Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored
guests, my fellow Americans:
*** Quote ***
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, honored
guests, my fellow Americans:
Tonight, I have the honor of reporting on the State of the Union. Let me begin by saluting the new Speaker of the House, and thanking him for extending invitations to two special guests who are sitting in the gallery with Mrs. Hastert. Lyn Gibson and Wei Ling Chestnut are the widows of the two brave Capitol Police Officers who gave their lives to defend freedom's house.
Speaker Hastert: At your swearing in, you asked us to work in a spirit of civility and bipartisanship. Mr. Speaker, let's do exactly that.
I stand before you to report that America has created the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history -- with nearly 18 million new jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare rolls in 30 years -- and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.
For the first time in three decades, the budget is balanced. From a deficit of $290 billion in 1992, we had a surplus of $70 billion last year. We are on course for budget surpluses for the next 25 years.
Violent crime is the lowest in a quarter century. Our environment is the cleanest in a quarter century.
America is a strong force for peace from Northern Ireland, to Bosnia, to the Middle East.
Thanks to the pioneering leadership of Vice President Gore, we have a government for the Information Age. Once again, our government is a progressive instrument of the common good, rooted in our oldest values: opportunity, responsibility, community. A modern government, devoted to fiscal responsibility and determined to give our people the tools they need to make the most of their own lives. A 21st Century government for 21st Century America.
My fellow Americans, I stand before you to report that the state of our union is strong.
America is working again. The promise of our future is limitless. But we cannot realize that promise if we allow the hum of our prosperity to lull us into complacency. How we fare as a nation far into the 21st Century depends upon what we do as a nation today.
So with our budget surplus growing, our economy expanding, our confidence rising, now is the moment for this generation to meet our historic responsibility to the 21st Century. Let's get to work.
THE AGING OF 21ST CENTURY AMERICA
Our fiscal discipline gives us an unsurpassed opportunity to address a remarkable new challenge: the aging of America.
With the number of elderly Americans set to double by 2030, the Baby Boom will become a Senior Boom.
So first and above all, we must save Social Security for the 21st Century.
Early in this century, being old meant being poor. When President Roosevelt created Social Security, thousands wrote to thank him for eliminating what one woman called the "stark terror of penniless, helpless old age." Even today, without Social Security, half our nation's elderly would be forced into poverty.
Today, Social Security is strong. But by 2013, payroll taxes will no longer be sufficient to cover monthly payments. And by 2032, the Trust Fund will be exhausted, and Social Security will be unable to pay out the full benefits older Americans have been promised.
The best way to keep Social Security a rock-solid guarantee is not to make drastic cuts in benefits; not to raise payroll tax rates; and not to drain resources from Social Security in the name of saving it.
Instead, I propose that we make the historic decision to invest the surplus to save Social Security.
Specifically, I propose that we commit sixty percent of the budget surplus for the next 15 years to Social Security, investing a small portion in the private sector just as any private or state government pension would do. This will earn a higher return and keep Social Security sound for 55 years.
But we must aim higher. We should put Social Security on a sound footing for the next 75 years. And we should reduce poverty among elderly women, who are nearly twice as likely to be poor as other seniors -- and we should eliminate the limits on what seniors on Social Security can earn.
These changes will require difficult but fully achievable choices. They must be made on a bipartisan basis. They should be made this year. I reach out my hand to those of you of both parties and both houses and ask you to join me in saying: We will Save Social Security now.
Last year, we wisely reserved all of the surplus until we knew what it would take to save Social Security. Again, I say, we should not spend any of it until after Social Security is truly saved. First things first.
Second, once we have saved Social Security, we must fulfill our obligation to save and improve Medicare. Already, we have extended the life of Medicare by 10 years -- but we should extend it for at least another decade. Tonight I propose that we use one out of every six dollars in the surplus over the next 15 years to guarantee the soundness of Medicare until the year 2020.
But again, we should aim higher. We must be willing to work in a bipartisan way and look at new ideas, including the upcoming report of the bipartisan Medicare commission. If we work together, we can secure Medicare for the next two decades and cover seniors' greatest need -- affordable prescription drugs.
