The Washington Hilton
                           Washington, DC



12:55 P.M. EDT


	     THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  If I had any 
sense, I would quit while I'm ahead.  (Laughter.)
	     
	     Thank you for that wonderful, warm welcome.  I thank 
those here at the head table for their work -- Ellen Malcolm and 
Pauline Schneider.  John Bryan, thanks for sitting up here with me 
and upholding gender equality.  (Laughter.)  I appreciate that.  And 
thank you for proving as, I believe, one of America's truly 
outstanding chief executive officers, that it is possible to do well 
and to do good in one's life.  Thank you for what you have done.  
Thank you.  (Applause.)
	     
	     And thank you, Judy Lichtman.  You know, she was saying 
all that about constancy and always being there.  And the truth is, I 
just could never bear to disappoint her.  (Laughter.)  You are a 
remarkable national treasure for what you have done here, and we are 
very grateful to you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  
(Applause.)
	     
	     You were kind enough to mention the women who hold 
prominent positions in our administration and who fill judgeships of 
this country, and the U.S. attorneys positions and others.  There are 
two who came with me today who have a lot to do with the work we do 
on women's issues, and I would like to acknowledge them in particular 
-- Alexis Herman and Betsy Myers.  I thank them for what they have 
done in -- (applause).
	     
	     I note with some satisfaction and pride that in the last 
two years you had the Vice President speak here.  And then you had 
Hillary speak here.  And I'm glad you finally got around to me.  
(Laughter.)  I appreciate being given the chance to come.  
(Laughter.)
	     
	     I also appreciate, and I know Congresswoman Jane Harman, 
who's here with me, appreciates what you said about the Congress and 
the budget.  John heard me say this yesterday, but about 10 days ago 
or so I was at one of these fundraisers, you know, that you do a lot 
of at this time of year, there was a gentlemen there at the 
fundraiser who had brought his son.  His son was his companion
at the fundraiser.  And this young man was 10 years old.  I asked him 
after this interchange how old he was because it was so amazing.  
This young man comes up to me, shakes my hand, says, you know, Mr. 
President, he said, I imagine it's difficult for you to hear a funny 
joke that you can actually retell in public, isn't it?  (Laughter.)  
A 10 year old boy.  And I said, well, now that you mention it, it 
kind of is.  (Laughter.)  When I was a governor, I used to keep 
people laughing all the time.  Then they told me it wasn't 
presidential.  
	     
	     And he said, well, I heard one that I think you can use.  
I think it's appropriate.  (Laughter.)  I said, alright, what is it?  
He said, well you should tell people that you're being President with 
this Congress is sort of like a man standing in a cemetery.  There 
are a lot of people under you, but nobody's listening.  (Laughter and  
applause.)  In case you'd like to meet that young man, he's now the 
youngest member of the White House speechwriting staff -- (laughter) 
-- and intending to support his parents in their old age. 
	     
	     I am very honored to be here, especially on your 25th 
anniversary, to thank you more than anything else for the work that 
you have done for opportunities for women, for stronger families, and 
a brighter future for America.  As many of you have heard me say so 
many times, I am convinced that we are moving into an age of enormous 
possibility for our people as we move from the Industrial Age to the 
Information Age, as we leave the Cold War behind for a new global 
society that is full of its own problems but still provides people 
more opportunities to live out their dreams in different ways than 
any previous period in human history.
	     
	     I ran for President because I wanted to move our country 
into the 21st century, meeting the challenges of this new era, 
protecting our values and guaranteeing that every American who would 
be responsible should have the chance to pursue opportunities; that 
would give every person -- without regard to their race, their 
gender, their background -- the chance to live out their dreams, 
because I wanted to see this country coming together instead of being 
divided.  And I was very tired, and I'm even more tired today, of 
seeing the political process used to take this incredible 
kaleidoscopic, diverse society to divide the American people when we 
ought to be working for ways to unite the American people.  
(Applause.)  
	     
	     And because I felt very strongly that our country at the 
end of the Cold War could not revert to its historic impulse, to 
withdraw into our borders -- that this is a time when we have to stay 
involved in the world, when only America can be the world's greatest 
source of inspiration for peace and freedom and for prosperity.
	     
