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    "ocrText": "Oliver D. Pangborn\n01/15/2001 05:15:12 PM\nRecord Type:\nRecord\nTo:\nCC:\nSubject: President William J. Clinton's Message to Congress: The Unfinished Work of Building One America\nPRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS:\nTHE UNFINISHED WORK OF BUILDING ONE AMERICA\nJanuary 15, 2001\nI hereby submit this message to the 107th Congress of the United States on the State of\nRace Relations in America. In it, I present my personal assessment of the current national\nmood concerning race relations and issue a set of concrete challenges that form what I call the\nunfinished business of building One America. This report is an outgrowth of my\nAdministration's consistent emphasis on racial reconciliation, most clearly embodied in my\nInitiative on Race and our White House Office on One America. But it also stems from my\nown personal commitment to racial harmony that has its roots in the lessons and experiences\nof my childhood in the racially segregated south. I dedicate this report to countless civil rights\nchampions of all colors who have struggled since the time of Frederick Douglas for an\nAmerica free from the bondage of racial injustice.\nIntroduction\nAfter eight years of service as President of the United States, I will relinquish that title\non January 20, 2001, when George W. Bush takes the oath of office. But as a citizen, I will\nalways try to serve my country and to advance the ideals that propelled me into public service\nmore than two decades ago, none more important than racial reconciliation. It began for me\nwith the crisis at Little Rock in 1957. I was only 11 years old at the time. Like most\nsoutherners then, I never attended school with a person of another race until I went to college.\nThough discrimination had always gnawed at me, it was the courage and sacrifice of those\nnine black children who endured constant attacks, both physical and emotional, to integrate\nLittle Rock's Central High School, that made racial equality a driving commitment in my life.\nI came of age at the height of the civil rights struggles of the sixties: the 1963 March on\nWashington, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I\nvividly remember the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Bobby\nKennedy. Like any American who grew up in that era, my life was shaped by those triumphs\nand tragedies. And ever since, I have been inspired to join with others to carry on the fight\nfor racial justice, including justice for all Americans without regard to gender, ethnicity,\nsexual orientation, disability, or religion. Progress on this road is essential to our march\ntoward the \"more perfect union\" of our founders' dreams.\nFor eight years, my Administration has worked to build social and economic bridges\nstrong enough for all of us to walk across; to give all responsible citizens equal opportunity to\ncross those bridges; and to celebrate our great diversity while uniting around our common\nhumanity, values, and concerns. In a nation where soon the only majority will be \"\nAmerican,\" I believe we need to talk about race in a new way - not just in terms of black and\nwhite, but of the essential worth and dignity of all people. Of course, racial tensions still exist\nin America. But, if we are ever going to overcome them, we must begin to focus more on the\nthings that unite us than on those that divide us.\nLet's start with the remarkable fact that we are recognized around the globe as the most\nsuccessful multi-racial democracy in history, a model of peaceful co-existence in a world torn\nby ethnic, racial and religious conflict. With the current explosion of diversity in America,\nthat image of ourselves is being tested as never before.\nAmerica is undergoing one of the greatest demographic transformations in history. We\nare a changing people. Just fifty years ago, whites made up 90 percent of our population and\nthe Census Bureau used only three major categories to describe us: white, Negro, and \"\nother.\" Those distinctions were often reduced to just white and non-white. Since then, there\nhas been a rapid growth in our Hispanic, Asian American, and American Indian populations.\nAccording to the latest statistics from the Census Bureau, African Americans, with a\npopulation of 35 million, still constitute the largest racial or ethnic group in America. But the\ngap is narrowing. During the past decade, the Asian Pacific American population has emerged\nas the fastest growing racial or ethnic group in America. Their numbers have skyrocketed--\nfrom 0.7% of the total U.S. population in 1970 to 4.0% in 1999 - more than 11 million\nstrong. And with a population that has grown from just 7 million in 1960 to more than 31\nmillion today, Hispanics are the second fastest growing racial or ethnic group in the country.\nToday, almost ten percent of the people in the United States were born in another\ncountry and one in five schoolchildren are from immigrant families. There is no majority race\nin Hawaii or Houston or New York City. In nine of our ten largest public school systems,\nover 75 percent of the students are minorities. In a little more than 50 years there will be no\nmajority race in America.\nThis unprecedented infusion of diversity brings with it a complex and sometimes\ncontroversial set of issues. Who, for example, decides who is white and who is a person of\ncolor? What will the terms \"majority\" and \"minority\" mean when there is no majority race in\nAmerica? And perhaps, most important, will the black-white schism that has so defined racial\nstruggle in America morph into new minority versus minority divisions or can we build new\ncoalitions for social change and equal opportunity across all racial lines?\nAs our nation grows more diverse and the world grows more interdependent, our\ndiversity will either be the great problem or the great promise of the 21st century. Will we be\ntwo societies, \"separate and unequal,\" as the Kerner Commission concluded 33 years ago?\nWe have made progress that can be measured both in numbers and in the hearts and minds of\nAmericans. We have the lowest minority unemployment rate ever recorded, record numbers\nof minority owned businesses, and minority educational progress among all racial and ethnic\ngroups. Perhaps even more important, most of our children believe that racial harmony and\nrespect for diversity is the only way for all us to live and prosper. We have not yet reached\nthe dream of One America, but I believe in this century, we can and we will. But it will take\nhonest discussion about where we are and where we want to go and vigorous, relevant efforts\nto deal with our remaining challenges.\nThis report is not intended to grapple with all aspects of the racial divide in America,\nbut to point to a number of concrete steps we can take to equalize opportunity, maximize the\ngreat potential of our growing diversity, and accelerate our journey to building the One\nAmerica of our dreams. I will offer recommendations in seven broad areas of unfinished\nbusiness: Economic and Social Progress, Education, Civil Rights Enforcement, Criminal\nJustice Reform, Eliminating Health Disparities, Election Reform, and Civic\nResponsibility. I offer these recommendations in the hope that they will be helpful, not only\nto the 107th Congress and the new administration, but to all of us as we continue the work of\nhealing the racial wounds of the past and pointing the way to a more just future of greater\nopportunity for all Americans.\nWe must keep working to connect the threads of our coat of many colors into the fabric\nof One America.\nI.\nECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS\nNew Markets - Ensuring that the Benefits of Our Strong Economy Reach All\nBy any measure, America has prospered, both economically and socially over the last\neight years. We are now experiencing the longest economic expansion in history. We have a\nbalanced budget. We have turned decades of deficits into the biggest back-to-back surpluses in\nhistory. And we have achieved what many people once thought impossible - we are paying\ndown our national debt. In fact, we are well on our way to making America debt-free by the\nyear 2010 - the first time this has happened since Andrew Jackson was President in 1835.\nThe rising tide of our strong economy is lifting all boats. Between 1980 and 1992 the\nbottom 60 percent of Americans saw little, if any, increase in income. Unemployment for\nAfrican Americans and Hispanics reached record highs and the poverty rate for African\nAmericans remained at or above 30 percent.\nToday, for the first time in decades, wages are rising at all income levels. Not only\ndid every major income group see double-digit income growth, but the lowest 20 percent saw\nthe largest income growth since 1993. The unemployment rate for African Americans fell\nfrom 14.2 percent in 1992 to 7.6 percent today. The drop in unemployment among Hispanics\nhas been just as dramatic - from 11.6 percent in 1992 to 5.7 percent today. We have the\nlowest child poverty rate in 20 years, the lowest poverty rate for single mothers ever recorded.\nThe highest homeownership on record. Record numbers of Americans have left welfare for\nwork, and those still on welfare are five times more likely to be working than eight years ago.\nAnd the number of families who own stock has grown by 40 percent.\nBut America is not just better off, we are also more hopeful, more secure, more free,\nand more united than ever before. We have worked to increase opportunity with commitments\nto improve funding and higher standards in Head Start and in secondary education; to open the\ndoors of college and job training to all; to provide tax relief to lower-income working families;\nto increase loans to minority small businesses; and to launch efforts to close the digital divide\nand open new markets to communities that are not yet part of our prosperity. We governed\nwith a belief and commitment that we could turn around our fiscal situation and still find\nresources to empower the hardest-pressed families while creating new opportunities. That is\nwhy, even in our 1993 deficit reduction bill, we found the resources to make an historic\nexpansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit while creating a new Federal Empowerment Zone\ninitiative - effectively led by Vice President Gore.\nWhile maintaining fiscal discipline, we have worked to increase opportunity by more\nthan doubling funding for Head Start, increasing efforts to close the digital divide by 300\npercent, increasing Pell Grants by more than 60 percent for millions, starting new initiatives to\nprovide mentoring and job opportunities for economically disadvantaged and minority youth,\nreforming and strengthening the Community Reinvestment Act, and initiating the Community\nDevelopment Financial initiative, expanding loans to minority small businesses.\nThere is also a rising tide of shared responsibility across the land. Crime is at a\n25-year low. Teen pregnancy is down. Our environment is cleaner and more secure.\nCitizens are reclaiming control of their families and neighborhoods and we are seeing the\nre-emergence of our oldest and most basic values - opportunity for all, responsibility from all,\nin a community of all Americans.\nBut despite all this progress, there remain pockets of poverty in America where the\nlight of our glowing prosperity still does not shine. In December of 1997, I paid a visit to an\narea of the South Bronx that had once been close to the economic equivalent of an\nimpoverished developing country. Too many of the people living there were under-employed\nand under-housed and the financial community had traditionally under-invested in them.\nWhen President Reagan visited the area in the 1980s, he compared it to London in the Blitz.\nFor many it seemed like a community beyond hope or repair.\nThe transformation I saw three years later was remarkable. That South Bronx\nneighborhood had gone from decay and chaos to development and pride; from a fragmented\ncollection of individuals struggling to survive to a cohesive community of citizens, working to\nbuild a better life for everyone. What I saw made me proud to be an American.\nHow did it happen? The people of the South Bronx simply refused to accept the\nconventional wisdom about the poor, and they worked hard to create economic opportunity,\nfueled by partnerships between the public and private sectors. They began by asking the right\nquestions: \"Why shouldn't I be able to work in my hometown, or have a transportation system\nthat will get me to good jobs? Why shouldn't people here be able to get decent housing? Why\nshouldn't our children be able to walk the streets here? Why shouldn't we have decent schools\nhere, and grocery stores and banks?\" Over time, they found and created the right answers.\nTheir story demonstrates something I have always believed: most Americans - rich, poor or\nmiddle class - welcome the opportunity to work hard and make the most of their lives.\nThat determined spirit is exactly what I saw when I traveled across America to shine a\nspotlight on places still untouched by our nation's growing prosperity. And I am pleased that I\nwas joined by Speaker Hastert and a bipartisan group of political and business leaders who\nshare my view that every community should have the chance to share in the prosperity all of\nus have worked so hard to build.\nWe began our New Markets tour in July of 1999, during four days of one of the hottest\nsummers on record. I went to places that have been too long forgotten and too long left\nbehind: Hazard, Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia; Clarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta;\nEast St. Louis, where poverty is three times the national average; South Dakota's Pine Ridge\nReservation, where unemployment is nearly 75 percent; the neighborhood of South Phoenix,\nArizona where unemployment is more than twice the national average; and the Watts section\nof Los Angeles, an area that for decades has been a symbol of urban neglect and isolation in a\nnation of plenty.\nYes, we did see poverty, but we also saw an awful lot of promise too. I went to these\nplaces to promote our New Markets Initiative - a strategy that builds on our successful\nEmpowerment Zone/Enterprise Communities agenda, which Vice President Gore has led so\nably. Our New Markets Initiative gives businesses the same incentives to invest in our\nhardest-pressed communities here at home that it gives them to invest in developing nations\naround the world. It is designed to create the conditions for economic success in distressed\ncommunities by leveraging $15 billion in new investment in urban and rural areas. It was\nimportant that business leaders joined us at every stop so that they could see for themselves\nwhat they had been missing. I wanted them to see the enormous opportunities in America's\nnew markets. As Robert Kennedy said in 1967, \"We must turn the power and resources of our\nprivate enterprise system to the underdeveloped nations within our midst.\" We need to\nunleash the power of mainstream financial markets linked to effective community-based\npartners so that people in distressed communities can have access to what I call the tools of\nopportunity-these include access to credit, capital and jobs.\nHard-pressed communities cannot be expected to lift themselves up on their own. In\naddition to their own sweat equity, they need and deserve help. That is why we have worked\nso hard to put in place an empowerment agenda from a number of sources, including local and\nfederal programs, financial institutions, and technical assistance providers. Without a critical\nlevel of credit and financing, however, all their efforts will be in vain.\nI am pleased that the Congress put partisanship aside to pass our New Markets\nInitiative last month. But that is only one part of our empowerment agenda. We should also\nraise the minimum wage, provide more child care assistance, and health care coverage to the\nworking poor by covering those whose children are already covered under the Children's\nHealth Insurance Program (CHIP). We should also expand the Family and Medical Leave\nAct, so more parents can succeed at home and at work. We should make sure women receive\nequal pay for equal work and expand the American Private Investment Companies Act (APIC),\nwhich would help raise equity capital for major investment and job opportunities in our own\ncountry, just as we encourage overseas investment through the Overseas Private Investment\nCorporation.\nRecommendation: Vigorously implement the New Markets legislation and pass more of\nthe Empowerment Agenda; a substantial increase in the minimum wage; more child care;\nhealth care for working parents, starting with the parents of children already covered\nunder CHIP; more education, training and mentoring for minority youths; legislation to\nensure that women get equal pay for equal work; and expansion of the Family and\nMedical Leave Act; and passage of APIC.\nResponsible Fatherhood\nEconomic empowerment alone is not enough to build strong communities. The most\nbasic building block of strong communities is strong families. Every child deserves the love\nand support of both parents. Still, nearly one in three American children grows up without a\nfather. These children are five times more likely to live in poverty than children with both\nparents at home. Clearly, demanding and supporting responsible fatherhood is critical to lifting\nall children out of poverty and is an important component of welfare reform.\nThroughout our Administration, Vice President Gore and I have encouraged fathers to\ntake an active and responsible role in their children's lives. We worked hard to ensure that\nabsent parents provide both financial and emotional support for their children. Tough new\nchild support measures promoted by our Administration contributed to doubling child support\ncollections since 1992, while the number of fathers taking responsibility for their children by\nestablishing paternity tripled. Many fathers want to do right by their children, but need help to\ndo it. The Welfare-to-Work program that we fought for in 1997 provided a major new\nfunding source to help low-income noncustodial parents (mainly fathers) work and support\ntheir children, and the FY 2001 budget will give state, local, tribal, and community- and\nfaith-based grantees an additional two years to spend existing funds. We provided communities\nand families with new tools to increase fathers' involvement in their children's learning. And,\nteen pregnancy and birth rates have declined to the lowest levels on record.\nMy FY 2001 budget proposed several new initiatives to ensure that noncustodial\nparents who can afford to pay child support do, to ensure that more of the child support paid\ngoes directly to families, and to help more \"deadbroke\" fathers go to work. My\nAdministration worked closely with Congress to seek enactment of the Child Support\nDistribution Act of 2000, which included many elements of our proposals for child support\nreforms and responsible fatherhood initiatives. Unfortunately, the 106th Congress failed to\npass this legislation, despite strong bi-partisan support. I urge the new Congress to pass a\nbipartisan fatherhood bill to help more fathers live up to their responsibilities and to strengthen\nfamilies and communities.\nRecommendation: Pass a bipartisan fatherhood bill that provides grants to help\nlow-income and non-custodial parents -- mainly fathers -- work, pay child support and\nreconnect with their children.\nNative Americans\nOne year ago, I emphasized in my State of the Union address that we should \"begin\nthis new century by honoring our historic responsibility to empower the first Americans.\"\nWhile we are living in a time of great prosperity and progress, for many Native Americans,\nthe picture is quite different. Even though economic conditions in Indian country have\nimproved in recent years, the social, economic and educational status of American Indian and\nAlaska Native communities continue to lag behind the rest of the United States.\nThat is why I made improving conditions in Indian Country a high priority during my\nAdministration. We worked with tribes on a government-to-government basis to bring about\npositive change. Most recently, I signed a new executive order that requires consultation with\nIndian tribal governments in the development of Federal policies that have tribal implications.\nI believe that honoring our trust responsibilities and fostering government-to-government\ninteraction is essential to improving relationships with tribes.\nIn order to lift up Native American communities, we must focus on three areas:\neconomic development, health care, and education. A New Markets approach holds much\npromise for many Native American communities. I saw this first hand when I visited the Pine\nRidge Reservation in South Dakota and the Navajo Nation in Shiprock, New Mexico to\nhighlight the needs of our Nation's first peoples and to encourage private investments in these\nareas. The final FY2001 budget agreement contains my historic new bipartisan New Markets\nand Community Renewal Initiative which contains tax credits and assistance for small\nbusinesses for underserved communities across the Nation - including Indian Country. I also\nfought for legislation - also included in the 2001 budget agreement - that will treat tribes\nsimilarly to state and local governments under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. Last year,\nI proposed a historic budget with the largest increase ever for key new and existing programs\nfor Native American communities. We won much of our request with the final budget,\nincluding an increase of $1.1 billion for Native Americans. The centerpieces of the final\nbudget represent the priorities for Indian Country. We have won historic new increases for\nBureau of Indian Affairs school construction and repair which will provide an important down\npayment on reducing the backlog of repairs and renovations needed. We also secured $75\nmillion for renovations for public schools with high concentrations of Native American\nstudents. I am proud that we are continuing our 1000 new Native American teacher initiative,\nand we were able to create a new Native American Education Foundation to encourage private\ngifts to further educational opportunities for American Indian children.