Third, we must help all Americans, from their first day on the job, to save, to invest, to create wealth. From its beginning, Americans have supplemented Social Security with private pensions and savings. Yet today, millions of people retire with little to live on other than Social Security. Americans living longer than ever must save more than ever.
Therefore, in addition to saving Social Security and Medicare, I propose a new pension initiative for retirement security in the 21st Century. I propose that we use 11% of the surplus to establish Universal Savings Accounts -- USA Accounts -- to give all Americans the means to save. With these new accounts, Americans can invest as they choose, and receive funds to match a portion of their savings, with extra help for those least able to save.
USA Accounts will help all Americans to share in our nation's wealth, and enjoy a more secure retirement.
Fourth, we must invest in long-term care. I propose a tax credit of $1,000 for the aged, ailing or disabled and the families who care for them. Long term care will become a bigger and bigger challenge with the aging of America -- and we must help our families deal with it.
I was born in 1946, the first year of the Baby Boom. And I can tell you that our generation is determined not to let our growing old place an intolerable burden on our children and their ability to raise our grandchildren. Our economic success and fiscal discipline now give us an opportunity to lift that burden.
Saving Social Security, Medicare and creating USA accounts is the right way to use the surplus. If we do so, we will still have resources to meet our critical needs in education and defense. And this plan is fiscally sound. Listen to this: By saving the money we need to save Social Security and Medicare, over the next fifteen years we will achieve the lowest level of publicly held debt since 1917.
With these four measures -- saving Social Security, strengthening Medicare, establishing USA Accounts, and supporting long-term care -- we can begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to establish true security for 21st Century seniors.
21st CENTURY SCHOOLS
There are more children, from more diverse backgrounds, in our public schools than at any time in our history. Their education must provide the knowledge and nurture the creativity that will allow our nation to thrive in the new economy.
Today we can say something we could not say six years ago: with tax credits and more affordable student loans, more Pell grants and work-study jobs, education IRAs, and the new HOPE Scholarship tax cut that more than 5 million Americans will receive this year, we have opened the doors of college to all.
With our help, nearly every state has set higher academic standards for public schools, and a voluntary national test is being developed to measure the progress of our students. With over one billion dollars in discounts available this year, we are on our way to our goal of connecting every classroom and library to the Internet.
Last fall, you passed our proposal to start hiring 100,000 new teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. Now I ask you to finish the job.
Our children are doing better. SAT scores are up. Math scores have risen in nearly all grades. But there is a problem: While our fourth graders outperform their peers in other countries in math and science, our eighth graders are around average, and our twelfth graders rank near the bottom.
We must do better. Each year the national government invests more than $15 billion in our public schools. I believe we must change the way we invest that money, to support what works and to stop supporting what doesn't.
Later this year, I will send Congress a plan that for the first time holds states and school districts accountable for progress and rewards them for results. My Education Accountability Act will require every school district receiving federal help to take the following five steps.
First, all schools must end social promotion.
No child should graduate from high school with a diploma he or she can't read. We do our children no favors when we allow them to pass from grade to grade without mastering the material.
But we can't just hold students back when the system fails them. So my balanced budget triples the funding for summer school and after school programs. We can keep one million students learning beyond regular school hours, when parents work and juvenile crime soars.
If you doubt this will work, look at Chicago, which ended social promotion and made summer school mandatory for those who don't master the basics. Math and reading scores are up three years running -- with some of the biggest gains in some of the poorest neighborhoods.
Second, all states and school districts must turn around their worst performing schools -- or shut them down. That is the policy established by Gov. Jim Hunt in North Carolina, where test scores made the biggest gains in the nation last year. My budget includes $200 million to help states turn around their failing schools.
Third, all states and school districts must be held responsible for the quality of their teachers. The great majority of teachers do a fine job. But in too many schools, teachers don't have college majors -- or even minors -- in the subjects they teach.
New teachers should be required to pass performance exams. All teachers should know the subjects they are teaching. My balanced budget contains new resources to help them reach higher standards.
To attract talented young teachers to the toughest assignments, I recommend a six-fold increase in college scholarships for students who commit to teach in the inner cities, isolated rural areas and Indian communities. Let's bring excellence into every part of America.