	     So those were the things that I wanted to do when I ran 
for this job, that I was determined to do when I got this job.  And 
you have helped in that mission.  You know, preserving the basic 
values of America and making us live up to them -- that's really what 
the Women's Legal Defense Fund is all about.  The opportunity for 
people to live out their own personal dreams and to build strong 
families and forge strong communities -- that's really what the 
Women's Legal Defense Fund is all about.
	     
	     We are still working on those things, and we are still 
bedeviled by some old problems.  Yesterday, you many have seen in the 
press reports, I spend a lot of time working with governors and other 
officials to try to come up with even more effective strategies to 
not only find the people who are burning these religious institutions 
-- most of them African American churches, at least one of them a 
mosque and, I might add, some white churches that have burned in our 
country in the last 18 months -- there has been a big upsurge in 
overall burnings of religious institutions in the last 18 months.  
But we were also searching for ways to reach the heart of America to 
prevent these things from occurring. because they are a stark 
reminder that while we value religious liberty more deeply than any 
other nation in human history, the demons that haunt the human spirit 
in every land are not absent from America.  And you have to stamp 
them out whenever they rear their ugly head.  (Applause.)
	     
	     I will always be very grateful, as Judy said, that the 
first law I signed was the Family and Medical Leave Law.  (Applause.)  
And I wanted it so badly -- and some of you may remember, it was a 
hotly debated issue in the 1992 campaign because Congress had already 
passed it and it had been vetoed once, maybe even twice.  I can't 
remember.  But the thing that struck me about it is that it was the 
symbol of the kind of country we should be trying to build.  I am the 
son and the grandson of working women.  I never thought there was 
anything abnormal about it.  But I also know that the most important 
job any man or woman has is doing a good job of raising the children 
that they're fortunate enough to bring into this world.
	     
	     And it seems to me that if you look at the pattern of 
work and child rearing and the tensions between them, and the 
troubles so many people still have finding adequate child care, and 
the difficulties so many people still have earning a decent living, 
an adequate living to raise their children, and still have time left 
over to spend time with their children.
	     
	     One of the central goals of America in the 21st century 
should be to enable people to succeed at work and at home.  If we 
have to choose one or the other, we're going to be in trouble.  We 
know now that our economy needs all these people in the work force.  
We know that most families, even two-parent families, need both 
incomes to have a good stable life.  How can we even imagine a world 
with even more rapid changes and more unforeseen challenges that 
doesn't have systems in America for people succeeding at home and at 
work?  If we have to give up succeeding at work to raise our 
children, our economy will surely suffer.  If we have to give up 
successful raising our children just to make a living, well, the 
money won't be worth it.
	     
	     The Family and Medical Leave Law puts this country on 
record as saying our national goal is to enable people to be good 
parents and successful at work.  And I'm proud to say that a recent 
bipartisan panel concluded that just since the law has been in 
effect, 12 million American workers have been able to take time off 
when they had a birth in the family or a sick child or a sick parent 
without losing their jobs.  Almost 90 percent of the businesses that 
were surveyed said that complying with the law costs them little or 
nothing.  This has been good for families and good for America.
	     
	     The other day we had a very impressive group of people 
in the White House, the children who were the designated 
representatives of the Children's Miracle Telethon in each of the 
states, children who had been desperately ill in children's 
hospitals, and they and their parents came to the White House.  And I 
went downstairs to shake hands with all of them.  And before I got 
out of the room, two of the parents spontaneously had come up to me 
and said, we would never have made it if it hadn't been for the 
Family Leave Law.  I got to keep my job and try to help take care of 
my child.  I don't know what this country was like before it.
	     
	     And I can say to you it's amazing to me there are still 
people who say that we shouldn't have passed it.  There are still 
people stubbornly saying, oh, there must be some way around this.  
There is no way around it.  Our goal should be success at home; 
success at work.  And that's what it's all about.  And if it hadn't 
been for the Women's Legal Defense Fund, it might not be the law of 
the land.  You were there a long before I had a chance to sign it and 
I thank you for that.  (Applause.)
	     
