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TRIBUTE TO PRESIDENT WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON AND THE UNRIVALED PROSPERITY, PROGRESS, AND PEACE AMERICA ENJOYED DURING HIS EIGHT YEARS
OF GREATNESS
______
HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE
of texas
in the house of representatives
Friday, August 27, 2021
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to give thanks and pay tribute to William Jefferson Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, who turned 75 last Thursday, August 19, 2021. It is still hard to believe that the rebellious Baby Boomer Generation, of which I am a member and which in its youth was the hope and promise of the nation's future, is now just young at heart, but in Bill Clinton it produced one of the nation's greatest presidents.
As President, Bill Clinton, the ``Man From Hope,'' always put our people first and led our Nation to unrivaled heights of shared prosperity for all, unmatched progress in becoming `one Nation unified,' and brought peace to Ireland, freedom to the people of Kosovo, rescued the economy of Mexico from destruction, and led America to the leadership position in the emerging globalized economy of the 21st Century. Madam Speaker, if anyone wants to know the true meaning of ``American Exceptionalism'' all they have to do is examine the years 1993 through 2001 when President Bill Clinton commanded the ship of state.
Under President Clinton, the United States enjoyed the longest economic expansion in American history. The President's strategy of fiscal discipline, opening foreign markets, and investments in the American people helped create the conditions for a record 115 months of economic expansion and our economy grew at an average of 4 percent per year during the years of his presidency. More than 22 million jobs were created in less than eight years--the most ever under a single administration, and more than were created in the previous twelve years. We enjoyed the highest homeownership in American history because the strong Clinton economy and fiscal discipline kept interest rates low, making it possible for more families to buy homes, and the homeownership rate increased from 64.2 percent in 1992 to 67.7 percent, the highest rate ever. We had the lowest unemployment in 30 years. Unemployment dropped from more than 7 percent in 1993 to just 4.0 percent in November 2000. Unemployment for African Americans and Hispanics fell to the lowest rates on record, and the rate for women was the lowest in more than 40 years.
Between 1993 and 2001, reading and math scores increased for 4th, 8th, and 12th graders, and math SAT scores reached a 30-year high, 49 states put in place standards in core subjects, and federal investment in education and training doubled. During the Clinton Administration financial aid for students was nearly doubled by increasing Pell Grants to the largest award ever, expanding Federal Work-Study to allow 1 million students to work their way through college, and by creating new tax credits and scholarships, such as Lifetime Learning tax credits and the HOPE scholarship. At the same time, taxpayers saved $18 billion due to the decline in student loan defaults, increased collections and savings from the direct student loan program.
President Clinton and Vice President Gore's commitment to education technology, including the E-Rate and a 3,000 percent increase in educational technology funding, increased the percentage of schools connected to the Internet from 35 percent in 1994 to 95 percent in 1999. Because of President Clinton's comprehensive anti-crime strategy of smart prevention, more police, as well as commonsense gun safety laws, the overall crime rate declined for 8 consecutive years, the longest continuous drop on record, and was at the lowest level since 1973. As part of the 1994 Crime Bill, President Clinton enacted a new initiative to fund 100,000 community police officers in more than 11,000 law enforcement agencies.
Since the President signed the Brady bill in 1993, stopping more than 600,000 felons, fugitives, and other prohibited persons from buying guns, gun crime declined 40 percent during his years in office.
President Clinton signed into law the Family and Medical Leave Act in 1993, which enabled more than 20 million Americans to take leave to care for a newborn child or sick family member without fear of losing their job. President Clinton pledged to end welfare as we know it and signed landmark bipartisan welfare reform legislation in 1996. As a result of the booming economy and welcoming job market, welfare caseloads were cut in half, to the lowest level since 1968, millions of parents joined the workforce, and ``welfare is no longer a political issue to be exploited by demagogues, as people on welfare today were five times more likely to b working in 2000 than in 1992. After falling by nearly $2,000 between 1988 and 1992, the median income for families rose by $6,338, after adjusting for inflation during the Clinton years. In that same time, African-American family income increased even more, rising by nearly $7,000 since 1993.
After years of stagnant income growth among average and lower income families, all income brackets experienced double-digit growth since 1993, with the bottom quintile enjoying the largest income growth at 16.3 percent. Because Congress passed President Clinton's Economic Plan in 1993, the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent to 11.8 percent--
the largest six-year drop in poverty in nearly 30 years. In 2000, there were seven million fewer people in poverty than when President Clinton took office in 1993. The child poverty rate declined more than 25 percent, the poverty rates for single mothers, African Americans, and the elderly had dropped to their lowest levels on record, and Hispanic poverty dropped to its lowest level since 1979. In his 1995 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged Americans to join together in a national campaign against teen pregnancy, which resulted in the birth rate for teens aged 15-19 declining every year of the Clinton Presidency, from 60.7 per 1,000 teens in 1992 to a record low of 49.6 in 1999.
Because the Clinton Administration expanded efforts to provide mothers and newborn children with healthcare, a record high 82 percent of all mothers were receiving prenatal care by the time he left office and the infant mortality rate dropped from 8.5 deaths per 1,000 in 1992 to 7.2 deaths per 1,000 in 1998, the lowest rate ever recorded.
The accomplishments of President Clinton were just as impressive in the field of national security and foreign affairs. President Clinton understood from the beginning of his presidency that the most pervasive force in our world is globalization and he understood that while globalization is inexorable, its benefits must be harnessed to advance our objectives of democracy, shared prosperity and peace.