Fourth, we must empower parents, with more information and more choices. In too many communities, it is easier to get information on the quality of the local restaurants than on the quality of the local schools. Every school district should issue report cards on every school.
And parents should have more choice in selecting their public schools. When I became President, there was just one independent, public charter school in all of America. With our support, there are 1100 today. My budget assures that early in the next century, there will be 3000.
Fifth, to ensure that our classrooms are truly places of learning, all states and school districts must adopt and implement discipline policies.
Now, let's do one more thing for our children. Today, too many of our schools are so old they're falling apart, or so overcrowded students must learn in trailers. Last fall, Congress missed the opportunity to change that. This year, with 53 million children in our schools, Congress must not miss that opportunity again. I ask you to help our communities build or modernize 5000 schools.
If we do these things -- end social promotion, turn around failing schools, build modern ones, support qualified teachers, promote innovation, competition and discipline -- we will begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to create 21st Century schools.
21st CENTURY SUPPORT FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES
We must do more to help the millions of parents who give their all every day at home and at work.
The most basic tool of all is a decent income. Let's raise the minimum wage by a dollar an hour over the next two years.
And let's make sure women and men get equal pay for equal work by strengthening enforcement of equal pay laws.
Working parents also need quality child care. Again, this year, I ask Congress to support our plan for tax credits and subsidies for working families, improved safety and quality, and expanded after-school programs. Our plan also includes a new tax credit for stay-at-home parents. They need support too.
The Family Medical Leave Act -- the first bill I signed into law -- has now helped millions of Americans care for a new baby or an ailing relative without risking their jobs. We should extend Family Leave to 10 million more Americans working in smaller companies.
Parents should never face discrimination in the workplace. I will ask Congress to prohibit companies from refusing to hire or promote workers simply because they have children.
America's families deserve the world's best medical care.
Thanks to bipartisan federal support for medical research, we are on the verge of new treatments to prevent or delay diseases from Parkinsons to Alzheimers to arthritis to cancer.
As we continue our advances in medical science, we cannot let our health care system lag behind.
Managed care has transformed medicine in America -- driving down costs, but threatening to drive down quality as well. I say to every American: You should have the right to know all your medical options -- not just the cheapest. You should have the right to see a specialist. You should have the right to emergency care. You should have the right to continuity of care -- to keep your doctor during pregnancy or chemotherapy or other treatment.
I have ordered these rights to be extended to the 85 million Americans served by Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health programs. But only Congress can pass the Patients' Bill of Rights for all Americans. Last year, Congress missed that opportunity. This year, for the sake of our families, Congress must not miss that opportunity again. Pass a strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights.
As more of our medical records are stored electronically, the threats to our privacy increase. Because Congress has given me the authority to act if it does not do so by August, one way or another, we will protect the privacy of medical records this year.
Two years ago, we acted to extend health coverage to up to 5 million children. Now, we should make it easier for small businesses to offer health insurance, and to give people between the ages of 55 and 65 who lose their health insurance the chance to buy into Medicare. And we should continue to ensure access to family planning.
No one should have to choose between keeping health care and taking a job. We should pass the landmark bipartisan legislation, proposed by Senators Jeffords, Kennedy, Roth and Moynihan, to allow people with disabilities to keep health insurance when they go to work. We need to enable public hospitals, and community and university health centers, to provide basic, affordable care for working families who have no insurance. My balanced budget makes a down payment toward that goal.
And we must step up our efforts to treat and prevent mental illness. No American should ever be afraid to address this disease. This year, we will host a White House Conference on Mental Health. With sensitivity and commitment, Tipper Gore is leading our efforts here -- and I thank her.
As everyone knows, our children are targets of a massive media campaign to hook them on cigarettes. I ask this Congress to resist the tobacco lobby -- to reaffirm the FDA's authority to protect children from tobacco, and hold the tobacco companies accountable while protecting tobacco farmers.