\nThe Vice President and I also championed and won the largest increase for the Indian\nHealth Service - an increase of 10 percent over FY2000 - to provide additional primary care\nservices, more drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services, and a $240 million\nincrease for a special diabetes program for Native Americans.\nMy sincere hope is that these budget victories will provide a baseline for the next\nAdministration to continue to work with tribes and lift up the lives of this Nation's first\nAmericans.\nRecommendation: Make up for lost time by continuing to pass bipartisan increases in our\nnation's investment in turning around Native American schools, reducing the enormous\ndisparity in Native American health, and attracting new business to Indian Country.\nII.\nEDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOR ALL CHILDREN\nWhen Vice President Gore and I came into office in 1993, we pledged to the American\npeople that we would strengthen education at every level and challenge the status quo by\ninvesting more in and demanding more from our nation's schools. Because every child can\nlearn and every child deserves the opportunity to realize his or her dreams, the promise of a\nworld-class education must be available to all Americans regardless of their income, where\nthey live, or the color of their skin. As we enter the 21st century, nothing could be more\nimportant than investing in the public schools that will prepare our children to be successful in\nan increasingly global economy. Too often in the past we accepted low expectations for some\nchildren, using labels and categories to excuse our failure to educate them.\nDuring the last eight years we have clearly made progress in improving our schools\nand helping more children succeed. For example, African American high school graduation\nrates are virtually equal to those of whites for the first time. Test scores for African\nAmericans students are up in virtually all categories, and between 1992 and 1999, math scores\nfor Hispanic students increased at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels. In addition, more\nminority students are being challenged by rigorous coursework, which is an important\nprecursor to post-secondary education. Three times as many African American students took\nAdvanced Placement (AP) exams in 1999 as took the tests in 1988; and nearly 70,000\nHispanic students took AP exams in 1999 - the most ever.\nAccess to post-secondary opportunities also continues to increase for minority students:\nthe percentage of African American high school graduates who go on to college has increased\nfrom 50 percent in 1992 to 58.5 percent in 1997, and the percentage of Hispanic high school\ngraduates going directly to college increased from 55 percent in 1992 to 66 percent in 1997.\nAlso, the percentage of Hispanic high school graduates age 25-29 who have a college degree is\nthe highest ever.\nThese improvements show that our commitment to education over the past eight years\nis helping more of America's students succeed, but they also highlight the fact that much work\nremains to be done. For example, achievement gaps between Hispanic and white students\npersist at all grade levels and across most academic subjects; and more than 80 percent of\nHispanics are not introduced to college \"gateway\" classes such as algebra and geometry by the\neighth grade. These gaps likely contribute to the unacceptably low high school completion\nrate for Latinos, which has not changed substantially in the past several years.\nEight years ago, the debate on education was usually divided into partisan camps\narguing over false choices. On one side were those who believed that money could solve all\nthe problems in our schools, and who feared that setting high standards and holding schools\nand teachers and students accountable to them would only hold back poor children, especially\npoor minority children. On the other side, there were those who felt education was a state\nresponsibility, and did not need a comprehensive national response - or the leadership of a\nfederal Department of Education. They were willing to give up on our public schools and\nmany of the children in them because they did not believe that we could ensure a world-class\neducation for all students, and therefore, were unwilling to spend money trying. We believed\nboth of those positions were wrong because every child can learn. There was plenty of\nevidence, even then, that high levels of learning were possible in even the most difficult social\nand economic circumstances. The challenge was to make the school transformation going on\nin some schools available and real in all schools. We sought to do this by both investing more\nin our schools and demanding more from them, with a simple proven strategy: higher\nstandards, greater accountability, more investment, equal opportunity.\nThis strategy should continue to guide our efforts to improve education. Last year, for\nthe first time, Congress failed to fulfill its obligation to reauthorize the Elementary and\nSecondary Education Act. In May of 1999 I sent Congress a proposal that would fundamentally\nchange the way the federal government invests in our schools -- to support more of what we\nknow works, and to stop supporting what we know does not work. It would help put quality\nteachers in all classrooms; send report cards to all parents on the performance of each school; end\nsocial promotion, but offer help for students rather than blaming them when the system fails\nthem; and require a plan to identify failing schools and improve them, or shut them down. I have\nalso favored voluntary national tests in fourth grade reading and eighth grade math -- developed\nin a nonpartisan and professional manner as a way to measure student progress within and\nacross state borders as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAPE) tests do today.\nCongress and the new Administration must act on this legislation, and I hope they will do it in a\nway that makes progress on accountability, while increasing key investments in what works.\nThe fundamental lesson of the last seven years, it seems to me, is that an education\ninvestment without accountability can be a real waste of money. But accountability without\ninvestment can be a real waste of effort. All schools need adequate resources to provide all of\nour children with a world-class education and yet too often, many schools in poor communities\ncannot meet this goal because they simply don't have the resources. Long-standing gaps in\naccess to educational resources exist, including disparities based on race and ethnicity. That's\nwhy I am appointing a Presidential Commission on resource equity charged with gathering\ndata on this problem and reporting to the President, Congress, and the nation on the best\nstrategies to close this equity gap.\nI've also asked Congress to make a range of other investments to make accountability\nwork. These include reduced class sizes, hiring additional, well-qualified teachers, and\nexpanding after-school and summer school programs to help children succeed.\nCongress has responded with bipartisan support for many elements of this plan,\nincluding the largest education budget in history this year, which as permitted us to more than\ndouble federal support for local schools over the last eight years.\nWe know that children learn better in smaller classes. This year, we won $1.6 billion\nto hire 37,000 new, qualified teachers to lower class size to eighteen in the first three grades,\nkeeping us on track toward our goal of hiring100,000 new teachers.\nWe also know that children cannot not be expected to lift themselves up in schools that\nare literally falling down. The average school building in the United States is 42 years old,\nwhile in many cities the average is 65 years old. There are schools in New York City, for\nexample, that are still being heated by coal-fired furnaces, schools in states all over America\ntoo poorly wired to connect to the Internet, and schools so overcrowded the playgrounds are\nfilled with trailer classrooms. For four years I have tried to get the Congress to approve my\n$25 billion tax credit to help to build or modernize 5,000 schools. America's school children\nare still waiting for this help. This year, we did win $1.2 billion in spending for urgent\nschool repairs. This is a start, but far short of making the kind of investment needed to\nprovide our children with the schools they deserve.\nSince 1997, we've made progress in expanding after-school programs that offer\nadditional learning opportunities for students and prevent juvenile crime. This year we nearly\ndoubled funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers to $846 million, serving 1.3\nmillion students nationwide. I call on Congress to support these proven programs until we can\nprovide these opportunities for all the estimated 4 million latch-key children in our country.\nWith the largest expansion of college aid since the GI Bill, we are opening the doors of\ncollege to all, so that more of our young people can not only walk through them, but walk out\nwith a degree four years later. The percentage of young people going to college is up 10\npercent since 1990, because the rewards of college are greater than ever, and because of\ninvestments like our GEAR UP mentoring program which, with this year's increases, will now\nhelp 2.1 million low-income middle school students finish school and prepare for college. Our\nHOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning Tax Credits are also helping 13 million Americans\npay for college. Thanks to more affordable student loans, students have saved $9 billion since\n1994, about $1,300 on each $10,000 loan. We have increased Pell Grants to a maximum of\n$3,750 this year; and created 300,000 more work study slots.\nWe cannot close disparities in race if we do not close the remaining disparities in\neducation. It is just that simple. This means expanding efforts to tie investment to\naccountability, so that every child, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, income or background,\ncan get a first-class public school education. This is a founding principle of our country and it\nremains today perhaps the most important tool we have to give all our citizens the chance to\nmake the most of their own lives.\nRecommendation: Reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act so that\nfederal education funds promote higher standards and accountability for results, put\nqualified teachers in all classrooms, and turn around all failing schools. Finish the job of\nhiring 100,000 teachers to reduce class size. Expand afterschool and summer school help\nto make sure all students reach high standards. Mentor disadvantaged youth to increase\nthe chance they go to college. Provide tax credits to help build or modernize 5,000\nschools. Act on the findings of the newly appointed Presidential Commission on Resource\nEquity, that is charged with finding ways to close the resource equity gap between schools\nin poor communities and those in more affluent ones.\nIII.\nCIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT\nDespite all the progress we have made in tearing down walls of segregation and\nbarriers of opportunity, an old enemy lurks in the shadows. It continues to poison our\nperceptions, undermine our progress and threaten our future. Racial equality has been our\nnation's constant struggle, predating the nation's founding by a century and a half. And race\nhas been our constant struggle.\nWe were born with a Declaration of Independence which asserted that we are all\ncreated equal and a Constitution that enshrined slavery. We fought a bloody civil war to\nabolish slavery and preserve the union, but we remained a house divided and unequal by law\nfor another century. We advanced across the continent in the name of freedom, yet in doing\nso we pushed Native Americans off their land, often crushing their culture, their livelihood\nand their lives. We eagerly recruited laborers from Asia to help build our fledgling economy\nbut in a time of war, forcibly removed more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their\nhomes and into internment camps. Our Statue of Liberty welcomes poor, tired, huddled\nmasses of immigrants to our shores, but each new wave has felt the sting of discrimination,\nand for many that discrimination has burdened their native-born children and grandchildren.\nWe must face these harsh contradictions squarely as a critical first step to healing the wounds\nof our past and unleashing the power and promise of our future.\nAfter I launched the national initiative on race in San Diego in 1997, people asked me\nwhy, in the absence of a great national crisis like Little Rock or the Rodney King riots, should\nthe American people focus anew on the challenge of racial reconciliation. My answer is\ntwo-fold. First and foremost, our work is not yet done. And our present progress and\nconfidence give us the best chance to finish it. We have moved out of the epicenter of racism\nthat rocked our nation from the time of the conquest, slavery and Japanese internment until the\ngreat breakthroughs of the civil rights era, but we are still experiencing the aftershocks.\nThough people of color have more opportunities than ever today, we still see evidence of\nunequal treatment in the litany of disparities in jobs and wealth, in education and health, and in\ncriminal justice, that so often still break down along the color line.\nSecond, building One America is not just a fancy slogan. It is a rallying cry in defense\nof our future. As we have seen so often in other parts of the world, ancient ethnic divisions in\nthe age of the new global economy can rip nations apart. That has not, and will not, happen\nhere in America. The main reason is our fundamental faith in freedom and equality, embodied\nin the words, if not always the actions, of our founders.\nI believe it is also tied to our belief in a spiritual law common to every major world\nreligion. We hear its echo in our call for One America. It is the law of oneness. E pluribus\nunum: Out of many, one. In Christianity it is expressed as loving thy neighbor as thyself. In\nIslam we are instructed to \"Do unto all men as you wish to have done to you and reject for\nothers what you would reject for yourself. The Talmud teaches us, \"Should anyone turn aside\nthe right of the stranger, it is as though he were to turn aside the right of the most high God.\"\nAs a nation that takes pride in both the depth and diversity of religious expression, we must\nembrace racial reconciliation as a way to honor our highest spiritual values.\nIn 1998, my Advisory Board on race made this prescient observation: \"[N]ow, more\nthan ever, racial discrimination is not only about skin color and other physical characteristics\nassociated with race; it is also about other aspects of our identity, such as ethnicity, national\norigin, language, accent, religion, and cultural customs.\" While overt racial prejudice has\ndiminished, the discrimination of today is often more camouflaged. In a sense, this makes it\nmore dangerous: if you are denied a job, apartment, or prompt service in a store on the basis\nof bigotry that is never expressed, and even cloaked in politeness, then you have no signal\ntelling you to object, to fight. In order to build One America, to finish the work that we have\nstarted, it is vitally important that all Americans understand that discrimination - intentional\nor not, obvious or camouflaged - still exists and that each of us has the opportunity and\nresponsibility to help eradicate it. This is about more than enforcing laws. It is about living up\nto our values and keeping our promises.\nWith our unprecedented strength, it is all the more intolerable that there are still doors\nto opportunity that are padlocked by prejudice. That is why I have proposed substantial new\ninvestments to strengthen civil rights enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels.\nAlthough money by itself will not achieve our civil rights goals, a strong enforcement agenda\ndepends on a sufficient level of resources. But we must act strategically to put the federal\ninvestments where they can be the most effective. That is why, for eight years, I have fought\nso hard for additional investments in civil rights enforcement. These funds are critical to\nhelping the Justice Department expand investigations and prosecutions of criminal civil rights\ncases. HUD needs adequate resources to reduce housing discrimination and the Departments\nof Education, Agriculture and Labor will be able to improve and expand civil rights\ncompliance and enforcement programs.\nAnd as our comprehensive review of federal affirmative action programs revealed,\naffirmative action is still an effective and important tool for expanding educational and\neconomic opportunity to all Americans.\nThe fact is, important gaps in civil rights law and their enforcement remain. We need\nto ensure equal opportunity for all Americans, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender,\ndisability or sexual orientation. To that end, I challenge the new Congress and Administration\nto pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). I believe that the simple business\nof enforcing anti-discrimination laws should be a bipartisan commitment. We should be able\nto agree on at least this much - enforce the law and promote voluntary compliance with it.\nRecommendation: Redouble our efforts to end all forms of discrimination against any\ngroup of Americans by expanding investments in civil rights enforcement and passing the\nEmployment Non-Discrimination Act.\nEliminate Hate Crimes\nThere is nothing more important to the future of this country than our standing together\nagainst intolerance, prejudice, and violent bigotry. No American should be subjected to\nviolence on account of his or her race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation,\ngender or disability. Americans of conscience were horrified by the vicious murder of James\nByrd, Jr. in Jasper, Texas and the cowardly torture-murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming.\nBut we must do more than shake our heads in shame-we must back up our outrage with tough\nsanctions against those who perpetuate these crimes. Hate crimes are criminal acts driven by\nbias against another person's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In\n1999, the FBI reported 7,876 incidents of such crimes. Of these, more than 60% were based\non the victim's race or ethnicity. It is suspected that many more go unreported. I am proud\nthat my Administration has stood strong against hate crimes through vigorous prosecution\nunder the civil rights statutes, but there is much more to do.\nUnder Attorney General Janet Reno's leadership, the Department of Justice has been\ndeeply committed to prosecuting and preventing hate crimes. At the first White House\nConference on Hate Crimes in 1997, I announced the centerpiece of the Attorney General's\nHate Crime Initiative - the formation of local working groups in each federal judicial district\nto improve the prosecution and prevention of hate crimes. The Justice Department has also\ndeveloped three law enforcement training curricula on hate crimes - for patrol officers,\ninvestigators, and a mixed audience. Since December 1998, more than 500 law enforcement\nofficers have been trained with this curricula.\nWe must also ensure that when hate crimes do occur, we have the law enforcement\ntools necessary to identify the perpetrators swiftly and bring them to justice. In this regard, we\nmust pass the revised Hate Crimes Prevention Act, now called Local Law Enforcement\nEnhancement Act. Currently, the law requires we prove that the defendant committed an\noffense not only because of the victim's race, color, religion, or national origin, but also\nbecause of the victim's participation in one of six \"federally protected activities.\"\nThe federally protected activity requirement has impeded our efforts to prosecute hate\ncrimes. For example, the federal government can prosecute a violent, racially-motivated hate\ncrime that occurs in a public school's parking lot, but we may lack jurisdiction if the crime\noccurs in a private yard across the street from the school. To point out another outrageous\nlimitation, the federal government's ability to respond to a racially motivated attack that occurs\nin front of a convenience store may depend on whether or not the store has a video game\ninside.\nAlthough the vast majority of prosecutions would continue to be brought at the state\nand local level, the federal statute needs to be fixed so that there are more tools to prosecute\nthese heinous criminal acts. Our federal officers must have the authority to work in concert\nwith state and local law enforcement agencies to end hate crimes.\nIn addition to removing jurisdictional barriers, the revised Hate Crimes Prevention Act\nwill strengthen current law by giving Federal prosecutors the power to prosecute hate crimes\ncommitted because of the victim's sexual orientation, gender, or disability. The federal\ngovernment did not have the legal jurisdiction to prosecute Matthew Shepard's murderers\nunder current law. Because of the lack of jurisdiction, federal law enforcement was not able\nto provide significant resources to help local law enforcement in that case. The local sheriff's\noffice had to furlough law enforcement officers because of the costs of the investigation and\nsubsequent prosecution. With this new legislation, this would never have happened.