	     I've sought for other ways to give women and 
particularly families more power, more control.  It is true that I
have sought to protect the right to choose and reproductive rights.  
We also have dramatically expanded what I call the family tax credit, 
the earned income tax credit, so that as we go forward today it's 
worth about $1,000 to every family in the country with an income of 
$28,000 or less with children in the home.  Our goal is to say if 
we're going to preach at people to work, the tax system should not 
put them in poverty if they have children at home.  If you work full 
time and you have children at home, the tax system should lift you 
out of poverty, not push you down into it.  That's what the earned 
income tax credit's all about, and I'm very proud of it.  And I have 
opposed vociferously the attempts in the last year and a half to cut 
back on it in ways that would, in effect, raise taxes on the hardest 
pressed working families in this country.  That is wrong.  Success at 
home, success at work.  Don't let the government get in the way of 
that.  The government should be helping that.  
	     
	     We also have tried to give parents more control in 
helping to raise their children.  That's really what the crusade 
we've been on trying to restrict advertising of tobacco products to 
children is about.  (Applause.)  And it's what the V chip was all 
about.  And I applaud the entertainment industry for their 
willingness to develop these rating systems on television.  I don't 
believe in censorship, I just believe parents ought to have some 
ability to raise their kids and to try to expose them to things in 
the appropriate way at the appropriate time.  And this is the thing 
that I think all of you -- I think it would be helpful to all of us 
if we began to think in these terms.
	     
	     We don't have a person to waste.  We need everybody's 
ability.  We need people to have a chance to grow up and have good 
schools and a clean environment and safe streets and also strong 
families.  And when I think, when I imagine what the world is going 
to be like 10 or 15 years from now, I know that there will be 
millions of people working 10 years from now in jobs that have not 
even been created yet.  Some of them we can't even imagine.  And it 
will be a very exciting time if we have a system by which we can work 
with other freedom loving people to fight back the security threats 
we face from terrorism and biological and chemical weapons and things 
like that; and if we have a structure of community and family here at 
home that enables us to give people the chance to be successful at 
home and successful at work, and children the chance to have safe 
streets and good schools and a clean environment.  If we can do that, 
if we can set up that framework, there are no guarantees in life, but 
at least people will have the opportunities they need.
	     
	     One other thing I want to say about that is that that 
means that this country must say that the level of crime and violence 
we have is simply unacceptable and it is not unavoidable.  We can do 
something about it.  (Applause.)
	     
	     You know, when we passed the Crime Bill in 1994, it 
embodied the central commitments I made to the American people when I 
ran for President.  We also passed the Brady Bill then.  I said I 
want the Brady Bill, I want the assault weapons banned, I want 
100,000 police on the street, I want three strikes and you're out for 
serious offenders, but I want funds going to communities to give 
young people the chance to say yes to something, to stay out of 
trouble before they get into trouble.  That's what I think we ought 
to do.  (Applause.)
	     
	     And I have spent years and years and years going around 
visiting people in law enforcement and looking at these programs and 
trying to learn what works -- first, of course, in my own state and 
then, when I began to travel some, around the country.  And I was 
convinced that we can bring the crime rate down.  I'd seen it happen 
in various communities simply by implementing these strategies.  And 
there were those who said that the Crime Bill was a fraud and a fake 
and wouldn't have any impact.  Well, I can tell you that it's 1996 
now, and we're almost half-way home on putting those 100,000 police 
on the street.  We're ahead of schedule.  We are under budget.  
	     
	     We have passed the assault weapons ban.  And there 
haven't been any hunters and sportsmen or women lose their weapons 
and their bullets and all that.  It was all a big smoke screen.  
Everybody who wants to go deer hunting is still doing it.  
(Laughter.)  But I'll tell you something, there are 60,000 -- let me 
say it again, 60,000 -- felons, fugitives and stalkers who have not 
been able to buy handguns because of the Brady Bill. Check into it.  
(Applause.)
	     