Smoking has cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars under Medicare and other programs. The states are right: taxpayers shouldn't pay for the costs of lung cancer, emphysema and other smoking-related illnesses --the tobacco companies should. Tonight, I announce that Justice Department is preparing a litigation plan to take the tobacco companies to court. And with funds we recover, we should strengthen Medicare.
If we act in these areas -- minimum wage, family leave, child care, health care and the safety of our children -- we will begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to strengthen our families for the 21st Century.
A 21st CENTURY ECONOMY
Today, America is the most dynamic, competitive, job creating economy in history.
But we can do even better -- in building a 21st Century economy for all Americans.
Today's income gap is largely a skills gap. Last year, Congress passed a law enabling workers to get a skills grant to choose the training they need. This year, I recommend a five year commitment to this new system so that we can provide that training for all Americans who lose their jobs, and expand rapid response teams to help towns where businesses have closed. And I ask for a dramatic increase in federal support for adult literacy, so we can mount a national campaign aimed at the millions of working people who read at less than a fifth grade level.
In the past six years, we have cut the welfare rolls nearly in half. Two years ago, from this podium, I asked five companies to lead a national effort to hire people off welfare. Tonight, our Welfare to Work Partnership includes 10,000 companies who have hired hundreds of thousands of people -- and our balanced budget will help another 200,000 people move to the dignity and pride of work.
We must bring the spark of private enterprise to every corner of America -- building a bridge from Wall Street to Appalachia, to the Mississippi Delta, to our Native American communities -- with more support for community development banks, empowerment zones and 100,000 vouchers for affordable housing.
And I ask Congress to support our bold plan to help businesses raise up to $15 billion of private sector capital to bring jobs and oportunity to our inner cities and rural areas -- with tax credits and loan guarantees, including new American Private Investment Companies modeled on our Overseas Private Investment Corporation. Our greatest untapped markets are not overseas -- they are right here at home.
We must bring prosperity back to the family farm. Dropping prices and the loss of foreign markets have devastated too many family farmers. I am ready to work with lawmakers of both parties to create a farm safety net including crop insurance reform and farm income assistance.
We must strengthen our lead in technology.
Government investment led to the creation of the Internet. I propose a 28% increase in long-term computing research.
We must be ready for the 21st Century from its very first moment, by solving the "Y2K" computer problem. Already, we have made sure that Social Security checks will come on time. If we work hard with state and local governments and businesses large and small, the "Y2K problem" can be remembered as the last headache of the 20th Century, not the first crisis of the 21st.
For our own prosperity, we must support economic growth abroad.
Until recently, one third of our economic growth came from exports. But over the past year and a half, financial turmoil overseas has put that growth at risk. Today, much of the world is in recession, with Asia hit especially hard.
This is the most serious financial crisis in a half century. To meet it, the United States and other nations have reduced interest rates and strengthened the International Monetary Fund. While the turmoil is not over, we are working with other nations to contain it.
At the same time, we will continue to work to build a global financial system for the 21st Century that promotes prosperity and tames the cycles of boom and bust. This June I will meet with other world leaders to advance this historic purpose.
We must also create a freer and fairer trading system for the 21st Century. Trade has divided Americans for too long. We must find the common ground on which business, workers, environmentalists, farmers and government can stand together.
We must tear down barriers, open markets, and expand trade. At the same time, we must ensure that ordinary citizens in all countries actually benefit from trade -- trade that promotes the dignity of work, the rights of workers, the protection of the environment. And we must insist that international trade organizations be open to public scrutiny. In short, we must put a human face on the global economy.
We must enforce our trade laws when imports unlawfully flood our nation. I have already informed the government of Japan that if that nation's sudden surge of steel imports into our country is not reversed, America will respond.
We must help all American manufacturers hit hard by the present crisis -- with loan guarantees and other incentives to increase U.S. exports by nearly $2 billion.
We can achieve a new consensus on trade, based on these principles. I ask Congress to join me in this common approach and to give the President the trade authority long used to advance our prosperity.
And tonight, I also issue a call to the nations of the world to join the United States in a new round of global negotiations to expand exports of services, of manufactures, and farm products.
We will work with the International Labor Organization on a new initiative to raise labor standards around the world. And this year, we will lead the international community to conclude a treaty to ban abusive child labor everywhere in the world.
