-- President Clinton

Remarks to the Congressional Black Caucus

September 20, 1999

EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES:

Historic Economic Gains. The unemployment rate and poverty rate for African Americans are both at the lowest levels on record, with an average unemployment rate of 7.7% in 2000 (down from 14.2% in 1992) and a poverty rate of 23.6% in 1999 (down from 33.1% in 1993). Median household income for African Americans is up from $24,3000 in 1993 to $27,910 in 1999.

Tax Cuts For Working Families. President Clinton and Vice President Gore's 1993 Economic Plan provided tax cuts to 15 million hard-pressed working families by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The average family with two children who received the EITC received a tax cut of $1,026. In 1997, the EITC lifted 1.1 million African Americans out of poverty. This year the President and Vice President have proposed expanding the EITC to provide tax relief to 6.4 million additional working families.

Minimum Wage Increased. The President raised the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour -- directly benefiting 1.3 million African American workers. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have called for passage of an additional $1.00 an hour increase.

More than Three Times the Number of Small Business Loans. Between 1993 and March 2000 the Small Business Administration (SBA) approved more than 16,100 loans to African American entrepreneurs under the 7(a), 504, and Microloan programs. In 1999 alone, the SBA granted 2,456 loans, worth $386.3 million, to African American small business owners -- more than three times the number of loans granted in 1992.

Expanding Investment in Urban and Rural Areas. Spurring economic development in distressed communities, the Clinton-Gore Administration has created 31 Empowerment Zones and more than 100 Enterprise Communities, including 50 rural ECs, which are creating new jobs, new opportunities and stronger communities. This would have a dramatic effect in the areas with high unemployment, weak economies, shortages of affordable housing and other problems. The President won $70 million in funding for Rural and Urban Empowerment Zones in FY 2000 -- after Congress initially provided no funding. On July 25, 2000, the House passed a bipartisan agreement that would extend and expand the incentives in the existing EZs, as well as create nine new Round 3 Empowerment Zones. The Administration’s agreement with Speaker Hastert also includes a first-time commitment for additional funding for Round 2 EZs

Encouraging Investment in Underserved Communities with the New Markets Initiative. President Clinton’s New Markets Initiative will help bring economic development and renewal to communities that have not benefited from the soaring economy by spurring more than $22 billion in new investment in urban and rural areas. On July 25, 2000, the House of Representatives passed the President’s New Markets Initiative in a historic bipartisan agreement that included extension and expansion of Empowerment Zones, and an increase in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit. The President has taken three New Markets Tours of underserved communities, which have helped generate more than $1 billion in private sector investment commitments.

BUILDING ONE AMERICA:

An Administration that Looks Like America. The President has appointed the most diverse Cabinet and Administration in history, with twice as many African American appointees as any previous administration. African Americans make up 12 percent of the Clinton Cabinet, 14 percent of Administration appointees, and 17 percent of Federal bench nominations. The President has appointed more African Americans to federal judgeships (62 total) than were appointed during the last sixteen years combined (57 total).

Established Advisory Board for Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The President and Vice President established the President's Board of Advisors for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to strengthen the capacity of historically black colleges and universities to provide quality education and advised on ways to increase the private sector's role in these institutions. In addition, the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education has been vigilant in its efforts to expand college opportunities through enforcement to eliminate vestiges of discrimination in formerly racially segregated higher education systems. The Office for Civil Rights at Education works to ensure minority student access to higher education, impacting both HBCUs and historically white universities.

Increased Funding and Grants for HBCUs. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have increased funding for Historically Black Colleges by over $250 million between FY92 and FY98 -- an increase of nearly 25 percent. Today, America’s 105 HBCUs are educating almost 300,000 African American students.

Proposing the Largest Head Start Expansion in History. Since 1993, the Clinton-Gore Administration has increased funding for Head Start by 90 percent. The President’s FY01 budget increases funding for Head Start by another $1 billion – the largest increase ever proposed for the program – to provide Head Start and Early Head Start to approximately 950,000 children. This funding will bring within reach the President’s goal of serving one million children in 2002 and builds the foundation for the long-term goal of universal pre-school. In 1998, 36 percent of the children enrolled in Head Start were African American.

Class Size Reduction Initiative. Last year President Clinton and Vice President Gore won a second installment of $1.3 billion for the President’s plan to help school districts hire and train an additional 100,000 well-prepared teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. Already, 29,000 teachers have been hired through this initiative. This year, the FY01 budget includes $1.75 billion for this program, an $450 million increase – enough to fund about 49,000 teachers.