\nMatthew, a 21-year old college freshman, was beaten in the dead of night, tied to a fence, and\nleft to die alone. At Matthew's funeral, his cousin predicted that \"Matt will have made a\ndifference in the lives of thousands.\" I want to make sure he does. Congress and the next\nAdministration should enact a law that provides justice for all Americans.\nLet me emphasize that with the enactment of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, state and\nlocal law enforcement agencies will continue to take the lead in investigating and prosecuting\nall types of hate crimes. For instance, the Justice Department will continue to defer\nprosecution in the first instance to state and local law enforcement officials. The revised Hate\nCrimes Prevention Act will, however, strengthen our ability to work effectively as partners\nwith state and local law enforcement, and to serve an important backstop function with regard\nto a wider range of hate-motivated violence than federal law currently permits. Many people\nsay we don't need this legislation because hate crimes are covered by other state laws. But, as\nstate prosecutors have pointed out repeatedly, a case can often be better made by federal\nauthorities, and even more often, federal support for state agencies with limited resources is\ncritical.\nOpponents of the civil rights legislation in the 1960s often said, \"You can't legislate\nmorality.\" It is true that a statute cannot exorcise hate-that is a personal demon that calls for a\nmoral cleansing. But law does have a function in proclaiming our values and differentiating\nright from wrong. In that sense, over time, law can squeeze hate out of our public lives and\neventually out of all but the most diseased hearts. The starting point is to make violent acts of\nhate against our neighbors a federal crime. And we should do it.\nRecommendation: Recognize that hate crimes do damage not only to the victims, but to\nthe moral fiber of our nation. They are different from other crimes and they deserve to\nbe treated as such. The new Congress and Administration should pass the revised Hate\nCrimes Prevention Act without further delay.\nImmigration\nAmerica has a rich and lengthy history of immigrants who have contributed to every\nfacet of our society. Often in our history, however, immigrants have been scapegoats for\nproblems plaguing America, including crime, low wages, and rising unemployment. We must\nnot fall into the trap of blaming immigrants for all social problems, as some tried to do over\nthe last few years. It is also imperative that while we enforce our immigration laws, we also\nrecognize that every decision we make and every law we pass affects thousands and thousands\nof individuals, most of whom are working hard for modest wages, and their families who are\nall too often separated, with all the pain and damage that result.\nFor example, in 1996, Congress passed legislation to reduce the presence of criminal\naliens and ensure that those who should be deported were deported promptly and efficiently.\nYet, because this legislation was retroactive, it wreaked havoc on many families - resulting in\nthe deportation of individuals for relatively minor crimes, sometimes years after they had been\npunished by the criminal justice system and without due process. Editorial pages are replete\nwith example after example-a 19-year-old boy, adopted at birth from Brazil, deported for\nmarijuana possession to a country where he knows no one nor even speaks the language; a\nmarried woman with three children who emigrated from Italy when she was young girl,\ndeported for fraud charges resulting from bounced checks. It is time to restore due process\nand judicial discretion to ensure that unnecessary family tragedies do not continue.\nSimilarly, in 1996, Congress passed and I signed landmark welfare reform legislation.\nWe needed to change our system of welfare but we did not need to take punitive actions\nagainst legal immigrants that had nothing to do with moving people from welfare to work.\nOver the last four years we have made steady progress to restore benefits to these legal\nimmigrants. For some legal immigrants in the country before enactment of welfare reform,\nwe restored health care and SSI benefits and food stamps. Congress must take the next step\nand restore these benefits to other needy legal immigrants.\nOur immigration system should be based on the principle that all immigrants from all\ncountries should be treated equally under our laws. When Congress enacts legislation to help\none group over another similarly situated group, this creates inequities that must be redressed.\nSince 1997, my Administration has proposed legislation to eliminate disparate treatment under\nour immigration laws for Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Haitians and Liberians who\nhave fled civil unrest and human rights abuses and are currently living in the United States,\nworking, paying taxes and raising families. I strongly urge the new Congress to pass the\nbipartisan proposal that will provide these individuals with equal opportunity to regularize\ntheir immigration status.\nFurthermore, we must balance America's need for foreign workers with protecting\nAmerican workers. For example, last year Congress passed legislation permitting more visas\nfor highly skilled foreign temporary workers to meet the needs of the growing high-tech\nindustry. While we support efforts to address these needs, we cannot allow a temporary\nhigh-tech worker program to divert us from the more basic obligation to provide training and\neducation for American workers. Similarly, Congress considered legislation to simplify the\nprocess for admitting additional temporary farm workers into the country to address the needs\nof the agricultural industry. Again, while we should make sure that American industry is able\nto have the workers that it needs, we must not do so at the expense of undermining workplace\nprotections or depressing wages for those in the toughest jobs.\nOver the last eight years, working with Congress, we have dedicated over $4 billion to\nenhance the ability of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to control illegal\nimmigration and improve its efficiency. But it is clear that this agency needs a major\nmanagement reorganization. The new Congress and Administration should make this a\npriority. First, the immigration enforcement and immigration services functions must have\nseparate and clear lines of authority but both must be managed by a single senior executive.\nThat is the only way to balance the competing and complex needs of enforcement and\nimmigration services.\nWe must also continue to balance enforcement with the need for family unification. At\nour insistence, Congress reinstated 245(i) for four months allowing families to remain together\nwhile the paperwork is processed by the agency. I urge the new Congress to permanently\nreinstate this provision to support families.\nFinally, immigrants, who come here, in search of a better life, can not only realize the\nlimitless possibility and promise of America, but also enrich the rest of us with their unique\ngifts. I believe we must do more to help these new Americans become successful, responsible\nparticipants in American life. To this end, Vice President Gore and I proposed the English\nlanguage/Civics Initiative. This is an innovative program to help states and communities\nprovide people who possess only limited English proficiency expanded access to high-quality\nEnglish-language instruction linked to civics and life skills instruction. This is designed to\nhelp them better understand and navigate the U.S. government system, the public education\nsystem, the workplace, and other key institutions of American life. The 107th Congress\nshould expand this initiative to help more immigrants become full, productive participants in\nAmerican life.\nWe must also do more to ensure that students with limited English skills get the extra\nhelp they need in order to speak English comfortably and confidently, and that they meet the\nsame high standards expected for all students. Congress must continue to provide the\nnecessary funding and resources to school districts for teaching English. This commitment\nmust extend to making sure teachers have the training they need to teach LEP students.\nExpansion of the Immigrant Education program would help more than a thousand school\ndistricts provide supplemental instructional services to recent immigrant students.\nCongress should also seize the opportunity to reauthorize the Elementary and\nSecondary Education Act, to ensure that all schools and districts are held accountable for\nhelping LEP students master their academic subjects and learn English. Finally, programs\ndesigned to help migrant families face the particularly difficult obstacles to gaining the\neducation and training that will help them improve their standard of living must be expanded.\nOver time, America has raised itself up by absorbing those who have come to our\nshores. There are today perhaps more people here who whose parents were not born here than\nat any point in our history. And today's immigrants are of so many different races, ethnicities\nand from so many parts of the world that they create a unique set of challenges and\nopportunities. The time is now, with our great prosperity, to offer the right kind of\nopportunity to our newest citizens and welcome them into the family that is America.\nRecommendation: Restore vital benefits to legal immigrants and do not target legal\nimmigrants unfairly; re-institute fairness and due process in our immigration system;\nrestructure the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS); continue to help\nimmigrants learn English and the duties of citizenship and invest in education and\ntraining.\nIV.\nCRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM\nThere is perhaps no area today in which perceptions of fairness differ so greatly based\non race than in the administration of criminal justice. If you are white, you most likely\nbelieve the system is on your side; if you are a minority, you most likely feel the opposite.\nThis is true at all levels of justice - from what happens on the beat to what happens when the\nsentencing gavel is pounded.\nThe statistics are cause for concern: For example, in a recent survey, more than 7 out\nof 10 blacks said they believe that blacks are treated more harshly by the criminal justice\nsystem than whites, and more than 4 out of 10 whites agree. Furthermore, of those crime\nvictims who do not report the incident to police, approximately twice as many blacks than\nwhites say they don't report a crime because the police would not care or would be inefficient,\nineffective, or biased. No system that is perceived as unfair can have the full trust of all our\ncitizens, even if it is fair. This lack of trust becomes a cycle, separating the community even\nfarther from the police. We cannot turn a blind eye to this breach of trust and confidence at\nall levels of the system. We must keep working until every citizen believes that justice is truly\nblind.\nIn the three decades before the start of the Clinton-Gore Administration, the violent\ncrime rate had skyrocketed by 400 percent. Many thought that rising crime would never\nreverse. The soaring crime rate took a particularly devastating toll in communities of color.\nThe year I took office, homicide victimization for young black men ages 18-24 years old was\nat its highest level on record and was over ten times higher than the rate for white men of the\nsame age.\nOur Administration took a new approach to fighting crime with innovative policies to\nhelp communities reduce crime and restore public safety - by funding 100,000 more\ncommunity police for our streets; supporting community policing strategies so police could\nwork closely with residents to develop solutions to local crime problems; imposing tough,\ntargeted penalties for the most violent offenders; pushing common sense measures to keep\nguns out of the hands of criminals and children; and providing more after school programs to\nkeep youth supervised and out of trouble.\nAs a result of these and other efforts, the incidence of crime has dropped to new lows.\nThe homicide rate is at its lowest level in 33 years, gun crime has declined by 40 percent, and\nthe overall crime rate has dropped for over 8 straight years - the longest continuous decline on\nrecord. Moreover, people of color have in many cases experienced the sharpest decreases in\ncrime victimization. For instance, since 1993, the murder rate for African Americans has\ndropped 40 percent, compared to 28 percent for whites, and property crime victimization\ndecreased 45 percent for Hispanic households as compared to 37 percent for non-Hispanics.\nThese are remarkable achievements.\nDespite recent and substantial decreases in crime across racial lines, persons of color\nremain significantly more likely than whites to be victims of crime, especially violent crime.\nPersons of color are also much more likely to live in fear of crime. No American should\nhave to live that way. We must remember that in the poorest, highest crime neighborhoods in\nthis country, the vast majority of people get up every day, go to work, obey the law, pay their\ntaxes, and do the best to raise their kids. More than anywhere else, these communities -\nwhich are often communities of color -- want, need, and deserve strong law enforcement to\nrestore order, reduce crime, and help build stronger communities.\nHowever, these same communities often have less trust in law enforcement - limiting\nits effectiveness where it is most needed. So, while we have attained historic reductions in\ncrime, we must build on our successful strategy and develop additional ways to make every\ncommunity even safer. And in doing so, we must strengthen trust and confidence law\nenforcement in the criminal justice system overall.\nCommunity Policing and \"Hot Spots\"\nFirst and foremost, we must reduce crime and restore order in communities of color\nwhere crime and fear of crime are greatest. Every American has the right to live in a safe\ncommunity, and we should not be able to identify high-crime neighborhoods based on the race\nof the residents who live there. Community policing should serve as the cornerstone for our\nefforts. We must continue to add another 50,000 more community police to our nation's\nstreets and spread the philosophy of community policing which brings local police and\nresidents together in developing ways to best solve and prevent local crime problems and\ndisorder. We should further expand this successful model to other areas of the criminal justice\nsystem including prosecution, with new community prosecutors working side-by-side with\ncommunity police to address quality of life issues and help prevent crime before it starts.\nI challenge the Congress and the next Administration to create a crime \"hot spots\"\ninitiative - to target more resources to communities and neighborhoods that continue to have\nhigh crime rates or emerging crime problems. In crime \"hot spots,\" federal, state and local\nlaw enforcement would work together to identify high-crime locations through technology such\nas computer mapping. There would also be an increase in policing of high-crime areas,\nespecially during the hours when crime is most likely to occur.\nRecommendation: Build on the success of community policing by creating partnerships\nwith local prosecutors. Increase community policing in the disadvantaged areas that need\nthem most, with more resources, including 1,000 community prosecutors and completion\nof our 50,000 Community Policing Initiative, and police officers targeted to crime \"hot\nspots.\"\nGun Safety Legislation\nWe must also address the problem of guns in the wrong hands - a pervasive problem in\nmany of our high-crime communities. Gun violence has taken a high toll on minority youth;\nfor example, of the ten children killed each day by gun violence nearly 4 are black youth. We\nknow that sensible and strong gun laws can make a difference in saving lives. The Brady Law\nalone has stopped over 611,000 felons, fugitives, and domestic abusers from buying guns\nthrough background checks since I signed it into law in 1993. The next Administration and\nCongress should take the next step to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children by\npassing common sense gun legislation that closes the gun show loophole and requires safety\nlocks for handguns to help prevent child access to guns, and stops the importation of large\ncapacity ammunition clips, which can be used to evade our assault weapons ban. I also call on\nmore gun manufacturers to join us in the fight to protect our children and keep guns out of the\nwrong hands.\nRecommendation: Pass common-sense gun safety legislation to close the gun show\nloophole, require safety locks to prevent child access to guns, and ban the importation of\nlarge capacity ammunition clips.\nEx-Offenders\nAnother public safety area that must be addressed is the estimated 600,000 ex-offenders\nwho are released from prison and reenter communities each year. Many of these ex-offenders\nwill return to communities of color. We need to maximize opportunities to help keep released\noffenders on the right track and out of trouble, able to meet their family obligations, and\nequipped to lead productive lives. We should foster the creation of reentry courts, similar to\ndrug courts, and reentry partnerships, to provide more community and judicial supervision,\nmore probation and parole oversight, drug treatment, job training, and links to community\ngroups such as faith-based and fatherhood organizations. Our Administration secured $95\nmillion in the most recent budget to get this initiative started. I challenge the Congress and the\nnext Administration to continue this important effort and work with state and local\ngovernments to meet this growing public safety challenge.\nRecommendation: Expand drug testing and treatment to make sure that ex-offenders\nleave the criminal justice system drug-free. Expand community supervision and job\ntraining so they can become productive citizens who never return to a life of crime or\nprison.\nCrime Prevention\nAnd finally, we must prevent young people from becoming involved in crime and the\ncriminal justice system in the first place. That means giving our youth alternatives to the\nstreets, where they are often most at-risk for being involved in, or falling prey to gangs, drugs\nand crime. We must continue to increase the number of after school programs that help to\nprovide adult supervision and activities for young people during the afternoon and early\nevening hours when juvenile crime peaks. And we must make sure that they have strong adult\nsupervision, as well as role models and mentors.\nAs we work to further reduce crime across America, we also must strive to ensure\nfairness in the criminal justice system so that it has the complete confidence of all of our\nnation's citizens. To do this, we must address important issues underlying the present racial\ngap in trust and confidence in our criminal justice system, including racial profiling,\nsentencing policy, and the death penalty.\nRecommendation: Help young people avoid crime by giving them something to say yes\nto, by dramatically expanding after-school programs and increasing support for\nmentoring, afterschool programs, adult supervision, and role models.\nRacial Profiling\nWe know that in order for police to be truly effective in their work, they must have the\ntrust and cooperation of the residents in their community. Yet, in many communities,\nespecially minority communities, there remains a disturbing lack of trust in law enforcement\namong residents. Among the reasons for this distrust are reports of police misconduct such as\nracial profiling. The vast majority of law enforcement officers in this nation are dedicated\npublic servants of great courage and high moral character who deserve the respect of citizens\nof all races. However, we cannot tolerate officers who mistreat law-abiding individuals and\nwho bring their own racial bias to the job. Racial profiling is the opposite of good police\nwork where actions are based on hard facts, not stereotypes. Simply stated, no person should\nbe targeted by law enforcement because of the color of his or her skin. We must stop the\nmorally indefensible and deeply corrosive practice of racial profiling. While some remedies\nare already available, we know we must do more. We know it is wrong. And it should be\nillegal, everywhere.\nRecent polls show that while many individuals believe that law enforcement engages in\nracial profiling, there is very little data on traffic stops to determine where and when it is\noccurring. That is why I ordered federal law enforcement agencies to begin to collect data on\nthe race, ethnicity and gender of individuals subject to certain stops and searches. Federal law\nenforcement should make such data collection permanent and expand it to include more sites\nso we can identify problem areas and take concrete steps to eliminate racial profiling anywhere\nit exists. In addition, I challenge state and local law enforcement to take similar action to\ncollect data. The federal government can help by providing funding and technical assistance to\nhelp them in their efforts. We should also provide for more police integrity training and\nresources to promote local dialogue to strengthen trust between police and the residents they\nserve.\nBut I believe we should go a step further. Even with many of these remedies already\nin place, we know that racial profiling continues to occur. We must find a way to construct\nand pass a national law banning racial profiling so that every citizen is assured that no police\ndepartment and no community will tolerate this terrible practice.