If we do these things -- invest in our people, our communities, and our technology, and lead in the global economy -- then we will begin to meet the historic responsibility of our generation to build a 21st Century prosperity for America.
A STRONG AMERICA IN A NEW WORLD
No nation in history has had the opportunity and the responsibility we now have to shape a world more peaceful, secure and free.
All Americans can be proud that our leadership helped to bring peace in Northern Ireland.
All Americans can be proud that our leadership has put Bosnia on the path to peace. And with our NATO allies, we are pressing the Serbian government to stop its brutal repression in Kosovo, to bring those responsible to justice, and give the people of Kosovo the self-government they deserve.
All Americans can be proud that our leadership renewed hope for lasting peace in the Middle East. Some of you were with me in December as we watched the Palestinian National Council completely renounce its call for the destruction of Israel. I ask Congress to provide resources to implement the Wye Agreement . . . to protect Israel's security, stimulate the Palestinian economy, and support our friends in Jordan. We must not, we dare not, let them down.
As we work for peace, we must also meet threats to our nation's security - including increased dangers from outlaw nations and terrorism. We will defend our security wherever we are threatened -- as we did this summer when we struck at Osama bin Laden's network of terror. The bombing of our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania reminds us of the risks faced every day by those who represent America to the world. Let's give them our support, the safest possible workplaces, and the resources they need so America can continue to lead.
We must work to keep terrorists from disrupting computer networks, to prepare local communities for biological and chemical emergencies, to support research into vaccines and treatments.
We must increase our efforts to restrain the spread of nuclear weapons and missiles, from North Korea to India and Pakistan.
We must expand our work with Russia, Ukraine, and the other former Soviet nations to safeguard nuclear materials and technology so they never fall into the wrong hands. My balanced budget will increase funding for these critical efforts by almost two thirds over the next 5 years.
With Russia, we must continue to reduce our nuclear arsenals. The START II treaty, and the framework we have already agreed to for START III, could cut them by 80% from their Cold War height.
It has been two years since I signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. If we don't do the right thing, other nations won't either. I ask the Senate to take this vital step: Approve the Treaty now, so we can make it harder for other nations to develop nuclear arms -- and we can end nuclear testing forever.
For nearly a decade, Iraq has defied its obligations to destroy its weapons of terror and the missiles to deliver them. America will continue to contain Saddam -- and we will work for the day when Iraq has a government worthy of its people.
Last month, in our action over Iraq, our troops were superb. Their mission was so flawlessly executed that we risk taking for granted the bravery and skill it required. Captain Jeff Taliaferro, a 10 year veteran of the Air Force, flew a B-1B bomber over Iraq as we attacked Saddam's war machine. He is here with us tonight. Let us honor him and all the 33,000 men and women of Desert Fox.
It is time to reverse the decline in defense spending that began in 1985. Since April, together we have added nearly $6 billion to maintain our readiness. My balanced budget calls for a sustained increase over the next six years for readiness and modernization, and pay and benefits for our troops.
We are the heirs of a legacy of bravery represented by millions of veterans. America's defenders today stand ready at a moment's notice to go where comforts are few and dangers are many, doing what needs to be done as no one else can. They always come through for America. We must come through for them.
The new century demands new partnerships for peace and security.
The United Nations plays a crucial role, with allies sharing burdens America might otherwise bear alone. America needs a strong and effective UN. I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts.
We must support security in Europe and Asia -- expanding NATO and defining its new missions, maintaining our alliance with Japan, Korea, and our other Asian allies, and engaging China.
In China last year, I said to the leaders and people what I say again tonight: Stability can no longer be bought at the expense of liberty.
And I say again the American people: It is important not to isolate China. The more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring change and freedom to China.
Last spring, with some of you, I traveled to Africa, where I saw democracy and reform rising, but still held back by violence and disease. We must fortify African democracy and peace, by launching Radio Democracy for Africa, supporting the transition to democracy now beginning to take hold in Nigeria, and passing the African Trade and Development Act.
We are strengthening our ties to the Americas and the Carribbean -- to educate children, fight drugs, deepen democracy, and increase trade.