New Plan to Place Quality Teachers in Underserved Areas. This year, the President and Vice President proposed a new $1 billion teacher quality plan to recruit, train and reward good teachers. The Teaching to High Standards Initiative includes a Hometown Teacher Recruitment program to empower high-poverty school districts to develop programs to recruit homegrown teachers to address the shortage of qualified teachers. It also includes $50 million for Teacher Quality Rewards, which will reward school districts that have made exceptional progress in reducing the number of uncertified teachers and teachers teaching outside their subject area.

Established the GEAR-UP Mentoring Program for Middle School Children. The President and Vice President created and expanded GEAR-UP, a mentoring initiative, to help over 750,000 low-income middle school children finish school and prepare for college. This year the President has proposed a 62.5 percent increase to serve 1.4 million students. On September 12, 2000, President Clinton released 80 new GEAR UP grants totaling $46 million.

Helping Students Finish College. This year, the President and Vice President proposed new College Completion Challenge Grants to help reduce the college drop-out rate, with pre-freshman summer programs, support services and increased grant aid to students. This $35 million initiative will improve the chances of success for nearly 18,000 students. Currently, 29 percent of African Americans drop out of college after less than one year, compared to 18 percent of whites.

Dual Degree Programs for Minority-Serving Institutions. The Clinton-Gore Administration has proposed a new program to increase opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions that offer four-year degrees. Students would receive two degrees within five years: one from a minority-serving institution, and one from a partner institution in a field in which minorities are underrepresented. This new $40 million program will serve an estimated 3,000 students.

IMPROVING OUR NATION'S HEALTH:

New Initiative to Expand Health Coverage to Uninsured Americans. This year, the President and Vice President have proposed a 10-year, $110 billion initiative that would dramatically improve the affordability of and access to health insurance. The proposal would expand coverage to at least 5 million uninsured Americans and expand access to millions more.

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities by 2010. President Clinton's initiative will help eliminate racial disparities in six key health areas: infant mortality, diabetes, cancer screening and management, heart disease, AIDS and immunizations. President Clinton and Vice President Gore won a 200% increase for this initiative in FY00, and this year they have proposed $35 million in funding to continue the effort.

Addressing HIV/AIDS in the Minority Community. Minority communities make up the fastest growing portion of the HIV/AIDS caseload. Last year, the President won a $210 million investment -- a 45 percent increase -- to improve prevention efforts in high-risk communities and expand access to new HIV therapies. This year's budget continues that investment.

MAKING OUR COMMUNITIES SAFER:

Putting 100,000 More Police on the Streets. In 1999, ahead of schedule and under budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment to fund an additional 100,000 police officers for our communities. As a part of the COPS Program, the President announced a distressed neighborhood grant program to increase community policing in high-crime and underserved neighborhoods. To help keep crime at record lows, in fall 1999, the President won funding for the first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more officers by 2005. This year, the Clinton-Gore budget includes over $1 billion to continue the successful COPS initiative to hire more officers, hire new community prosecutors, give police the tools and technology they need to fight crime, and to fund community-wide crime fighting efforts.

Preventing Hate Crimes. The President signed the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act, which provides for longer sentences for hate crimes, and hosted the first White House Conference on Hate Crimes. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have repeatedly called for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in order to strengthen hate crimes laws. The President’s FY 2001 budget includes $20 million to promote police integrity and for hate crimes training for federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Working to End Racial Profiling. To help determine where and when racial profiling occurs, the President directed Cabinet agencies to collect data on the race, ethnicity, and gender of individuals subject to certain stops by federal law enforcement. The President has also supported increased resources for police integrity and ethics training and to improve the diversity of local police forces.

Working to Pass Common-Sense Gun Laws. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have repeatedly called on Congress to build on the success of the Brady Law by quickly passing a set of common sense gun safety measures designed to keep guns out of the wrong hands and save lives. The Administration has proposed legislation, that passed in the Senate last year with a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Gore, that would require background checks on all firearm sales at gun shows; require child safety locks for every handgun sold; bar the importation of large-capacity ammunition clips; and ban the most violent juvenile offenders from owning guns for life.

Largest Gun Enforcement Initiative in History. This year, President Clinton has proposed the largest gun enforcement initiative ever. The initiative would provide a record $280 million to add 500 new federal ATF agents and inspectors to target violent gun criminals and illegal gun traffickers that supply guns to criminals and juveniles, and fund over 1,000 new federal, state, and local gun prosecutors to take dangerous gun offenders off the streets. This initiative would also expand the ATF’s crime gun tracing program by providing tracing equipment and training to 250 additional law enforcement agencies and by creating the first nationally integrated ballistics testing system. The new ballistics testing system will help law enforcement use the unique "fingerprints" of bullets or shell casings left at the scene of a crime to identify gun criminals -- even in the absence of a firearm.