\nRecommendation: End the intolerable practice of racial profiling by continuing efforts to\ndocument extent of problem and passing a national law banning the practice of racial\nprofiling.\nMandatory Minimum Sentencing\nWe must re-examine our national sentencing policies, focusing particularly on\nmandatory minimum sentences for non-violent offenders. With the prison and jail population\nat roughly two million, it is time to take a hard look at who we are sending to prison - and\nwhether our sentencing policies make sense given current circumstances. Over the long term,\nwe should not be satisfied when so many Americans, especially so many people of color, are\nbehind bars for so long for nonviolent crimes, with so little hope of putting their lives back\ntogether when they get out. We must demand a system that actually works to reduce\ncriminality and recidivism.\nOne way to do this is to use the power of the criminal justice system to help offenders\nto kick their drug habits. As we have seen, addiction plays a key role as to why many people\nend up in prison to begin with: more than two-thirds of all state prisoners report past drug\nuse, nearly one in five committed their crime to get money to buy drugs, and one-third were\nunder the influence of drugs at the time of their offense. In order to help break this cycle of\ndrugs and crime, we should implement a rigorous course of drug testing and treatment for\nfederal and state prisoners, probationers and parolees. Offenders should be required to be\ndrug-free when they leave prison and stay free of drugs in order keep their freedom. In\naddition, we should further spread alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders,\nsuch as drug courts. Drug courts, which employ judicial supervision, escalating sanctions,\nand frequent drug testing and treatment in lieu of incarceration have been shown to\nsignificantly reduce recidivism and future drug use. There were about a dozen drug courts in\noperation eight years ago; today there are more than 400.\nSentences must be firm, but they must also be fair and fit the crime. In the 1980's,\nmandatory minimum sentences were adopted to attack the horrible problem of crack cocaine\nand other drugs that were ravaging our cities. While mandatory minimums have been\neffective in removing hardened criminals from the streets, they have also swept in many lower\nlevel offenders, for whom better alternatives may exist, as discussed above.\nOne penalty I believe should be changed immediately is the 1986 federal law that\ncreates a 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine sentencing polices. This substantial\ndisparity has led to a perception of racial injustice and inconsistency in the federal criminal\njustice system. Republican and Democratic Members of Congress alike have called for a\nrepeal of this inequitable policy. Congress should revise the law to shrink the disparity to\n10-to-1; specifically, the amount of powder cocaine required to trigger a five-year mandatory\nsentence should be reduced from 500 to 250 grams, while the amount of crack cocaine\nrequired for the same sentence should increase from 5 grams to 25 grams. This difference\nwould continue to reflect the greater addictive power of crack cocaine, the greater violence\nassociated with crack cocaine trafficking, and the importance of targeting mid- and higher\nlevel traffickers instead of low level drug offenders.\nAt the same time, I encourage states with mandatory minimum drug sentences to adopt\na \"safety valve\" similar to the provision I signed into law in the 1994 Crime Act. The federal\n\"safety valve\" allows non-violent drug offenders with no more than a minor criminal record to\nbe exempt from the federal mandatory minimum sentences.\nRecommendation: Re-examine federal sentencing guidelines, particularly mandatory\nminimums for non-violent offenders. Pass legislation to shrink the disparity between\ncrack and powder cocaine sentencing from the current 100-to-1 to 10-to-1.\nThe Death Penalty\nFinally, I believe we bear a special obligation to do everything we can to ensure that\nthe death penalty is administered fairly. Justice Department studies have found that minorities\nare over-represented as both victims and defendants in both the federal and state death penalty\nsystems. While this does not necessarily show that these systems are fundamentally broken or\nthat they discriminate, this information raises profoundly disturbing questions. Congress can\ntake an important step forward by passing legislation like that introduced by Senator Leahy,\nwhich provides greater access to post-conviction DNA testing as well as increased access to\ncompetent counsel for defendants in capital cases. These are important steps toward\nguaranteeing a system that is fair and just in its results and in its process - so we are\nabsolutely sure the system does not punish the innocent and that the innocent are not convicted\nin the first place.\nRecommendation: Pass and sign legislation to provide greater access to post-conviction\nDNA testing and increased access to competent counsel for defendants in capital cases.\nV.\nELIMINATING RACIAL AND ETHNIC HEALTH DISPARITIES\nNowhere are the divisions of race and ethnicity more sharply drawn than in the health\nof our people. Despite notable progress in the overall health of the nation, there are\ncontinuing disparities in the burden of illness and death experienced by African Americans,\nHispanics, American Indians and Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders, compared to the U.S.\npopulation as a whole. African Americans are 40 percent more likely to die from heart\ndisease than whites. Hispanic Americans have two to three times the rate of stomach cancer.\nNative Americans have the highest risk for diabetes of any population in the country -- three\ntimes the rate of whites. Asian Americans are as much as five times more likely to die from\nliver cancer associated with hepatitis. We do not know all the reasons for these disturbing\ngaps. But we do know that overall these groups are less likely to be immunized against\ndisease, less likely to be routinely tested for cancer, and less likely to get regular checkups.\nNo matter what the reason, racial and ethnic disparities in health are unacceptable in a country\nthat values equality and equal opportunity for all. Access to the best health care America has\nto offer is a new civil right for the 21st century.\nThat is why we have set a national goal to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities\nin six key areas by the year 2010: infant mortality; diabetes; cancer; heart disease; HIV/AIDS;\nand immunizations. To reach this goal, my Administration launched a major preventive health\noutreach campaign focusing on diseases disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic\nminorities. We also initiated a public-private collaboration to address racial and ethnic health\ndisparities; and secured approximately $40 million in 2000 and 2001 for programs to research\nthe causes and devise solutions for these disparities.\nIn 1999, the Administration launched a new initiative to address HIV/AIDS in minority\ncommunities, which received $167 million in funds this year. Finally, in 2001, NIH will\nestablish the Center for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which will\ncoordinate the over $1 billion NIH invests annually in minority health and health disparities\nresearch.\nAmerica has the best health care system in the world. But we can't take full pride in it\nuntil every American has an equal chance to benefit from its ever-expanding potential. That is\nwhy achieving our goal of eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health by the year 2010\nmust be a priority of the new Congress and new Administration.\nRecommendation: Eliminate key racial and ethnic disparities in health by 2010, by\nexpanding investment in research into such disparities, in HIV/AIDS prevention, and in\nthe treatment of diseases that disproportionately harm people of color.\nVI.\nVOTING REFORM\nIf ever there was a doubt about the importance of exercising the most fundamental right\nof citizenship, it was clearly answered by the first presidential election of the 21st century. No\nAmerican will ever again be able to seriously say, \"My vote doesn't count.\" That election\nalso revealed serious flaws in the mechanics of voting, and brought up disturbing allegations\nof voter intimidation that we thought were relics of the past. Too many people felt that the\nvotes they cast were not counted and some felt that there were organized efforts to keep them\nfrom the polls. Both of these allegations must be fully investigated. But, whatever the\noutcome, we can and must take aggressive steps to improve voter turnout, and modernize and\nrestore confidence in our voting system.\nWhile voting is the sacred right and responsibility of every American, it carries even\ngreater weight for those who have fought so long and hard for civil rights and equal justice in\nAmerica. In many ways the struggle for civil rights and racial progress in America is\nanalogous to the struggle for voting rights. And this struggle, too, has not been all black and\nwhite.\nThe Fifteenth Amendment declared \"the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall\nnot be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or\nprevious condition of servitude.\" But new barriers, like poll taxes and literacy tests, were erected\nto prevent blacks and poor whites from casting their ballots. It was not until that historic\nconfrontation on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge and the monumental Selma to Montgomery\nMarch that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, outlawing these racist impediments, was passed. Full\nvoting rights for women were not secured until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919. It\nwasn't until 1924, with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, that Native Americans won the\nright to vote. It took until 1952 for the Walter-McCarran Act to extend full citizenship and\nvoting rights to Asian immigrants. And only after the elimination of English-only elections\nthrough the passage of the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, did the final barriers to\nHispanic voting rights fall.\nConsider the fact that while our Declaration of Independence and Constitution\nproclaimed liberty and justice for all, originally this only applied to property-owning white\nmales. Barbara Jordan once put it in stark terms, when she said of the Preamble to the\nConstitution, \"We the People. It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was\ncompleted on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that\nWe the People.\nAmerica's on-going efforts to right those wrongs is marked by the blood, sweat and tears of\nscores of voting rights warriors - from Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth\nCady Stanton to Martin Luther King, Willie Velasquez and Viola Liuzzo. Ms. Liuzzo was\none of a number of white freedom riders who lost their lives at the hands of bigots while\nworking with blacks in the south for equal voting rights in the 1960s.\nThe right to vote is not only a sacred testament to the struggles of the past. It is an\nindispensable weapon in our current arsenal of efforts to empower those who have traditionally\nbeen left out, particularly people of color. So much progress-from the passage of civil rights\nlaws to the increase in the numbers of minorities holding elected office-is the direct result of\ncitizens exercising their right to vote. And so many of the needed changes in public policy,\nincluding those I have outlined in this Message to Congress, require active support by voters.\nOtherwise little will change. But, today, too many of us take our right to vote for granted. In\nrecent presidential elections in France, for example, nearly 85 percent of the eligible voters\nwent to the polls on election day. In America, there aren't more than two states that ever have\nan 80 percent turnout, even during a presidential election when interest runs very high.\nSo, we must do more to ensure that more people vote and that every vote is counted.\nIn an effort to restore confidence in our democracy, I recommend that the next President\nappoint a nonpartisan Presidential Commission on Electoral Reform. The Commission should\nbe headed by distinguished citizens who can put country ahead of party, such as former\nPresidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter. The Commission should gather the facts and\ndetermine the causes of voting disparities in every state, including disparities of race, class,\nethnicity, and geography. The Commission should make recommendations to Congress about\nhow to achieve a fair, inclusive, and uniform system of voting in national elections --\nincluding how to modernize voting technologies, establish uniform voting standards, prevent\nvoter suppression and intimidation, and increase voter participation.\nI believe such a Commission should also examine two other issues that haven't received\nas much attention, but could go a long way toward ensuring every American citizen the right\nto vote and the chance to exercise that right. First, we should declare election day a national\nholiday so that no one has to choose between their responsibilities at work and their\nresponsibilities as a citizen. In other countries that do this, voter participation dwarfs ours,\nand the most fundamental act of democracy gets the attention it deserves. Second, we should\ngive back the right to vote to those who have repaid their debt to society. Over the next\ndecade, millions of Americans in the criminal justice system will serve out their sentences and\nre-enter society. These Americans are disproportionately poor and minority. We should be\ndoing everything we can to make sure that they re-enter society as responsible citizens. That\nmeans making sure that those who leave the criminal justice system leave it drug-free, and get\nthe training they need to hold down a job and do right by their communities and their families.\nBut if we want them to live right and do right, we should give them the chance to earn back\ntheir rights -- above all, the right to vote.\nRecommendation: Appoint a non-partisan Presidential Commission on election reform to\nensure a fair, inclusive and uniform system of voting standards, prevent voter\nsuppression and intimidation and increase voter participation. Declare election day a\nnational holiday. Give ex-offenders who have repaid their debt to society the chance to\nearn back the right to vote.\nVII. CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY: BUILDING ONE AMERICA IS THE WORK OF\nEVERY AMERICAN\nWhen violence and strife exploded in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict,\ncountless residents and community leaders responded with inspiring efforts to build bridges\nthat would not only heal wounds but create opportunity. When more than 190 black churches,\nwhite churches, synagogues, and mosques were burned or desecrated during 1995-1996, we\nwitnessed an awe-inspiring outpouring of concern and assistance across all lines of race and\nfaith and party. When Jasper, Texas, was shaken to its core by a hideous hate crime, residents\nand leaders worked tirelessly to hold together, and in doing so, taught us all that some evils\ncan be conquered with understanding. What all these examples prove is that when\ncommunities are faced with a crisis, our better angels soar to the challenge. In those\nmoments, America ceases to be a nation of people divided into categories of color. America\nat its best is people of all colors united for the common good.\nAs in so many other areas, racial reconciliation and building opportunity simply won't\nhappen unless there is committed engagement by people in communities and institutions\nthroughout the nation. But in the absence of a crisis, we may be tempted to leave this work to\nnational leaders, such as politicians, clergy, business executives or the heads of nonprofit\norganizations. Such leaders can perhaps help set a tone, point out examples, offer support,\nand provide critical seed resources. But it takes all of us working together to prevent the kind\nof devastating crisis that pulls us together only after much pain and suffering. At the end of\nthe day, we will make the most fundamental kind of progress when we work with our\nneighbors for change.\nTo help spur this work, I hope that in the coming years leaders of goodwill in\nindividual communities will rededicate themselves to working together across racial and ethnic\nlines in community partnerships designed to help us build a more perfect union. In many\nareas, there may already be a vesting place, such as an active ecumenical council of faith\nleaders, or a human rights commission with broad-based public legitimacy. In other places,\nconvening a group of leaders might require a special initiative by a mayor, a tribal leader, a\nnewspaper publisher, an archbishop, a leading employer or the board of a civic organization.\nMuch of that work is already underway across America. And I am proud that my\nWhite House Office on One America is doing its part. In February, 1999, I launched the\nfirst-ever White House office specifically charged with keeping the nation focused on closing\nopportunity gaps and fostering racial reconciliation. Since its inception, the office has been\ninstrumental in several efforts including the formation of \"Lawyers for One America\" - a\ngroup of attorneys who have committed to change the racial justice landscape through greater\ndiversity within the legal profession and increased pro bono service.\nThe One America Office also convened corporate leaders at the White House, who\npledged a renewed commitment to diversity in their workplaces and stronger efforts to close\nopportunity gaps. And the One America Office brought a broad cross-section of religious\nleaders to the White House to pledge that the faith community would focus more of its efforts\non expanding diversity, ending racism and promoting racial reconciliation.\nThe White House Office on One America has helped focus and coordinate efforts\nthroughout my Administration to build One America. It is my sincere hope that the next\nAdministration will maintain this office and its noble purpose.\nOur national service program, Americorps, has also played an important role, bringing\ntogether young people of all races and walks of life to work in all kinds of communities with\nall kinds of people. Since 1994, 150,000 young people have served as Americorps volunteers,\nmeeting community challenges and moving us closer to One America. Last year, 49 of the\nnation's 50 governors - including President-elect Bush - urged Congress to reauthorize the\nNational and Community Service and Trust Act. I hope Congress will answer their call, and\nkeep Americorps members on the job.\nBuilding One America requires a new kind of leadership. Instead of looking outward\nfor signs of hope, we must first look in the mirror and know that change is our responsibility.\nRooted in the heart, that wisdom has the power to connect us in ways that nourish our dreams\nfor a future that is better than our past. Whether you are able to give guidance to a single\nchild or lead a national movement for justice, it all begins with a personal commitment to\nracial reconciliation. As Dr. King once said, \"No social movement rolls in on the wheels of\ninevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle;\nthe tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.\"\nRecommendation: Maintain the White House Office on One America, and reauthorize\nthe National and Community Service Trust Act. Every American should become engaged\nin the work of expanding opportunity for all and building One America.\nQuestions and Answers\nJanuary 12, 2001\nMandatory Minimum Sentences\nQ:\nThe President has signed into law many new mandatory minimum sentences,\nincluding for drug offenses. Isn't it hypocritical for him to say that they should be re-\nexamined now that he's leaving?\nA:\nNot at all. Over the last eight years, we have made tremendous progress in reducing\nviolent crime and drug crime in America. Crime rates are the lowest they have been in a\ngeneration. Tough sentences for the most violent offenders have played a part in helping to\nreduce crime, along with more police for our streets, and smarter crime prevention. Having\nsaid that, the President believes that with about two million Americans in jail or in prison, we\nshould take a hard look at who we are sending to prison and whether our sentencing policies\nmake sense under the current circumstances. In particular, we should re-examine federal\nsentencing guidelines for non-violent offenders. The President believes that Americans should\nnot be satisfied with a system that incarcerates so many of its people - and we should demand\nthat our system actually works to reduce criminality and recidivism. That is why, consistent\nwith his record for years, he also supports system-wide drug testing and treatment for\noffenders as well as alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders like drug courts. He\nalso repeats his call for legislation to shrink the sentencing disparity for crack and powder\ncocaine trafficking-- perhaps the most egregious of all the mandatory minimum sentences on\nthe books.\nRacial Profiling\nQ: If the President supports the idea of legislation to ban racial profiling, then why\ndidn't he ban it for federal law enforcement through an Executive Order?