In this hemisphere, every government but one is freely chosen by its people. We are determined that Cuba, too, will know the blessings of liberty.
The American people have opened their arms and their hearts to our Central American and Caribbean neighbors devastated by recent hurricanes. Working with Congress, we will help them to rebuild. When the First Lady and Tipper Gore visited the region, they saw thousands of American troops and volunteers. In the Dominican Republic, Hillary helped to rededicate a hospital that had been rebuilt by Dominicans and Americans, working side by side.
With her was someone who has been very important to the relief efforts.
Sports records are made, and sooner or later, they are broken. But making other people's lives better -- and showing our children the true meaning of brotherhood -- that lasts forever. So for far more than baseball, Sammy Sosa, you are a hero to two countries.
If we do all these things -- pursue peace, fight terrorism, increase our strength, and renew our alliances -- then we will begin to meet our generation's historic responsibility to build a stronger 21st Century America in a freer, more peaceful world.
21ST CENTURY COMMUNITIES
As the world has changed, so have our own communities. We must make them safer, more livable, more united.
This year, we will reach our goal of 100,000 community police officers -- ahead of schedule and under budget. The Brady Bill has stopped a quarter million felons, fugitives, and stalkers from buying handguns. Now, the murder rate is the lowest in 30 years, and the crime rate has dropped for six straight years.
Tonight, I propose a 21st Century Crime Bill to deploy the latest technologies and tactics to make our communities even safer.
My balanced budget will help put up to 50,000 more police on the beat in the areas hardest hit by crime, and to equip them with new tools, from crime-mapping computers to digital mug shots.
We must break the deadly cycle of drugs and crime. My budget expands support for drug testing and treatment. It says to prisoners: If you stay on drugs, you stay behind bars. It says to those on parole: To keep your freedom, keep free of drugs.
Congress should restore the 5-day waiting period for buying a handgun -- and extend the Brady Bill to prevent juveniles who commit violent crimes from buying a gun.
We must keep our schools the safest places in our communities.
Last year, we were horrified and heartbroken by the tragic killings in Jonesboro, Paducah, Pearl, Edinboro, Springfield. We were deeply moved by the courageous parents now working to keep guns out of the hands of children -- so that other parents don't have to live through their loss.
After she lost her daughter, Suzann Wilson of Jonesboro, Arkansas came to the White House with a powerful plea: "Please, please, for the sake of your children, lock up your guns. ... Don't let what happened in Jonesboro happen in your town." Suzann is here tonight with the First Lady, and we thank her for her courage and commitment. In memory of all the children who lost their lives to school violence, let's strengthen the Safe and Drug-Free School Act ... let's pass legislation to require child trigger locks ... let's keep our children safe.
A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt defined our "great, central task" as "leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us." Today, we are restoring the Florida Everglades, saving Yellowstone, preserving the red-rock canyons of Utah, protecting California's redwoods and our precious coasts.
But our most fateful new challenge is the threat of global warming. 1998 was the warmest year ever recorded. Last year's heat waves, floods, and storms are but a hint of what future generations may endure if we don't act now.
So tonight, I propose a new clean air fund to help communities reduce pollution, and tax incentives and investments to spur clean energy technologies. I will work with Congress to reward companies that take early, voluntary action to reduce greenhouse gases.
All communities face a preservation challenge, as they grow, and green space shrinks. 7,000 acres of farmland and open space are lost every day.
In response, I propose two major initiatives: first, a one billion dollar Livability Agenda to help communities save open space, ease traffic congestion, and grow in ways that enhance every citizen's quality of life; second, a one billion dollar Lands Legacy Initiative to preserve places of natural beauty all across America -- from the most remote wilderness to the nearest city park. I thank Vice President Gore for his visionary leadership in helping to develop these landmark initiatives.
To get the most out of your community, you have to give something back. That's why we created AmeriCorps -- our national service program that gives today's generation a chance to serve their communities and earn money for college.
So far, in just four years, 100,000 young people have built low-income homes with Habitat for Humanity ... helped tutor children ... worked with FEMA to ease the burden of natural disasters ... and performed countless other acts of service that have made America better.