Under the visionary leadership of President Clinton, America exercised its influence by building with its democratic partners an international system of strong alliances and institutions attuned to the challenges of a globalized world, by ensuring this system is genuinely open to all who adhere to clearly defined standards, and by being ready to stand up for those standards when they are threatened. After the absence of such leadership the last four years, is it not wonderful that the Administration of President Biden also understands that the power of America's example carries more influence than examples of America's power. But let us get back to the story of spectacular leadership and spectacular results.
The Clinton-Gore Administration led the international effort to dismantle more than 1,700 nuclear warheads, 300 launchers and 425 land and submarine-based missiles from the former Soviet Union.
President Clinton led the revitalization, adaptation, and expansion of NATO from a static Cold War alliance to a magnet for new democracies, with new partners, members and missions; adapted its command structure; admitted Hungary; Poland and the Czech Republic; and created the Partnership for Peace. President Clinton led NATO in its first military engagement and stopped the killing in Bosnia, brokered the peace in the Dayton Accords, leading to a sustained civil society complete with active opposition parties an non-governmental organizations and national and local elections taking place throughout the country.
As Commander in Chief, President Clinton took military action in Kosovo to stop genocide, ethnic cleansing, and regional instability, forcing the withdrawal of Serb forces, disbanding the Kosovo Liberation Army, and deploying an international presence in Kosovo--with a 47,000 strong NATO-led force providing security for the province, resulting in the safe and unconditional return of over 900,000 refugees. Under President Clinton, nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles were permanently eliminated from Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed; in addition, the indefinite extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and ratification of the Chemical Weapons Convention was achieved.
Under President Clinton, the perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and CIA killings were brought to justice and the planned terrorist attacks against Millennium celebrations were foiled. President Clinton developed a national counter-terrorism strategy, led by a national coordinator, and the Nation's first national strategy to protect critical infrastructure, and increased funding on critical infrastructure Protection by over 40 percent since 1998. An admirer of Nelson Mandela, a student of his teachings, and a true friend of Africa and the Caribbean, President Clinton was the second American President to visit sub-Sahara Africa, following President Jimmy Carter's visit to Lagos, Nigeria in 1978.
As President, Bill Clinton launched and won approval for the African Growth and Opportunity Act to support increased trade and investment between the United States and Africa, strengthen African economies and democratic governments, increase partnerships to counter terrorism, crime, environmental degradation and disease, and for the Caribbean Basin Initiative enhancement legislation to promote economic prosperity in Central America and the Caribbean.
Madam Speaker, between 1998 and 2000, the national debt was reduced by $363 billion--the largest three-year debt pay-down in American history and we were on track to pay off the entire debt by 2009 until the fiscal mismanagement of the succeeding administration. President Clinton converted the largest budget deficit in American history to the largest surplus in history; the deficit was $290 billion in 1993 and was expected to grow to $455 billion by 1998 but instead, thanks to the leadership of President Clinton, the United States had a surplus of
$237 billion.
In the area of the great outdoors and the environment, it should be noted that President Clinton protected more land in the lower 48 states than any other president, protecting 5 new national parks, designating 11 new national monuments, and expanding two others and proposing protections for 60 million acres of roadless areas in America's national forests.
During the Clinton years, federal government spending as a share of the economy had decreased from 22.2 percent in 1992 to a projected 18.5 percent in 2000, the lowest since 1966. On a related note, Americans enjoyed the lowest federal income tax burden in 35 years under President Clinton, who enacted targeted tax cuts such as the Earned Income Tax Credit expansion, $500 child tax credit, and the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits.
As a candidate, President Clinton pledged that he would have a government ``that looks like the American people,'' and he made true on that commitment and then some. President Clinton appointed more African Americans, women and Hispanics to the Cabinet than any other President in history; he appointed the first female Attorney General, the first female Secretary of State and the first Asian-American cabinet secretary ever.
Under his Administration, the outright ban on gays serving in the military was ended and the military's policy of ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' worked so well in allowing LGBTQ service personnel to demonstrate their talents and skills that the policy would later be found to be unnecessary and discarded altogether.
Madam Speaker, I have laid out the major reasons why Americans are so appreciative that Bill Clinton served as the 42nd President of the United States, especially for his healing words and actions during the time of the tragic and horrific April 1995 Oklahoma City bombing at the Alfred R. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 persons, including 19 children, and wounded more than 800 others. And as he pledged to the Nation he would, the terrorists who perpetrated this heinous act were brought to justice and punished in accordance with the law.
We Democrats thank President Clinton for all that but for much more. Bill Clinton was the unparalleled visionary Democratic political leader of the latter half of the 20th Century. In the presidential election preceding his, the Democratic candidate was beaten in the Electoral College 426-112, losing 40 states, and trailing in the popular vote by 7.8 percentage points and 7 million votes. In the presidential election before that, 1984, the Democratic candidate lost 49 of 50 states, lost the Electoral College 525-13, and lost the popular vote by 18.2 percentage points and 16.8 million votes. The electoral map and political outlook were bleak for the Governor of the ``small southern state of Arkansas'' but he would not be deterred and would not be outworked and did not waver in his conviction that his progressive policies promising shared prosperity and his inclusive vision in which the United States ``did not have a person to waste'' would attract majority support.
Madam Speaker, because of the remarkable leadership and success role-
modeled by President William Jefferson Clinton, Democrats in Congress and across the Nation know who they are, what they believe, and what is important to fight to achieve or preserve; maybe one day our friends across the aisle will be so lucky.
Happy Birthday, President Clinton, and thank you for all you did as the Nation's 42nd President and captain of the ship of state to make our Nation the most prosperous on earth and at peace in the world.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 151
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