	     Now the Supreme Court has agreed to review a case over 
the constitutionality of requiring local law enforcement officials to 
help make sure that a person buying a handgun is legally entitled to 
do so.  Well I just want to make clear, I am going to do everything 
in my power to keep the Brady Bill the law of the land.  It's keeping 
people alive.  It's a good thing.  (Applause.)  Convicted felons and 
fugitives and people who are a threat to the community or to their 
own spouses and children should not be out there, if we can keep them 
legally from having the handguns by a simple waiting period so that 
we can check whether they should have it or not.  Every law 
enforcement organization in this country has endorsed the Brady Bill.  
And we dare not walk away from it.  It is keeping people alive.  
	     
	     And let me point out now, the prime rate in this country 
is going down this year.  It is going to be the fourth year in a row 
that it's gone down.  It's because people all over this country now 
have figured out community policing works, because prevention 
strategies work; because this whole approach works.  There's more to 
do.  We need to ban these cop-killer bullets so our police are not at 
risk when they're out there.  (Applause.)  But this is working.  
(Applause.)  And the point I want to make to you is that we can make 
a difference here.  We can make a difference here.  Don't let anybody 
tell you that America is just an inherently violent country and we 
have to tolerate this level of violence.  It is simply not true.  We 
can do better.  
	     
	     There's more to do in a lot of other ways.  I thank you 
for support of the minimum wage.  Ten million people depend on it and 
we need to raise it.  (Applause.)  I'm rather tired of being told 
that the only people that get the minimum wage are middle and 
upper-middle class teenagers who are living at home with their 
parents who don't need it.  Sixty percent of the people on the 
minimum wage are women workers, many of them have children they're 
trying to support on the minimum wage.  (Applause.)
	     
	     We have to help people adjust to the changes in the new 
economy.  That's why I, even though -- and I appreciate what Judy 
said about health care, and I thank -- so many of you helped Hillary 
when we committed the unpardonable sin of trying to give every 
American health care that they could afford.  (Laughter.)  And 
somehow I don't think God's going to hold it against us when our 
final accounting comes.  (Applause.)  
	     
	     But we ought to pass the Kennedy-Kassebaum bill, and we 
ought to do it now.  We ought to do it in a uncluttered fashion.  And 
we ought to quit fooling around with it.  (Applause.)  It's time to 
stop holding these good legislative measures.  That bill passed 100 
to zero in the Senate.  And it is now being held hostage to 
controversial measures inessential to the fundamental purpose of the 
Kennedy-Kassebaum bill.  We should pass it now.  People should not 
lose their health care because somebody in their family has been sick 
or because they have to change jobs.  That is wrong, and we can 
change it and we should do it.  (Applause.)
	     
	     We ought to guarantee that whenever someone loses a job 
or they're grossly underemployed and they need more training, they 
qualify for federal help.  I believe they should get a voucher they 
can take to their local community college.  That's the G.I. Bill for 
American men and women workers.  That has been tied up in the 
Congress over an ideological argument, extraneous to the merits, for 
a year.  It is time to pass that.  (Applause.)
	     
	     The Congress has a package of pension reform legislation 
which would make it much easier for small businesses and 
self-employed people to take out pensions and then to carry it with 
them from job to job without ever losing their coverage.  That sounds 
like a simple thing if you happen to work for the government and 
you've got a good retirement program, or you're fortunate enough to 
be in a big company with a good retirement program.  But it is a huge 
deal to American men and women who do not have access to this.  And 
as far as I know, there is no opposition in the Congress to this 
package of pension reform legislation.  We ought to pass it, get it 
out there, tell people you can at least save for your retirement and 
you won't lose it if you lose your job for a while or you have to 
change jobs.  These are important measures that need to pass.  
(Applause.)
	     
	     And I believe that while we dare not get into some 
flagrant tax-cutting war until we finish the work of balancing the 
budget, we should give families a deduction for the cost of college 
tuition and a tax credit so that everybody who wants to can go to at 
least two years of education after high school; to make community 
college 14 years of education, not 12 the rule in America.  We need 
it.  It would help the American economy.  It would lift the incomes 
of millions of working women.  (Applause.)