\nA:\nThe President has spoken out repeatedly and forcefully against racial profiling and he\nhas recognized that in this highly charged issue, it is crucial to get the hard facts. That is why\nhe signed a Presidential directive in June 1999 to federal law enforcement to gather data on the\nrace, ethnicity and gender of individuals subject to certain stops and searches by law\nenforcement - to help us determine where and when racial profiling occurs. This data is\ncurrently being collected and evaluated by the federal agencies. Once it is fully analyzed, this\ndata will arm us with the facts we need to end this illegitimate practice in the most thorough\nand effective manner possible.\nQ: What is the status of your data collection effort? Why don't you have any data yet to\nrelease?\nDepts of a\nT\nTreasmitator\nA:\nPursuant to the President's directive The submitted their data collection plans and began\ncollecting the data at the end of 1999 and the start of 2000. The data is currently being\ncollected and is under evaluation by the agencies. We expect to receive interim reports shortly\nfrom the agencies on their efforts. While we expect that the reports will provide information\non how the agencies have refined or expanded their data collection, we do not expect them to\nprovide information on all the data they have collected since the agencies are still working to\ncomplete their analyses.\n[NB: We expect to receive the interim reports by the middle of next week from DOJ and\nTreasury. While the reports will have info on the overall number of stops and searches they\ncollected data on, they will not have any hard data on race/ethnicity. The agencies assert that\nthey need more resources to determine the baselines necessary to provide any meaningful\nanalysis of the data.]\nVoting Rights for Ex-Offenders\nQ:\nWhy does the President want to restore voting rights for ex-offenders?\nA:\nThe President thinks that those who have paid their debt to society should have a\nchance to earn back the right to vote, and we call on the Commission to make\nrecommendations on a fair way for all states to do that.\nCrime \"Hot Spots\" Initiative\nQ:\nThe President's crime \"hot spots\" proposal sounds like it could just be a lot more\npolice arresting and harassing residents. Isn't that the type of thing that many minority\ncommunities complain about?\nA:\nThe President strongly believes that all Americans deserve to live in safe communities.\nAnd while we have made great strides in reducing crime in reducing crime across the board, the\nPresident believes that we must continue to work to reduce crime and restore order in\ncommunities of color where crime and fear of crime are greatest. The \"hot spots\" initiative\nwould help to put more resources in the disadvantaged communities where they are most needed.\nThe President also recognizes that increased law enforcement efforts must be done in the right\nway, and that communities must be engaged in the development and implementation of any new\npublic safety effort. That is why the \"hot spots\" idea should be built upon the principles of\ncommunity policing and should engage community residents in helping to identify and shut\ndown local crime \"hot spots.\"\ncollected and is under evaluation by the agencies. We expect to receive interim reports\nshortly from the agencies on their efforts. While we expect that the reports will provide\ninformation on how the agencies have refined or expanded their data collection, we do\nnot expect them to provide information on all the data they have collected since the\nagencies are still working to complete their analyses.\n[NB: We expect to receive the interim reports by the middle of next week from DOJ and\nTreasury. While the reports will have info on the overall number of stops and searches they\ncollected data on, they will not have any hard data on race/ethnicity. The agencies assert that\nthey need more resources to determine the baselines necessary to provide any meaningful\nanalysis of the data.]\nVoting Rights for Ex-Offenders\nQ:\nWhy does the President want to restore voting rights for ex-offenders?\nA:\nThe President thinks that those who have paid their debt to society should have a chance\nto earn back the right to vote, and we call on the Commission to make recommendations\non a fair way for all states to do that.\nCrime \"Hot Spots\" Initiative\nQ:\nThe President's crime \"hot spots\" proposal sounds like it could just be a lot more\npolice arresting and harassing residents. Isn't that the type of thing that many\nminority communities complain about?\nA:\nThe President strongly believes that all Americans deserve to live in safe communities.\nAnd while we have made great strides in reducing crime in reducing crime across the\nboard, the President believes that we must continue to work to reduce crime and restore\norder in communities of color where crime and fear of crime are greatest. The \"hot\nspots\" initiative would help to put more resources in the disadvantaged communities\nwhere they are most needed. The President also recognizes that increased law\nenforcement efforts must be done in the right way, and that communities must be\nengaged in the development and implementation of any new public safety effort. That is\nwhy the \"hot spots\" idea should be built upon the principles of community policing and\nshould engage community residents in helping to identify and shut down local crime \"hot\nspots.\"\nAnna Richter\n01/12/2001 06:21:19 PM\nRecord Type:\nRecord\nTo:\nKarin Kullman/OPD/EOP@EOP\nCC:\nbcc:\nSubject: Re:\nQ:\nWhy is the President sending this message and not producing the Race Book?\nA:\nAs the President has said before, he will have much more to say over the course of his\npost-presidency work on the subject of race. Because he has been working\naround-the-clock to get as much done for the American people as he can, he was not\nable to write an entire book on the matter. However, he did want to leave Congress\nand the next Administration something that would be of use to the country.\nQ:\nOne of the recommendations in the President's message is that the next President\nshould appoint a non-partisan Presidential Commission on Electoral Reform.\nWhat is this idea behind this commission and why is the President calling for it 5\ndays before the next President is inaugurated?\nA:\nIf ever there was a doubt about the importance of exercising the most fundamental right\nof citizenship, it was answered in the last Presidential election. We can and must take\naggressive efforts to modernize and restore confidence in the voting system and\nimprove voter turnout. This is an issue that is important without regard to party, and\none of important consequence for building One America.\nThe recommendation proposes that the Commission should be headed by former\nPresidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, and should gather the facts and determine\nthe causes of voting disparities in every state, including disparities in race, class,\nethnicity and geography. The Commission should also take such information and make\nrecommendations to the Congress as to how to achieve a fair, inclusive, and uniform\nsystem in national elections.\nIn order to help improve voter turnout, the President recommends that the Commission\nalso declare election day an national holiday so American citizens do not have to\nchoose between their duties at work and as a citizen. He also suggests returning the\nright to vote to citizens who have repaid their debt and are re-entering society from the\ncriminal justice system.\nQ:\nHave you asked Presidents Ford and Carter to head the Commission?\nA:\nWe believe the that Presidents Ford and Carter are distinguished Americans who will\nbe able to put country before party, but it is up to the next President and\nAdministration to choose the members of the Commission.\nQ:\nWhy make Election Day a holiday?\nA:\nThis practice is done in other countries, and they have much higher voter participation.\nWe leave all questions regarding the nature of the holiday to the Commission.\nQ:\nWhat about the idea of restoring voting rights of ex-offenders?\nA:\nThe President thinks that those who have paid their debt to society should have a\nchance to earn back the right to vote, and we call on the Commission to make\nrecommendations on a fair way for all states to do that.\nKarin Kullman\nKarin Kullman\n01/12/2001 05:04:17 PM\nRecord Type:\nRecord\nTo:\nAnna Richter/OPD/EOP@EOP\nCC:\nSubject:\nQ:\nWhy is the President sending this message, and producing the Race Book?\nA:\nAs the President has said before, he will have much more to say over the course of his\npost-presidency life on the subject of race. Because he has been working round-the-clock to\nget as much done for the American people as he can, he was not able to write an entire book\non the matter. However, he did want to leave Congress and the next Administration\nsomething that would be of use to the country.\nQ:\nWhy is the President calling for a bipartisan commission 5 days before the next\nPresident is inaugurated?\nA:\nRestoring confidence in the voting system is an important issue without regard to party,\nand one of important consequence for building One America.\nQ:\nHave you asked Presidents Ford and Carter to head the Commission?\nA:\nWe believe the that Presidents Ford and Carter are distinguished Americans who will\nbe able to put country before party, but it is up to the next President and Administration to\nchoose the members of the Commission.\nQ:\nWhy make Election Day a holiday?\nA:\nThis practice is done in other countries, and they have much higher voter participation.\nWe leave all questions regarding the nature of the holiday to the Commission.\nQ:\nWhat about the idea of restoring voting rights of ex-offenders?\nA:\nThe President thinks that those who have paid their debt to society should have a\nchance to earn back the right to vote, and we call on the Commission to make\nrecommendations on a fair way for all states to do that.\nJanuary 8, 2001\nMEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT\nFROM:\nTERRY EDMONDS\nTHROUGH: JOHN PODESTA\nSUBJECT:\nDRAFT OF PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ON RACE\nAttached is a first draft of your Message to Congress on Race. It reflects the discussion\nyou had with me, John and Bruce last week. As we discussed, the issues covered are: New\nMarkets, fatherhood, Native Americans, education, civil rights enforcement, hate crimes,\nimmigration, criminal justice reform (ex-offenders, mandatory minimums, racial profiling, death\npenalty), eliminating health disparities, voting reform and civic responsibility in the work of\nbuilding One America.\nWith Bruce's indispensible help, and further consultation with John and Mark Penn we\nhave prepared this draft for your review in hopes that we can produce and release a final\ndocument within the next few days.\nMuch of this document is based on the work that Chris Edley and I did last year, but it\nincludes new issues and reccomendations in areas that are of particular interest to you.\nUpon your review and input, we will finalize this message and commence its rollout to\ncoincide with Martin Luther King's birthday.\nThank you.\nDraft 1/8/01 11:00 pm\nTerry Edmonds\nPRESIDENT WILLIAM J. CLINTON\nMESSAGE TO CONGRESS\nTHE UNFINISHED WORK OF BUILDING ONE AMERICA\nJanuary 15, 2001\nI hereby submit this message to the 107th Congress of the United States on the State of\nRace Relations in America. In it, I present my personal assessment of the current national mood\nconcerning race relations and issue a set of concrete challenges that form what I call the\nunfinished business of building One America. This report is an outgrowth of my\nAdministration's consistent emphasis on racial reconciliation, most clearly embodied in my\nInitiative on Race and our White House Office on One America. But it also stems from my own\npersonal commitment to racial harmony that has its roots in the lessons and experiences of my\nchildhood in the racially segregated south. I dedicate this report to countless civil rights\nchampions of all colors who have struggled since the time of Frederick Douglas for an America\nfree from the bondage of racial injustice.\nIntroduction\nAfter eight years of service as President of the United States, I will relinquish that title on\nJanuary 20, 2001, when George W. Bush takes the oath of office. But as a citizen, I will never\nabandon my commitment to my country or the ideals that propelled me into public service more\nthan two decades ago. Foremost among those ideals is my commitment to racial reconciliation.\nIt began for me with the crisis at Little Rock in 1957. I was only 11 years old at the time. Like\nmost southerners then, I never attended school with a person of another race until I went to\ncollege. Though discrimination had always gnawed at me, it was the courage and sacrifice of\nthose nine black children who endured constant attacks, both physical and emotional, to integrate\nLittle Rock's Central High School, that made racial equality a driving commitment in my life. I\ncame of age at the height of the civil rights struggles of the sixties: the 1962 March on\nWashington, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I\nvividly remember the assassinations of Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Bobby\nKennedy. Like any American who grew up in that era, my life was shaped by those triumphs\nand tragedies. And ever since that time, I have been inspired to join with others to carry on the\nfight for racial and ethnic justice.\nAs President that has meant building social and economic bridges strong enough for all of\nus to walk across. The overriding goal of my life in public service and as President is to ensure\nthat all Americans have the opportunity to make the most of their God-given potential. That\nmeans equal opportunity for all. And it means finding ways to celebrate our great diversity\nwhile uniting around our common needs, concerns and values. In a nation where soon the only\nmajority will be \"American,\" I believe we need to talk about race in a new way - not just in\nterms of black and white. But in terms that recognize the essential worth and dignity of every\nhuman being regardless of color, accent or ethnicity. That is not to ignore the fact that racial\n1\ntensions still exist in America. But, if we are ever going to overcome them, we must begin to\nfocus more on the things that unite us than on those that divide us. Let's start with the\nremarkable fact that we are recognized around the globe as the most successful multi racial\ndemocracy in history, a model of peaceful co-existence in a world rent by ethnic, racial and\nreligious conflict. With the current explosion of diversity in America, that image of ourselves is\nbeing tested as never before.\nFifty years ago, whites made up 90 percent of our population and the Census Bureau used\nonly three major categories to describe us: white, Negro, and \"other.\" Those distinctions were\noften reduced to just white and non-white. Since then, there has been a rapid growth in our\nAsian American, Hispanic, and American Indian populations. Hispanics, for example have\ngrown from a population of just 7 million in 1960 to more than 25 million today. The Asian\nPacific American population has skyrocketed as well - from 0.7% of the total U.S. population in\n1970 to 2.9% in 1990.\nThe fact is, America is demographically undergoing one of the great transformations in\nour history. We are a changing people. Today, nearly one in ten people in the United States\nwere born in another country and one in five schoolchildren are from immigrant families.\nToday, there is no majority race in Hawaii or Houston or New York City. In nine of our ten\nlargest public school systems, over 75 percent of the students are minorities. In a little more than\n50 years there will be no majority race in America.\nIndeed, this unprecedented infusion of diversity brings with it a complex and sometimes\ncontroversial set of issues. Who, for example, decides who is white and who is a person of\ncolor? What will the terms \"majority\" and \"minority\" mean when there is no majority race in\nAmerica? And perhaps, most importantly, will the black-white schism that has so defined racial\nstruggle in America morph into new minority versus minority divisions or can we build new\ncoalitions for social change and equal opportunity across all racial lines?\nAs our nation grows more diverse and the world grows more interdependent, our\ndiversity will either be the great problem or the great promise of the 21st century. That is why an\nhonest discussion and an even more earnest effort at racial reconciliation is so important now.\nWhile this report is not intended to grapple with the full panoply of psychological,\ninstitutional and historical underpinnings of the racial divide in America, there are a number of\nconcrete steps we can take to equalize opportunity, maximize the great potential of our growing\ndiversity, and accelerate our journey to building the One America of our dreams. I will offer\nrecommendations in seven broad areas of unfinished business: Economic and Social Progress,\nEducation, Civil Rights Enforcement, Criminal Justice Reform, Eliminating Health\nDisparities, Election Reform and Civic Responsibility. I offer these recommendations in the\nhope that they will be helpful, not only to the new administration, but to all of us as we continue\nthe work of healing the racial wounds of the past and pointing the way to a future of greater\nopportunity for all.\nSince our founding, we have made much progress in weaving together the disparate\nstrands of our diversity into a coat of many colors. We are a more prosperous, more secure and\n2\nmore united nation. But our work is not yet done. We must keep working to connect the threads\nand perfect the fabric of One America.\nI.\nECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROGRESS\nNew Markets - Ensuring that the Benefits of Our Strong Economy Reach All\nBy any measure, America has prospered, both economically and socially over the last\neight years. We are now experiencing the longest economic expansion in history. We have a\nbalanced budget. We have turned decades of deficits into the biggest back-to-back surpluses in\nhistory. And we have achieved what many people once thought impossible - we are paying\ndown our national debt. In fact, we are well on our way to making America debt free by the year\n2010 - the first time this has happened since Andrew Jackson was President in 1835.\nThe rising tide of our strong economy is lifting all boats. Between 1980 and 1992 the\nbottom 60 percent of Americans saw little, if any, increase in income. Unemployment for\nAfrican Americans and Hispanics reached record highs and the poverty rate for African\nAmericans remained at or above 30 percent.\nToday, for the first time in decades, wages are rising at all income levels. The\nunemployment rate for African Americans fell from 14.2 percent in 1992 to 7.3 percent today.\nThe drop in unemployment among Hispanics has been just as dramatic - from 11.8 percent in\n1992 to 5.0 percent today. We have the lowest child poverty in 20 years, the lowest poverty rate\nfor single mothers ever recorded. The highest homeownership on record. Record numbers of\nAmericans have left welfare for work, and those still on welfare are five times more likely to be\nworking than eight years ago. And the number of families who own stock has grown by 40\npercent.\nBut America is not just better off, we are a better people - more hopeful, more secure,\nmore free, and more united than ever before in our history. We have worked to increase\nopportunity with a greater commitment to Head Start and secondary education, and by expanding\naccess to college and job training, expanding loans to minority small businesses and launching\nefforts to close the digital divide and open new markets, bringing jobs and businesses to\nunderserved communities.\nThere is also a rising tide of shared responsibility across the land. Crime is at a 25-year\nlow. Teen pregnancy is down. Our environment is cleaner and more secure. Citizens are\nreclaiming control of their families and neighborhoods and we are seeing the re-emergence of\nour oldest and most basic values - opportunity for all, responsibility from all in a community of\nall Americans.\nBut despite all this progress, there remain pockets of poverty in America where the light\nof our glowing prosperity still does not shine. In December of 1997, I paid a visit to an area of\nthe South Bronx that had once been close to the economic equivalent of an impoverished\ndeveloping country. Too many of the people living there were under-employed and under-\nhoused and the financial community had traditionally under-invested in them. When President\n3\nReagan visited the area in the 1980s, he compared it to London in the Blitz. For many it seemed\nlike a community beyond hope or repair.\nThe transformation I saw three years later was remarkable. That South Bronx\nneighborhood had gone from decay and chaos to development and pride; from a fragmented\ncollection of individuals struggling to survive to a cohesive community of citizens, working to\nbuild a better life for everyone. It was the kind of meeting that made me proud to be President\nand even prouder to be an American.\nHow did it happen? The people of the South Bronx simply refused to accept the\nconventional wisdom about the poor, and they worked hard to create economic opportunity,\nfueled by partnerships between the public and private sectors. They began by asking the right\nquestions: \"Why shouldn't I be able to work in my hometown, or have a transportation system\nthat will get me to good jobs? Why shouldn't people here be able to get decent housing? Why\nshouldn't our children be able to walk the streets here? Why shouldn't we have decent schools\nhere, and grocery stores and banks?\" Over time, they got-- and created -- the right answers.\nTheir story demonstrates something I have always believed in my heart. Most Americans-rich,\npoor or middle class-welcome the opportunity to work hard and make the most of their lives.