Remarks announcing the Financial Privacy and Consumer Protection Initiative

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 10, 1999

May 4, 1999

Thank you very much, Mari. I just wish we could have found someone with a little energy to make this presentation. [Laughter]

Hillary and I are really delighted to have all of you here and delighted to be a part of this announcement today, because it's so important. And I would like to say a special word of appreciation to Secretary Rubin. You know, most people think of the Treasury Secretary as someone who's out there trying to keep the economy going, and he's done a reasonable job of that, I think. [Laughter] And they think of Bob Rubin as this sort of big, Wall Street-type brilliant person.

But one of the reasons that I wanted him to come and work here is that he actually understands how big economic decisions affect individual people at all levels of income and all different circumstances in life. And I think it's a good thing for a country to have a Treasury Secretary that understands the big issues and then cares about how they impact individual citizens. And I'm very grateful for that.

I want to thank Senator Bryan and Congressmen Bentsen, Gonzalez, Inslee, Kanjorski, Markey, Lee, Roybal-Allard, and Waters for being here - and Senator Sarbanes, who can't be here, and Congressman LaFalce, who's done so much on this, who is here today. And I thank Chairman Levitt, Chairman Pitofsky, Commissioner Thompson, Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson.

Tornado Damage in Oklahoma and Kansas

Before I get into the substance of our proposals today, I would like to say just a few words about the terrible tornado devastation in Oklahoma and Kansas, which I'm sure all of you have seen the reports of, and perhaps even the gripping pictures of.

Some of the most powerful tornadoes ever recorded swept through these States last night. At least 45 people are dead, and the wreckage is still being examined. Whole communities have been leveled. Homes and possessions have been turned into splinters and rubble.

I have already spoken with the Governor of Oklahoma, Frank Keating, to tell him that I've declared Oklahoma a Federal disaster area, and we have just completed a similar declaration for the State of Kansas, and I look forward to talking to Governor Graves later today. I had a good talk with James Lee Witt, our FEMA director, who is now in Oklahoma with Buddy Young, his regional director. And they are working on what we can do to provide all the necessary support for people.

We have to make sure everyone's accounted for and that the beginning cleanup can start. Local and State officials, fire and police, emergency services, National Guard personnel have already worked through the night and are doing a terrific job of dealing with an incredibly difficult situation. We're here talking about how people feel when something has been stolen from them. A lot of our fellow Americans have had everything taken from them in those two States, and I know that they will be in your prayers.

The people of Oklahoma City, in particular, have suffered too much devastation in recent years, and they've been hit very, very hard by this. So we'll have more to say about that in the days ahead. Financial Privacy and Consumer Protection

I would like to just put this issue briefly into historical perspective, to emphasize the importance that I feel the entire Congress, without regard to party, should attach to this matter.

We've been at this experiment in Government for 223 years now. We started with a constitution that was rooted in certain basic values and written by some incredibly brilliant people who understood that times would change and that definitions of fundamental things like liberty and privacy would change and that circumstances would require people to rise to the challenges of each new era by applying the old values in practical ways.

This happened at the dawn of the 20th century. Mari mentioned Justice Brandeis. He said when we change from being an agricultural to an industrial society that laws built under simpler conditions of living could not handle the complex relations of the modern industrial world.

He and the leaders of the Progressive movement, about 100 years ago, therefore, fought to adapt our institutions to new markets, to update vital protections for our citizens, to uphold the right to privacy, which Brandeis said was the right most valued by civilized men.

Now, that's what's happening today; we're in the midst of another vast economic transformation. Once again, the laws that govern dynamic markets - markets so dynamic they could not have been imagined 200 years ago - are out of date.

I just read - just parenthetically - I read yesterday a quote that said that 60 years ago the prices in London for most basic commodities were the same that they were in 1660, before the outbreak of the great London fire. In the last 60 years, most of us have seen prices go up a thousandfold. Thank goodness it hasn't happened in the last 6 years; we're - [laughter] - maybe in a different thing.

But the pace of change is very different - not just the nature of change, but the very pace of it. So once again, we have to respond, applying our oldest values in practical ways that allow them to be preserved and enhanced in modern times.