	     I also want to say that we have more to do in the area 
of public safety, especially on the issue of domestic violence.  A 
lot of you were particularly active when we working for the Crime 
Bill in passing the Violence Against Women provisions and setting up 
the domestic violence operation in the Justice Department, which 
Bonnie Campbell is doing such a good job of heading.  And I thank you 
for that.  But there is more to be done there.  Violence against 
women is certainly no stranger in this country.  It is an unwelcome 
intruder.  And it is not a family  problem, and it is not a woman 
problem, and let me say it is most assuredly not just a poor person's 
problem.  This is an American problem that we have to face.  
(Applause.)

	     In September federal prosecutors used that law to ensure 
that a man convicted of severe violence against his wife was 
sentenced to life in prison.  The Violence Against Women Act says 
that victims of domestic violence should be able to seek relief in 
federal court for a violation of their civil rights, and yesterday a 
federal judge upheld that provision of the law as well.  (Applause.)
	     
	     Last February, we launched a 24 hour, seven day, 
toll-free hotline so that women in trouble can find out how to get 
emergency help, find shelter, or report abuse to the authority.  
Today, the hotline has responded to over 20,000 calls from women all 
across this country.  Again, that's just the first three months.  We 
don't have the latest up-to-date.  But, think of that -- a lot of 
those people never would have even called for help before.  And I'll 
get in my plug, the number is 1-800-799-SAFE.  And I want people to 
keep using that number.  We are working those cases and helping 
people.  
	     
	     Today, we are taking the next step.  I am proud to 
announce that our Justice Department is awarding over $46 million to 
help 336 different communities in America to fight domestic violence 
through the community policing program.  The police departments who 
will be receiving these grants have well-established community 
policing programs, strong relationships with local providers of 
services to victims.  We're coupling the power of the police forces 
routed in the community with the experience of people who have been 
fighting domestic violence for a long time.
	     
	     And again, I say, this will work.  I was in San Diego 
recently, and let me just give you one example.  Their police 
department has one of the largest domestic violence networks in 
America.  They formed it in 1992 and since then, domestic violence 
homicides have been cut by 50 percent.  You must believe we can do 
something about these problems, otherwise all these things just 
become words.  I'm telling you, you can make a difference if we do 
the right things and we do them together.  
	     
	     The San Diego Police Department is getting a grant today 
that they will use to help start an information network with the 
local YWCA to give victims and service providers and police officers 
one-stop access to all the available help in the area, to bring the 
domestic violence rate in San Diego down even more and to help 
victims as they work to take control of their lives back.
	     
	     As I said when I announced the hotline, you know, if it 
just saves one life it's worth it.  But it's not enough.  We have to 
keep doing this until this is the exception, not the rule.  We have 
to keep working on all these problems until crime is the exception, 
not the rule.  We will never rid the country of crime.  We will never 
have no domestic violence.  But you know what the test is?  The test 
will be when you can go home at night, turn on the evening news and 
if the lead story is a crime story, it the lead story is a domestic 
violence story, you are surprised instead of numb to it.  That is the 
test.  And we have to keep going until you are surprised again.  
(Applause.)
	     
	     So I will close by echoing Judy's wonderful remarks.  As 
you celebrate 25 years of progress in the lives of women and strength 
for the women and families of this country, I ask you to rededicate 
yourselves to the work yet to be done.  I ask you to see this as an 
unfinished journey.  I ask you to celebrate your achievements as 
evidence that you can make a difference.  Sometimes I think that when 
we think about our thorniest problems, our biggest difficulty is that 
we tend to get so weighed down by them we think that we can't change 
the fundamental fabric of this society.  Two hundred twenty 
years-plus of American experience gives the lie to that cynicism.  
You can make things better, you can make progress, we can make a 
difference.  You have a great 25 years, and you have got an agenda 
that will fill up the next few years.  I ask you to embrace it with 
vigor and good humor and determination and courage, and we will 
prevail.

	     Thank you and God bless you all.  (Applause.)
	     
             END                          1:25 P.M. EDT