\nThat determined spirit is exactly what I saw when I traveled across America to shine a\nspotlight on places still untouched by our nation's growing prosperity. And I am pleased to say\nthat I was joined by Speaker Hastert and a bipartisan group of political and business leaders who\nshare my view that every American in every community has a stake in the prosperity all of us\nhave worked so hard to build.\nWe began our New Markets tour in July of 1999, during four days of one of the hottest\nsummers of the decade. I went to places that have been too long forgotten and too long left\nbehind as our economy surges forward: Hazard, Kentucky, in the heart of Appalachia; the city of\nClarksdale, in the Mississippi Delta; the city of East St. Louis, where poverty is three times the\nnational average; South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, where unemployment is nearly 75\npercent; the neighborhood of South Phoenix, Arizona where unemployment is more than twice\nthe national average; and the Watts section of Los Angeles, an area that for decades has been a\nsymbol of urban neglect and isolation in a nation of plenty.\nYes, we did see poverty, but it may surprise you to know that we saw an awful lot of\npromise too. I went to these places to promote our New Markets Initiative - a strategy that builds\non our successful empowerment agenda. It is designed to create the conditions for economic\nsuccess in distressed communities by leveraging $15 billion in new investment in urban and rural\nareas. It was important that business leaders joined us at every stop SO that they could see for\nthemselves what they had been missing. I wanted them to see the enormous opportunities in\nAmerica's new markets. As Robert Kennedy said in 1967, \"We must turn the power and\nresources of our private enterprise system to the underdeveloped nations within our midst.\" We\nneed to unleash the power of mainstream financial markets linked to effective community-based\npartners so that people in distressed communities can have access to what I call the tools of\nopportunity-these include access to credit, capital and jobs. This is a vital part of an\n4\nempowerment agenda that must also include a raise in the minimum wage, providing child care\nand health care so that parents can succeed at home and at work. And equal pay for equal work.\nHard-pressed communities cannot be expected to lift themselves up on their own. In\naddition to their own sweat equity, they need and deserve help. That is why we have worked so\nhard to put in place an empowerment agenda from a number of sources, including local and\nfederal programs, financial institutions, and technical assistance providers. Without a critical\nlevel of credit and financing, however, all their efforts will be in vain.\nI am pleased that the Congress put partisanship aside to pass our New Markets initiative\nlast month. But that is only one part of an effective empowerment agenda. We must also raise\nthe minimum wage, provide child care and health care so parents can succeed at home and at\nwork, and make sure women receive equal pay for equal work. If we commit ourselves to that\nagenda, we can ensure that we leave no one behind as we move into the 21st century.\nRecommendation: Continue to build on the success of New Markets and pass an\nempowerment agenda that includes an increase in the minimum wage, more child care and\nhealth care for working parents and equal pay for equal work for women.\nResponsible Fatherhood\nBut economic empowerment alone is not enough to build strong communities. The most\nbasic building block of strong communities is strong families. Every child deserves the love and\nsupport of both parents. Still, nearly one in three American children grows up without a father.\nThese children are five times more likely to live in poverty than children with both parents at\nhome. Clearly, demanding and supporting responsible fatherhood is critical to lifting all children\nout of poverty and is an important component of welfare reform.\nThroughout our Administration, Vice President Gore and I have encouraged fathers to\ntake an active and responsible role in their children's lives. We worked hard to ensure that\nabsent parents provide both financial and emotional support for their children. Tough new child\nsupport measures promoted by our Administration contributed to doubling child support\ncollections since 1992, while the number of fathers taking responsibility for their children by\nestablishing paternity tripled. Many fathers want to do right by their children, but need help to do\nit. The Welfare-to-Work program that we fought for in 1997 provided a major new funding\nsource to help low-income noncustodial parents (mainly fathers) work and support their children,\nand the FY 2001 budget will give state, local, tribal, and community- and faith-based grantees an\nadditional two years to spend existing funds. We provided communities and families with new\ntools to increase fathers' involvement in their children's learning. And, teen pregnancy and birth\nrates have declined to the lowest levels on record.\nMy FY 2001 budget proposed several new initiatives to ensure that noncustodial parents\nwho can afford to pay child support do, to ensure that more of the child support paid goes\ndirectly to families, and to help more \"deadbroke\" fathers go to work. My Administration\nworked closely with Congress to seek enactment of the Child Support Distribution Act of 2000,\nwhich included many elements of our proposals for child support reforms and responsible\n5\nfatherhood initiatives; unfortunately, the 106th Congress failed to pass this legislation, despite\nstrong bi-partisan support. I urge the new Congress to pass a bipartisan fatherhood bill to help\nmore fathers live up to their responsibilities and to strengthen families and communities.\nRecommendation: Pass a bipartisan fatherhood bill.\nNative Americans\nOne year ago, I emphasized in my State of the Union address that we should \"begin this\nnew century by honoring our historic responsibility to empower the first Americans.\" While we\nare living in a time of great prosperity and progress, for many Native Americans, the picture is\nquite different. Even though economic conditions in Indian country have improved in recent\nyears, the social, economic and educational status of American Indian and Alaska Native\ncommunities continue to lag behind the rest of the United States.\nThat is why I made improving conditions in Indian Country a high priority during my\nAdministration. We worked with tribes on a government-to-government basis to bring about\npositive change. Most recently, I signed a new executive order that requires consultation with\nIndian tribal governments in the development of Federal policies that have tribal implications. I\nbelieve that honoring our trust responsibilities and fostering the government-to-government\ninteractions is essential to improving relationships with tribes.\nIn order to lift up Native American communities in this century, we must focus on three\nareas: economic development, health care, and education. To that end, we know that a New\nMarkets approach holds much promise for many Native American communities. I saw this first\nhand when I visited the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and the Navajo Nation in\nShiprock, New Mexico to highlight the needs of our Nation's first peoples and to encourage\nprivate investments in these areas. The final FY2001 budget agreement contains my historic\nnew bipartisan New Markets and Community Renewal Initiative which contains tax credits and\nassistance for small businesses for underserved communities across the Nation - including\nIndian Country. I also fought for legislation - also included in the final budget agreement -- that\nwill treat tribes similarly to state and local governments under the Federal Unemployment Tax\nAct. Last year, I proposed a historic budget with the largest increase ever for key new and\nexisting programs for Native American communities. Today, I am proud to say that we won\nmuch of our request with the final budget including an increase of $1.1 billion for Native\nAmericans. The centerpieces of the final budget represent the priorities for Indian Country.\nWe have won historic new increases for Bureau of Indian Affairs school construction and repair\nwhich will provide an important down payment on reducing the backlog of repairs and\nrenovations needed. We also secured $75 million for renovations for public schools with high\nconcentrations of Native American students. I am also proud to say that we are continuing our\n1000 new Native teacher initiative, and we were able to create a new Native American Education\nFoundation to encourage private gifts to further educational opportunities for American Indian\nchildren.\nHealth\nThe Vice President and I also championed and won the largest increase for the Indian\nHealth Service - an increase of 10 percent over FY2000 - to provide additional primary care\n6\nservices, to increase drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services, and to provide a $240\nmillion three-funding increase for a special diabetes program for Native Americans.\nMy sincere hope is that these budget victories will provide a baseline for the next\nAdministration to continue to work with tribes and lift up the lives of this Nation's first\nAmericans.\nRecommendation: Continue to work in government-to-government partnership with\ntribes to improve economic conditions, health care and education in Native American\ncommunities.\nII.\nEDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE FOR ALL CHILDREN\nWhen Vice President Gore and I came into office in 1993, we pledged to the American\npeople that we would strengthen education at every level and challenge the status quo by\ninvesting more in and demanding more from our nation's schools. Because every child can learn\nand every child deserves the opportunity to realize their dreams, the promise of a world-class\neducation must be available to all Americans regardless of their income, where they live, or the\ncolor of their skin. As we enter the 21st century, nothing could be more important than investing\nin the public schools that will prepare our children to be successful in an increasingly global\neconomy. The progress of our efforts in this regard will be remembered not by how many\nsucceed, but by how many are left behind. Too often in the past we accepted low expectations\nfor some children, using labels and categories to excuse our failure to educate all students.\nDuring the last eight years we have clearly made progress in improving our schools and\nhelping more children succeed. For example, test scores for African American students are up in\nvirtually all categories, and between 1992 and 1999, math scores for Hispanic students increased\nat the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels. In addition, more minority students are being challenged by\nrigorous coursework, which is an important precursor to post-secondary education. Three times\nas many African American students took Advanced Placement (AP) exams in 1999 as took the\ntests in 1988, and nearly 70,000 Hispanic students took AP exams in 1999, the most ever.\nAccess to post-secondary opportunities also continues to increase for minority students:\nThe percentage of African American high school graduates who go on to college has increased\nfrom 50 percent in 1992 to 58.5 percent in 1997, and the percentage of Hispanic high school\ngraduates going directly to college increased from 55 percent in 1992 to 66 percent in 1997.\nAlso, the percentage of Hispanic high school graduates age 25-29 who have a college degree is\nthe highest ever. These improvements show that our commitment to education over the past\neight years is helping more of America's students succeed, but they also highlight the fact that\nmuch work remains to be done. For example, achievement gaps between Hispanic and white\nstudents persist at all grade levels and across most academic subjects, and over 80 percent of\nHispanics are not introduced to college \"gateway\" classes such as algebra and geometry by the\neighth grade. These gaps likely contribute to the unacceptably low high school completion rate\nfor Latinos, which has not changed substantially in the past several years.\n7\nEight years ago, the debate on education was usually divided into partisan camps arguing\nover false choices. On one side were those who believed that money could solve all the\nproblems in our schools, and who feared that setting high standards and holding schools and\nteachers and students accountable to them would only hold back poor children, especially poor\nminority children. On the other side, there were those who felt education was a state\nresponsibility, and did not need a comprehensive national response - or the leadership of a\nfederal Department of Education. They were willing to give up on our public schools and many\nof the children in them because they did not believe that we could ensure a world-class education\nfor all students, and therefore, were unwilling to spend money trying. We believed both of those\npositions were wrong because every child can learn. There was plenty of evidence, even then,\nthat high levels of learning were possible in even the most difficult social and economic\ncircumstances. The challenge was to make the school transformation going on in some schools\navailable and real in all schools. We sought to do this by both investing more in our schools and\ndemanding more from them.\nAccountability\nThe strategy of greater accountability and greater investment should continue to guide\nefforts to improve education. Last year, for the first time, Congress failed to fulfill its\nobligation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In May of 1999 I sent\nCongress a proposal that would fundamentally change the way the federal government invests in\nour schools -- to support more of what we know works, and to stop supporting what we know\ndoes not work. It would help put quality teachers in all classrooms; send report cards to all\nparents on the performance of each school; end social promotion, but offer help for students\nrather that blaming them when the system fails them; and require a plan to identify failing\nschools and improve them, or shut them down. It is past time for Congress to act on this\nlegislation, and I hope they will do it in a way that makes progress on accountability, while\nincreasing key investments in what works.\nThe fundamental lesson of the last seven years, it seems to me, is that an education\ninvestment without accountability can be a real waste of money. But accountability without\ninvestment can be a real waste of effort. All schools need adequate resources to provide all of\nour children with a world-class education and yet too often, many schools in poor communities\ncannot meet this goal because they simply don't have the resources. Long-standing gaps in\naccess to educational resources exist, including disparities by race and ethnicity. That's why I\nam appointing a Presidential Commission on resource equity charged with gathering data on this\nproblem and reporting to the President, Congress, and the nation on the best strategies to close\nthis equity gap.\nI've also asked Congress to make a range of other investments to make accountability\nwork. These include reduced class sizes, hiring additional, well-qualified teachers, and\nexpanding after-school and summer school programs to help children succeed.\nWe know that children learn better in smaller classes. This year, we won $1.6 billion\nkeeping us on track of hiring 100,000 new teachers who are desperately needed to lower class\nsize in the early grades throughout this country.\n8\nWe also know that children cannot not be expected to lift themselves up in schools that\nare literally falling down. The average school building in the United States is 42 years old, while\nin many cities the average is 65 years old. There are schools in New York City, for example,\nthat are still being heated by coal-fired furnaces. For four years I have tried to get the Congress\nto approve my $25 billion tax credit to help to build or modernize 5,000 schools. America's\nschool children are still waiting for this help. This year, we did win $1.2 billion in spending for\nurgent school repairs. This is a start, but far short of making the kind of investment needed to\nprovide our children with the schools they deserve.\nSince 1997, we've made progress in expanding after-school programs that offer\nadditional learning opportunities for students and prevent juvenile crime. This year we nearly\ndoubled funding for 21st Century Community Learning Centers to $846 million, serving 1.3\nmillion students nationwide. I call on Congress to continue its support for these proven\nprograms and further reduce the estimated 4 million latch-key children in our country.\nWith the largest expansion of college aid since the GI Bill, we are opening the doors of\ncollege wider so that more of our young people can not only walk through them, but walk out\nwith a degree four years later. The percentage of young people going to college is up 10 percent\nsince 1990. That is because of investments like our GEAR UP mentoring program which, with\nincreases included in the FY 2001 budget, will now help 2.1 million low income middle school\nstudents finish school and prepare for college. It's because of the HOPE Scholarship and\nlifetime learning tax credits, which are helping 10 million Americans pay for college. And it\nbecause we have worked so hard for more affordable student loans, more Pell Grants and more\nwork-study slots\nClearly, there is a new consensus for greater investment and greater accountability in\neducation. It says to every child, regardless of race, ethnicity, income or background -- you can\nlearn. And it says to the American people, education will do more to strengthen both our\neconomy and our national community than a big, across the board tax cut which cannot be\njustified and which will either throw us back to the bad old days of deficits or require big cuts in\ndomestic programs, including education, or both.\nRecommendation: Continue to invest more in and demand more from our public schools.\nDo not sacrifice the education of our children to a big, across the board tax cut.\nIII.\nCIVIL RIGHTS ENFORCEMENT\nDespite all the progress we have made in tearing down walls of segregation and barriers\nof opportunity, an old enemy lurks in the shadows. It continues to poison our perceptions,\nundermine our progress and threaten our future. Racism has been our nation's constant curse,\npredating the nation's founding by a century and a half. And race has been our constant struggle.\nThe way out begins with facing and speaking the truth about our past, even when it is somewhat\npainful.\n9\nConsider this: We were born with a Declaration of Independence which asserted that we\nare all created equal and a Constitution that enshrined slavery. We fought a bloody civil war to\nabolish slavery and preserve the union, but we remained a house divided and unequal by law for\nanother century. We advanced across the continent in the name of freedom, yet in doing so we\npushed Native Americans off their land, often crushing their culture, their livelihood and their\nlives. We eagerly recruited laborers from Asia to help build our fledgling economy but in a time\nof war, forcibly removed more than 100,000 Japanese Americans from their homes and into\ninternment camps. Our Statue of Liberty welcomes poor, tired, huddled masses of immigrants to\nour shores, but each new wave has felt the sting of discrimination, and for many that\ndiscrimination has burdened their native-born children and grandchildren. We must face these\nharsh contradictions squarely as a critical first step to healing the wounds of our past and\nunleashing the power and promise of our future. We must become One America in the 21st\ncentury.\nAfter I launched the national initiative on race in San Diego in 1997, people asked me\nwhy, in the absence of a great national crisis like Little Rock or the Rodney King riots, should\nthe American people focus anew on the challenge of racial reconciliation. My answer is two-\nfold. First and foremost, our work is not yet done. And our present progress and confidence\ngive us the best chance to finish it. We have moved out of the epicenter of racism that rocked\nour nation from the time of the Indian conquest, slavery and Japanese internment until the great\nbreakthroughs of the civil rights era, but we are still experiencing the aftershocks. Though\npeople of color have more opportunities than ever today, we still see evidence of unequal\ntreatment in the litany of disparities in jobs and wealth, in education, in criminal justice, that so\noften still break down along the color line.\nSecondly, building One America is not just a fancy slogan. It is a rallying cry in defense\nof our future. As we have seen so often in other parts of the world, ancient ethnic divisions in\nthe age of the new global economy are ripping some nations apart. That has not, and will not\nhappen here in America. The main reason is our fundamental faith in freedom, embodied in the\nwords, if not always the actions, of our founders.\nI believe it is also tied to our belief in a spiritual law common to every major world\nreligion. We hear its echo in our call for One America. It is the law of oneness. E pluribus\nUnum: Out of many, one. In Christianity it is expressed as loving thy neighbor as thyself. In\nIslam we are instructed to \"Do unto all men as you wish to have done to you and reject for\nothers what you would reject for yourself. The Talmud teaches us, \"Should anyone turn aside\nthe right of the stranger, it is as though he were to turn aside the right of the most high God.\" As\na nation that takes pride in both the depth and diversity of religious expression, we must embrace\nracial reconciliation as a way to honor our highest spiritual values.