I ask Congress to give more young Americans the chance to follow their lead.
We must work to renew our national community for the 21st Century.
Last year, the House passed the bipartisan campaign finance reform legislation sponsored by Reps. Shays and Meehan and Sens. McCain and Feingold. But a partisan minority in the Senate blocked reform. To the House I say: Pass it again, quickly. And to the Senate: Say yes to a strong democracy in the Year 2000.
Since 1997, our Initiative on Race has sought to bridge the divides between our people. In its report last fall, the Initiative's Advisory Board found that Americans want to bring our people together across racial lines. We are on a journey that in a very real sense began forty years ago, when a woman sat on a bus in Alabama. She is sitting here with the First Lady tonight -- Rosa Parks.
We must do more to close the opportunity gaps that remain. The economic, health care, and education initiatives I have discussed tonight will do a lot to close those gaps.
But we have more to do.
Discrimination or violence because of race or religion, ancestry or gender, disability or sexual orientation, is wrong. It should be illegal. Therefore I call upon Congress to make the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and the Hate Crimes Prevention Act the law of the land.
Since every person in America counts, every American must be counted. Let's have a census that uses the most modern scientific methods.
Our newest immigrants must be part of One America. They are revitalizing our cities, energizing our culture, building our new economy. We have a responsibility to make immigrants welcome here, and they have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American life. That means learning English, and learning about our democratic system of government. There are now long waiting lines of immigrants seeking to do just that. Therefore, my budget expands significantly our efforts to help them meet their responsibility.
Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower or on slave ships, whether they landed on Ellis Island or at Los Angeles Airport, whether they arrived yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago -- we can be, and we must be One America. We can only meet our generation's historic responsibility to the 21st Century if we go forward as that One America.
THE MILLENNIUM
Barely more than 300 days from now, we will cross that bridge into the new millennium. This is a moment, as the First Lady has said, to honor the past and imagine the future.
I honor her -- for leading our Millennium Project -- for all she has done for our children -- and for her historic role in serving our nation and advancing our ideals at home and abroad.
Last year, I called on Congress and every citizen to mark the millennium by saving America's treasures. Hillary has traveled across the country to inspire recognition and support for saving places like Thomas Edison's Invention Factory and Harriet Tubman's Home. We must preserve our treasures in every community. I invite every American town, city, and county to become nationally recognized "Millennium Communities" by launching projects that save our history, promote our arts and humanities, and prepare our children for the future.
Already, the response has been remarkable, and I thank Congress and our private sector partners for their support. Because of you, the Star Spangled Banner will be preserved for the ages.
In ways large and small, we are keeping alive what George Washington called "the sacred fire of liberty."
Six years ago, I came to office in a time of doubt for America, with our economy troubled, our deficit high, our people divided. Some even wondered whether our best days were behind us. But across this nation, in a thousand neighborhoods, I had seen, even amid the pain and uncertainty of recession, the heart and character of America.
I knew then that we Americans could renew our country.
Tonight, as I deliver the last State of the Union message of the 20th Century, no one can doubt the enduring resolve and boundless capacity of Americans to work toward that "more perfect union" of our founders' dreams.
We near the end of a century when generation after generation of Americans answered the call to greatness, overcoming Depression, lifting up the dispossessed, bringing down barriers of racial prejudice, building the largest middle class in history, winning two world wars and the "long twilight struggle" of the Cold War.
We are profoundly grateful for the magnificent achievement of our forbears.
Yet perhaps in the daily press of events, in the clash of controversy, we do not see our own time for what it truly is -- a new dawn for America.
A hundred years from tonight, an American President will stand in this place to report on the State of the Union. He -- or she -- will look back on a 21st Century shaped in so many ways by the decisions we make here and now.
Let it be said of us then that we were thinking not only of our time, but of their time; that we reached as high as our ideals; that we put aside our divisions and found a new hour of healing and hopefulness; that we joined together to serve and strengthen the land we love.
My fellow Americans, this is our moment. Let us lift our eyes as one nation, and from the mountaintop of this American century, look ahead to the next one -- asking God's blessing on our endeavors and our beloved country.