\nIn 1998, my Advisory Board on race made this prescient observation: \"[N]ow, more than\never, racial discrimination is not only about skin color and other physical characteristics\nassociated with race; it is also about other aspects of our identity, such as ethnicity, national\norigin, language, accent, religion, and cultural customs.\" While overt racial prejudice has\ndiminished, the discrimination of today is often more camouflaged. In a sense, this makes it more\ndangerous: If you are denied a job, apartment, or prompt service in a store on the basis of bigotry\n10\nthat is never expressed, and even cloaked in politeness, then you have no signal telling you to\nobject, to fight. In order to build One America, to finish the work that we have started, it is\nvitally important that all Americans understand that discrimination - intentional or not, obvious\nor camouflaged - still exists and that each of us has the opportunity and responsibility to help\neradicate it. This is about more than enforcing laws. It is about living up to our values and\nkeeping our promises.\nWith our unprecedented strength, it is all the more intolerable that there are still doors to\nopportunity that are padlocked by prejudice. That is why I have proposed substantial new\ninvestments to strengthen civil rights enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels. Although\nmoney by itself will not achieve our civil rights goals, a strong enforcement agenda depends on a\nsufficient level of resources. But we must act strategically to put the federal investments where\nthey can be the most effective. That is why, for eight years, I have fought so hard for additional\ninvestments in civil rights enforcement. These funds are critical to helping the Justice\nDepartment expand investigations and prosecutions of criminal civil rights cases. HUD needs\nadequate resources to reduce housing discrimination and the Departments of Education,\nAgriculture and Labor will be able to improve and expand civil rights compliance and\nenforcement programs.\nAnd as our comprehensive review of federal affirmative action programs revealed,\naffirmative action is still an effective and important tool for expanding educational and economic\nopportunity to all Americans.\nThe fact is, important gaps in civil rights law and their enforcement remain. I believe that\nthe simple business of enforcing anti-discrimination laws should be a bipartisan commitment.\nWe should be able to agree on at least this much - enforce the law and promote voluntary\ncompliance with it.\nRecommendation: Maintain essential investments in civil rights enforcement.\nEliminate Hate Crimes\nThere is nothing more important to the future of this country than our standing together\nagainst intolerance, prejudice, and violent bigotry. No American should be subjected to violence\non account of his or her race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender or\ndisability. Americans of conscience were horrified by the vicious murder of James Byrd, Jr. in\nJasper, Texas and the cowardly torture-murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. But we must\ndo more than shake our heads in shame-we must back up our outrage with tough sanctions\nagainst those who perpetuate these crimes. Hate crimes are criminal acts driven by bias against\nanother person's race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. In 1997, the FBI\nreported 8,049 incidents of such crimes.\" Of these, 5,546 were based on the victim's race or\nethnicity. It is suspected that many more go unreported. My administration has stood strong\nagainst hate crimes through vigorous prosecution under the civil rights statutes. Since 1989, over\n500 defendants have been convicted on federal criminal civil rights charges for interfering with\nthe federally protected rights of minority victims. I am proud of what we have done to combat\nhate crimes, but there is much more to do.\n11\nFirst, we must continue to enforce our civil rights laws vigorously. Under Attorney\nGeneral Janet Reno's leadership, the Justice Department has taken aim at hate crimes with more\nprosecutions and tougher punishments. To increase our effectiveness, we have assigned\nsubstantially more FBI agents and prosecutors to work in this area, and the Justice Department\nhas marshaled the support of every United States Attorney to establish or strengthen community\nenforcement strategies to combat hate crimes. The centerpiece of the Attorney General's Anti-\nHate Crime Initiative is the formation of local working groups in each federal judicial district\nconsisting of local community leaders and federal, state, and local law enforcement officials.\nThese working groups are helping to improve coordination, community involvement, training,\neducation, data collection, and as an education tool, the Justice Department is also spearheading\nthe creation of hate crime resource guides for teachers, law enforcement personnel, and state and\nlocal prosecutors.\n2\nSecond, we must ensure that when hate crimes do occur, we have the law enforcement\ntools necessary to identify the perpetrators swiftly and bring them to justice. In this regard, we\nmust pass a Hate Crimes Prevention Act because all Americans deserve protection from crimes\nof hate. Currently, the law requires we prove that the defendant committed an offense not only\nbecause of the victim's race, color, religion, or national origin, but also because of the victim's\nparticipation in one of six \"federally protected activities.\"\nThe federally protected activity requirement has impeded our efforts to prosecute hate\nintations\ncrimes. For example, the federal government can prosecute a violent, racially-motivated hate\ncrime that occurs in a public school's parking lot, but we may lack jurisdiction if the crime\noccurs in a private yard across the street from the school. To point out another outrageous\nlaw.\nlimitation, the federal government's ability to respond to a racially motivated attack that occurs\nin front of a convenience store may depend on whether or not the store has a video game inside.\nIn fact, under our current law, the federal government does not have the authority to prosecute\nJames Byrd Jr.'s killers. Other than verbally condemning the actions of the perpetrators - at\nleast one of them an avowed racist-who chained Mr. Byrd to a pickup truck in the predawn\ndarkness and dragged him to his death, we would not have been able to use the power of the state\nto sanction this crime. We must close this gap in the law. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act will\nexpand the Justice Department's ability to prosecute hate crimes by removing needless\njurisdictional requirements for existing crimes. Our federal officers must have the authority to\nwork in concert with state and local law enforcement agencies to end hate crimes.\nIn addition to removing jurisdictional barriers, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act will\nstrengthen current law by giving Federal prosecutors the power to prosecute hate crimes\ncommitted because of the victim's sexual orientation, gender, or disability. As in the case of\nJames Byrd, Jr., the federal government did not have the legal jurisdiction to prosecute Matthew\nShepard's murderers under current law. Matthew, a 21-year old college freshman, was beaten in\nthe dead of night, tied to a fence, and left to die alone. At Matthew's funeral, his cousin predicted\nthat \"Matt will have made a difference in the lives of thousands.\" I want to make sure he does.\nCongress and the next Administration should enact a bill that sanctions all hate crimes on an\nequal basis.\n12\nLet me emphasize that with the enactment of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act, state and\nlocal law enforcement agencies will continue to take the lead in investigating and prosecuting all\ntypes of hate crimes. For instance, the Justice Department will continue to defer prosecution in\nthe first instance to state and local law enforcement officials except in highly sensitive cases\nwhere the federal interest is significant. The Justice Department will also refrain from following\nup a state prosecution with a federal prosecution of the same incident unless the state has left a\nsubstantial federal interest demonstrably unvindicated. The Hate Crimes Prevention Act will,\nhowever, strengthen our ability to work effectively as partners with state and local law\nenforcement, and to serve an important backstop function with regard to a wider range of hate-\nmotivated violence than federal law currently permits.\nOpponents of the civil rights legislation in the 1960s often said, \"You can't legislate\nmorality.\" It is true that a statute cannot exorcise hate-that is a personal demon that calls for a\nmoral cleansing. But law does have a function in proclaiming our values and differentiating right\nfrom wrong. In that sense, over time, law can squeeze hate out of our public lives and eventually\nout of all but the most diseased hearts. The starting point is to make violent acts of hate against\nour neighbors a federal crime. And we should do it.\nRecommendation: Pass the hate Crimes Prevention Act.\nImmigration\nAmerica has a rich and lengthy history of immigrants who have contributed to every facet\nof our society as they left an indelible mark of progress and positivism. Those who have traveled\nto our nation in search of a better life share common American values and are driven to realize\nthe possibility and promise that characterizes our nation. I believe that we must help these new\nAmericans become successful, responsible participants in American life and ensure that\nimmigrants and their families are treated fairly under our immigration laws.\nSince 1997, my Administration has proposed legislation to eliminate disparate treatment\nunder our immigration laws for Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Hondurans, Haitians, and Liberians\nwho fled civil unrest and human rights abuses, and are currently living in the United States,\nworking, paying taxes, and raising families. I strongly urge this Congress to finally pass the\nbipartisan proposal that will provide these individuals with equal opportunity to regularize their\nimmigration status. And I implore you to permanently reinstate section 245(i) of the\nImmigration and Nationality Act to allow families to stay together while applications for\nadjustment of status await approval. Legislation to provide relief for certain individuals\ntragically separated from their families by changes in the 1996 immigration law must be enacted.\nPassage of this bipartisan legislation, stalled in the final days of the 106th Congress, is imperative\nif we are to achieve fairness in our immigration system.\nI believe that legal immigrants should have the same economic opportunity, and bear the\nAccomps\nsame responsibility, as other members of society. In the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and the\nAgricultural Research Act of 1998, I fought for and succeeded in reversing some of the unfair cuts\nin benefits to legal immigrants. I have proposed a budget that builds upon the Administration's\nprogress of restoring these important benefits by providing $2.5 billion over five years to allow\n13\nstates to provide health care to legal immigrant children and pregnant women, to restore SSI and\nMedicaid to certain legal immigrants with disabilities, and to restore Food Stamp eligibility to\ncertain legal immigrants who are elderly, or live in a household with Food Stamp-eligible children.\nHowever, despite bipartisan support, the 106th Congress failed to act on these initiatives. I urge this\nCongress to stand behind families that pay taxes and play by the rules by passing these provisions to\nrestore vital benefits for legal immigrants.\nToday's immigrants are driven by a dream - and to achieve that dream, they seek to learn the\nways of this land and become full participants in American society. To this end, Vice President\nGore and I proposed the English Language/Civics Initiative, an innovative program to help states\nand communities provide limited English proficient (LEP) individuals with expanded access to\nhigh-quality English-language instruction linked to civics and life skills instruction, including\nunderstanding and navigating the U.S. government system, the public education system, the\nworkplace, and other key institutions of American life. This important initiative is a powerful tool\nin building a stronger American community. The 107th Congress should expand this initiative to\nhelp more immigrants become full, productive participants in American life.\nWe must commit ourselves to ensuring that students with limited English skills get the extra\nhelp they need in order to speak English comfortably and confidently and meet the same high\nstandards expected for all students. Under the Administration's Hispanic Education Action Plan\n(HEAP), which has increased overall by $1.2 billion over the past three years, the federal investment\nin bilingual education programs has grown from $198 million in 1998 to $296 million in 2001.\nBilingual education funding helps school districts teach English and provides teachers with the\ntraining they need to teach LEP students, while the Immigrant Education program helps more than a\nthousand school districts provide supplemental instructional services to recent immigrant students.\nIn addition to continuing to expand these vital investments, Congress should seize the opportunity to\nreauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and enact the Administration's proposals\nto offer additional help so that all teachers are well-trained to meet the needs of students with\nLimited English Proficiency, and make schools and districts more accountable for helping children\nwith Limited English Proficiency master their academic subjects and learn English.\nMigrant families face particularly difficult obstacles to gaining the education and training\nthat will help them improve their standard of living. I have worked to improve the Migrant\nEducation Program in the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Act, and through\nHispanic Education Action Plan (HEAP) won $75 million in increases to the program. As part of\nHEAP, we have also increased funds for the High School Equivalency Program, the College\nAssistance Migrant Program, and funding for a Migrant Youth Job Training Demonstration. It is\nmy belief that this Congress should continue to expand the reach of these critical programs.\nRecommendation: Restore vital benefits to legal immigrants, continue to help immigrants\nlearn English and the duties of citizenship, and invest in education and training that can\nhelp immigrants become productive citizens.\n14\nRecommendation: Continue efforts to ensure that ex-offenders re-enter communities as\nproductive citizens who never return to a life of crime or prison.\nCrime Prevention\nAnd finally, we must prevent young people of color from becoming involved in crime\nand the criminal justice system in the first place. The need is clear: for black males born today,\nthe odds of going to prison are greater than going to college. This is unacceptable. That is why\nwe must give our youth alternatives to the streets, where they are often most at-risk for being\ninvolved in, or falling prey to gangs, drugs and crime. We must continue to increase the number\nof after school programs that help to provide adult supervision and activities for young people\nduring the afternoon and early evening hours when juvenile crime peaks. And we must make\nsure that they have strong adult supervision, as well as role models and mentors.\nAs we work to further reduce crime across America, we also must strive to ensure\nfairness in the criminal justice system so that it has the complete confidence of all of our nation's\ncitizens. To do this, we must address important issues underlying the present racial gap in trust\nand confidence in our criminal justice system, including racial profiling, sentencing policy, and\nthe death penalty.\nRecommendation: Help young people avoid crime by giving them something to say yes to:\nafterschool programs, adult supervision and role models.\nRacial Profiling\nWe know that in order for police to be truly effective in their work, they must have the\ntrust and cooperation of the residents in their community. Yet, in many communities, especially\nminority communities, there remains a disturbing lack of trust in law enforcement among\nresidents. Among the reasons for this for this distrust are reports of police misconduct such as\nracial profiling. The vast majority of law enforcement officers in this nation are dedicated public\nservants of great courage and high moral character who deserve the respect of citizens of all\nraces. However, we cannot tolerate officers who mistreat law-abiding individuals and who bring\ntheir own racial bias to the job. Racial profiling is the opposite of good police work where\nactions are based on hard facts, not stereotypes. Simply stated, no person should be targeted by\nlaw enforcement because of the color of his or her skin. We must stop the morally indefensible\nand deeply corrosive practice of racial profiling. While some remedies are already available, we\nknow this practice is widespread. There ought to be there ought to be a way\nRecent polls show that while many individuals believe that law enforcement engage in\nracial profiling, there is very little data on traffic stops to determine where and when it is\noccurring. That is why I ordered federal law enforcement agencies to begin to collect data on the\nrace, ethnicity and gender of individuals subject to certain stops and searches. Federal law\nenforcement should make such data collection permanent and expand it to include more sites so\nwe can identify problem areas and take concrete steps to eliminate racial profiling anywhere it\nexists. In addition, I challenge state and local law enforcement to take similar action to collect\ndata. The federal government can help by providing funding and technical assistance to help\n17\nthem in their efforts. We should also provide for more police integrity training and resources to\npromote local dialogue to strengthen trust between police and the residents they serve.\nBut I believe we should go a step further. Even with many of these remedies already in\nplace, we know that racial profiling continues to occur. We must find a way to construct and\npass a national law banning racial profiling so that every citizen is assured that no police\ndepartment and no community will tolerate this terrible practice.\nRecommendation: Continue efforts to document extent of problem and pass a national law\nbanning the practice of racial profiling.\nMandatory Minimum Sentencing\nWe must re-examine our national sentencing policies, focusing particularly on mandatory\nminimum sentences for non-violent offenders. With the prison and jail population at roughly\ntwo million, it is time to take a hard look at who we are sending to prison - and whether our\nsentencing policies make sense given current circumstances. Over the long term, we should not\nbe satisfied when so many Americans, especially so many people of color, are behind bars for so\nlong, with so little hope of putting their lives back together when they get out. We must demand\na system that actually works to reduce criminality and recidivism.\nOne way to do this is to use the power of the criminal justice system to help offenders to\nkick their drug habits. As we have seen, addiction plays a key role as to why many people end\nup in prison to begin with: more than two-thirds of all state prisoners report past drug use, nearly\none in five committed their crime to get money to buy drugs, and one-third were under the\ninfluence of drugs at the time of their offense. In order to help break this cycle of drugs and\ncrime, we should implement a rigorous course of drug testing and treatment for federal and state\nprisoners, probationers and parolees. Offenders should be required to be drug-free when they\nleave prison and stay free of drugs in order keep their freedom. In addition, we should further\nspread alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders, such as drug courts. Drug\ncourts, which employ judicial supervision, escalating sanctions, and frequent drug testing and\ntreatment in lieu of incarceration have been shown to significantly reduce recidivism and future\ndrug use.\nIn general, sentences must be firm, but they must also be fair and fit the crime. In the\n1980's, mandatory minimum sentences were adopted to attack the horrible problem of crack\ncocaine and other drugs that were ravaging our cities. While mandatory minimums have been\neffective in removing hardened criminals from the streets, they have also swept in many lower\nlevel offenders, for whom better alternatives may exist, as discussed above.\nHowever, one penalty I believe can be changed immediately is the 1986 federal law that\ncreates a 100-to-1 ratio between crack and powder cocaine sentencing polices. This substantial\ndisparity has led to a perception of racial injustice and inconsistency in the federal criminal\njustice system. Republican and Democratic Members of Congress alike have called for a repeal\nof this inequitable policy. Congress should revise the law to shrink the disparity to 10-to-1;\nspecifically, the amount of powder cocaine required to trigger a five-year mandatory sentence\n18\nshould be reduced from 500 to 250 grams while the amount of crack cocaine required for the\nsame sentence should increase from 5 grams to 25 grams. This difference would continue to\nreflect the greater addictive power of crack cocaine, the greater violence associated with crack\ncocaine trafficking, and the importance of targeting mid- and higher level traffickers instead of\nlow level drug offenders.\nAt the same time, I encourage states with mandatory minimum drug sentences to adopt a\n\"safety valve\" similar to the provision I signed into law in the 1994 Crime Act. The federal\n\"safety valve\" allows non-violent drug offenders with no more than a minor criminal record to\nbe exempt from the federal mandatory minimum sentences.\nRecommendation: Re-examine federal sentencing guidelines, particularly mandatory\nminimums for non-violent offenders. And shrink the disparity between crack and powder\ncocaine sentencing from the current 100-to-1 to 10-to-1.\nThe Death Penalty\nFinally, I believe we bear a special obligation to do everything we can to ensure that the\ndeath penalty is administered fairly. Justice Department studies have found that minorities are\nover-represented as both victims and defendants in both the federal and state death penalty\nsystems. While this does not necessarily show that these systems are fundamentally broken or\nthat they discriminate, they confirm that we must work hard to ensure fairness at every step of\nthis irreversible punishment. Congress can take an important step forward by passing legislation\nlike that introduced by Senator Leahy, which provides greater access to post-conviction DNA\ntesting as well as increased access to competent counsel for defendants in capital cases. These\nare important steps towards guaranteeing a system that is fair and just in its results and in its\nprocess - so we are absolutely sure the system does not punish the innocent and that the innocent\nare not convicted in the first place.\nRecommendation: Pass and sign legislation to provide greater access to post-conviction\nDNA testing and increased access to competent counsel for defendants in capital cases.\nV.\nELIMINATING RACIAL AND ETHNIC HEALTH DISPARITIES\nNowhere are the divisions of race and ethnicity more sharply drawn than in the health of\nour people. Despite notable progress in the overall health of the nation, there are continuing\ndisparities in the burden of illness and death experienced by African Americans, Hispanics,\nAmerican Indians and Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders, compared to the U.S. population as\na whole. African Americans are 40 percent more likely to die from heart disease than whites.\nHispanic Americans have two to three times the rate of stomach cancer. Native Americans have\nthe highest risk for diabetes of any population in the country -- three.times the rate of whites.\nAsian Americans are as much as five times more likely to die from liver cancer associated with\nhepatitis. We do not know all the reasons for these disturbing gaps. But we do know that\noverall these groups are less likely to be immunized against disease, less likely to be routinely\ntested for cancer, and less likely to get regular checkups. No matter what the reason, racial and\nethnic disparities in health are unacceptable in a country that values equality and equal\n19\nopportunity for all. Access to the best health care America has to offer is a new civil right for the\n21st century.\nThat is why we have set a national goal to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in\nsix key areas by the year 2010: infant mortality; diabetes; cancer; heart disease; HIV/AIDS; and\nimmunizations. To reach this goal, my Administration launched a major preventive health\noutreach campaign focusing on diseases disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minorities.\nWe also initiated a public-private collaboration to address racial and ethnic health disparities;\nand secured approximately $40 million in 2000 and 2001 for programs to research the causes and\ndevise solutions for these disparities.\nIn 1999, the Administration launched a new initiative to address HIV/AIDS in minority\ncommunities, which received $167 million in funds this year. Finally, in 2001, NIH will\nestablish the Center for Research on Minority Health and Health Disparities, which will\ncoordinate the over $1 billion NIH invests annually in minority health and health disparities\nresearch.\nAmerica has the best health care system in the world. But we can't take full pride in it\nuntil every American has an equal chance to benefit from its ever-expanding potential. That is\nwhy achieving our goal of eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health by the year 2010\nmust be a priority of the new Congress and new Administration.\nRecommendation: Maintain our commitment to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in\nhealth by 2010.\nVI.\nVOTING REFORM\nIf ever there was a doubt about the importance of exercising the most fundamental right\nof citizenship, it was clearly answered by the first Presidential election of the 21st century. No\nAmerican will ever again be able to seriously say, \"My vote doesn't count.\" That election also\nrevealed serious flaws in the mechanics of voting, and brought up disturbing allegations of voter\nintimidation that we thought were relics of the past. Too many people felt that the votes they cast\nwere not counted and some felt that there were organized efforts to keep them from the polls.\nBoth of these allegations must be fully investigated. But, whatever the outcome, we can and\nmust take aggressive steps to improve voter turnout, and modernize and restore confidence in our\nvoting system.\nWhile voting is the sacred right and responsibility of every American, it carries even\ngreater weight for those who have fought so long and hard for civil rights and equal justice in\nAmerica. In many ways the struggle for civil rights and racial progress in America is analogous\nto the struggle for voting rights. And this struggle, too, has not been all black and white.\nThe 15th amendment declared \"the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not\nbe denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous\ncondition of servitude.\" But new barriers, like poll taxes and literacy tests, were erected to\nprevent blacks and poor whites from casting their ballots. It was not until that historic\n20\nconfrontation on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge and the monumental Selma to Montgomery\nmarch that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, outlawing these racist impediments, was passed. Full\nvoting rights for women were not secured until the passage of the 19th amendment in 1919. It\nwasn't until 1924, with the passage of the Indian Citizenship Act, that Native Americans won the\nright to vote. It took until 1952 for the Walter - McCarran Act to extend full citizenship and\nvoting rights to Asian immigrants. And only after the elimination of English-only elections\nthrough the passage of the Voting Rights Act Amendments of 1975, did the final barriers to\nHispanic voting rights fall.\nConsider the fact that while our Declaration of Independence and Constitution\nproclaimed liberty and justice for all, originally this only applied to property-owning white\nmales. Barbara Jordan once put it in stark terms, when she said of the Preamble to the\nConstitution, \"We the People. It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was\ncompleted on the 17th of September in 1787, I was not included in that We the People.\nAmerica's on-going efforts to right those wrongs is marked by the blood, sweat and tears of\nscores of voting rights warriors - from Frederick Douglas, Sojourner Truth and Elizabeth Cady\nStanton to Martin Luther King, Willie Velasquez and Viola Liuzzo, who was one of a number of\nwhite freedom riders who lost their lives at the hands of bigots while working with blacks in the\nsouth for equal voting rights in the 1960s.\nThe right to vote is not only a sacred testament to the struggles of the past. It is an\nindispensable weapon in our current arsenal of efforts to empower those who have traditionally\nbeen left out, particularly people of color. So much progress-from the passage of civil rights\nlaws to the increase in the numbers of minorities holding elected office-is the direct result of\ncitizens exercising their right to vote. And so many of the needed changes in public policy,\nincluding those I have outlined in this Message to Congress, require active support by voters.\nOtherwise little will change. But, today, too many of us take our right to vote for granted. In\nrecent presidential elections in France, for example, nearly 85 percent of the eligible voters went\nto the polls on election day. In America, there aren't more than two states that ever have an 80\npercent turnout, even during a presidential election when interest runs very high.\nSo, we must do more to ensure that more people vote and that every vote is counted. In\nan effort to restore confidence in our democracy, I recommend the next President appoint a\nnonpartisan Presidential Commission on Electoral Reform. The Commission should be headed\nby distinguished citizens who can put country ahead of party, such as former Presidents Gerald\nFord and Jimmy Carter. The Commission should gather the facts and determine the causes of\nvoting disparities in every state, including disparities of race, class, ethnicity, and geography.\nThe Commission should make recommendations to Congress about how to achieve a fair,\ninclusive, and uniform system of voting in national elections -- including how to modernize\nvoting technologies, establish uniform voting standards, prevent voter suppression and\nintimidation, and increase voter participation.\nI believe such a Commission also should examine two other issues that haven't received\nas much attention, but could go a long way toward ensuring every American citizen the right to\nvote and the chance to exercise that right. First, declaring election day a national holiday SO that\nno one has to choose between their responsibilities at work and their responsibilities as a citizen.\n21\nIn other countries that do this, voter participation dwarfs ours, and the most fundamental act of\ndemocracy gets the attention it deserves. Second, giving those who have repaid their debt to\nsociety the chance to regain their right to be a voting member of that society. Over the next\ndecade, millions of Americans in the criminal justice system will serve out their sentences and\nre-enter society. These Americans are disproportionately poor and minority. We should be\ndoing everything we can to make sure that they re-enter as responsible citizens. That means\nmaking sure that those who leave the criminal justice system leave it drug-free, and get the\ntraining they need to hold down a job and do right by their communities and their families. But\nif we want them to live right and do right, we should give them the chance to earn back their\nrights -- above all, the right to vote.\nRecommendation: Appoint a non-partisan Presidential Commission on election reform to\nensure a fair, inclusive and uniform system of voting standards, prevent voter suppression\nand intimidation and increase voter participation. Declare election day a national holiday.\nAnd give ex-offenders who have repaid their debt to society the chance to earn back the\nright to vote.\nVII.\nCIVIC RESPONSIBILITY: BUILDING ONE AMERICA IS THE WORK OF\nEVERY AMERICAN\nWhen violence and strife exploded in Los Angeles following the Rodney King verdict,\ncountless residents and community leaders responded with inspiring efforts to build bridges that\nwould not only heal wounds but create opportunity. When more than 190 black churches, white\nchurches, synagogues, and mosques were burned or desecrated during 1995-96, we witnessed an\nawe-inspiring outpouring of concern and assistance across all lines of race and faith and party.\nWhen Jasper, Texas, was shaken to its core by a hideous hate crime, residents and leaders\nworked tirelessly to hold together, and in doing so, taught us all that some evils can be conquered\nwith understanding. What all these examples prove is that when communities are faced with a\ncrisis, our better angels soar to the challenge. In those moments, America ceases to be a nation\nof people divided into categories of color. America at its best is people of all colors united for\nthe common good.\nAs in so many other areas, racial reconciliation and building opportunity simply won't\nhappen unless there is committed engagement by people in communities and institutions\nthroughout the nation. But in the absence of a crisis, we may be tempted to leave this work to\nso-called national leaders, such as politicians, clergy, business executives or the heads of\nnonprofit organizations. Such leaders can perhaps help set a tone, point out examples, offer\nsupport, and provide critical seed resources. But it takes all of us working together to prevent the\nkind of devastating crisis that pulls us together only after much pain and suffering. At the end of\nthe day, we will make the most fundamental kind of progress when we work with our neighbors\nfor change.\nTo help spur this work, I hope that in the coming years leaders of goodwill in individual\ncommunities will rededicate themselves to working together across racial and ethnic lines in\ncommunity partnerships designed to help us build that more perfect union. In many areas, there\nmay already be a vesting place, such as an active ecumenical council of faith leaders, or a human\n22\nrights commission with broad-based public legitimacy. In other places, convening a group of\nleaders might require a special initiative by a mayor, a tribal leader, a newspaper publisher, an\narchbishop, a leading employer or the board of a civic organization.\nMuch of that work is already underway across America. And I am proud that my White\nHouse Office on One America is doing its part. In February, 1999, I launched the first-ever\nWhite House office specifically charged with keeping the nation focused on closing opportunity\ngaps and fostering racial reconciliation. Since its inception, the office has been instrumental in\nthe formation of \"Lawyers for One America,\" a group of attorneys who have committed to\nchange the racial justice landscape through greater diversity within the legal profession and\nincreased pro bono service.\nThe Office also convened corporate leaders at the White House, who also pledged a\nrenewed commitment to diversity in their workplaces and stronger efforts to close opportunity\ngaps. And the One America Office brought a broad cross-section of religious leaders to the\nWhite House to pledge that the faith community would focus more of its efforts on expanding\ndiversity, ending racism and promoting racial reconciliation.\nThe White House Office on One America has helped focus and coordinate efforts\nthroughout my Administration to build One America. It is my sincere hope that the next\nAdministration will maintain this office and its noble purpose.\nBuilding One America requires a new kind of leadership. Instead of looking outward for\nsigns of hope, we must first look in the mirror and know that change is our responsibility.\nRooted in the heart, that wisdom has the power to connect us in ways that nourish our dreams for\na future that is better than our past. Whether you are able to give guidance to a single child or\nlead a national movement for justice, it all begins with a personal commitment to racial\nreconciliation. As Dr. King once said, \"No social movement rolls in on the wheels of\ninevitability. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the\ntireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.\"\nRecommendation: Maintain the White House Office on One America.\n23\nIV.\nCRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM\nIn the three decades before the start of the Clinton-Gore Administration, the violent crime\nrate had skyrocketed by 400 percent. Many thought that rising crime would never reverse. The\nsoaring crime rate took a particularly devastating toll in communities of color. The year I took\noffice, homicide victimization for young black men ages 18-24 years old was at its highest level\non record and was over ten times higher than the rate for white men of the same age.\nOur Administration took a new approach to fighting crime with innovative policies to\nhelp communities reduce crime and restore public safety - by helping communities put 100,000\npolice on the beat, supporting community policing strategies so police could work closely with\nresidents to develop solutions to local crime problems, imposing tough, targeted penalties for the\nmost violent offenders, and providing more after school programs to keep youth supervised and\nout of trouble.\nAs a result of these and other efforts, the incidence of crime has dropped to new lows.\nThe homicide rate is at its lowest level in 33 years, gun crime has declined by 40 percent, and the\noverall crime rate has dropped for over 8 straight years - the longest continuous decline on\nrecord. Moreover, people of color have in many cases experienced the sharpest decreases in\ncrime victimization. For instance, since 1993, the murder rate for African Americans has\ndropped 40 percent, compared to 28 percent for whites, and property crime victimization\ndecreased 45 percent for Hispanic households as compared to 37 percent for non-Hispanics.\nThese are remarkable achievements.\nDespite recent and substantial decreases in crime across racial lines, persons of color\nremain significantly more likely than whites to be victims of crime, especially violent crime.\nPersons of color are also much more likely to live in fear of crime. No American should have to\nlive that way. We must remember that in the poorest, highest crime neighborhoods in this\ncountry, the vast majority of people get up every day, go to work, obey the law, pay their taxes,\nand do the best to raise their kids. More than anywhere else, these communities - which are\noften communities of color -- want, need, and deserve strong law enforcement to restore order,\nreduce crime, and help build stronger communities.\nHowever, these same communities often have less trust in law enforcement - limiting its\neffectiveness where it is most needed. So, while we have attained historic reductions in crime,\nwe must build on our successful strategy and develop additional ways to make every community\neven safer. And in doing so, we must strengthen trust and confidence law enforcement in the\ncriminal justice system overall.\nCommunity Policing and \"Hot Spots\"\nFirst and foremost, we must reduce crime and restore order in communities of color\nwhere crime and fear of crime are greatest. Every American has the right to live in a safe\ncommunity, and we should not be able to identify high-crime neighborhoods based on the race of\nthe residents who live there. Community policing should serve as the cornerstone for our efforts.\nWe must continue to add another 50,000 more community police to our nation's streets and\n15\nspread the philosophy of community policing which brings local police and residents together in\ndeveloping ways to best solve and prevent local crime problems and disorder. We should further\nexpand this successful model to other areas of the criminal justice system including prosecution.\nwith new community prosecutors working side-by-side with community police to address quality\nof life issues and help prevent crime before it starts.\nI challenge the Congress and the next Administration to create a crime \"hot spots\"\ninitiative - to target more resources to communities and neighborhoods that continue to have\nhigh crime rates or emerging crime problems. In crime \"hot spots,\" federal, state and local law\nenforcement would work together to identify high-crime locations through technology such as\ncomputer mapping. There would also be an increase in policing of high-crime areas, especially\nduring the hours when crime is most likely to occur.\nRecommendation: Continue to build on effective community policing efforts with new\ncommunity prosecutors and a new crime \"hot spots\" initiative.\nGun Safety Legislation\nWe must also address the problem of guns in the wrong hands - a pervasive problem in\nmany of our high-crime communities. Gun violence has taken a high toll on minority youth; for\nexample, of the ten children killed each day by gun violence nearly 4 are black youth. We know\nthat sensible and strong gun laws can make a difference in saving lives. The Brady Law alone\nhas stopped over 611,000 felons, fugitives, and domestic abusers from buying guns through\nbackground checks since I signed it into law in 1993. The next Administration and Congress\nshould take the next step to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children by passing\ncommon sense gun legislation that closes the gun show loophole and requires safety locks for\nhandguns to help prevent child access to guns. I also call on more gun manufacturers to join us\nin the fight to protect our children and keep guns out of the wrong hands.\nRecommendation: Pass common-sense gun safety legislation to close the gun show loophole\nand require safety locks to prevent child access to guns.\nEx-Offenders\nAnother public safety area that must be addressed is the more than 600,000 ex-offenders\nthat will be released from prison and reenter communities each year across the country. Many\nof these ex-offenders will return to communities of color. We need to maximize opportunities to\nhelp keep released offenders on the right track and out of trouble, able to meet their family\nobligations, and equipped to lead productive lives. We should foster the creation of reentry\ncourts, similar to drug courts, and reentry partnerships, to provide more community and judicial\nsupervision, more probation and parole oversight, drug treatment, job training, and links to\ncommunity groups such as faith-based and fatherhood organizations. Our Administration\nsecured $115 million in the most recent budget to get this initiative started. I challenge the\nCongress and the next Administration to continue this important effort and work with state and\nlocal governments to meet this growing public safety challenge.\n16"
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