Remarks to a Joint Session of the Arkansas State Legislature in Little Rock, Arkansas

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Jan 22, 2001

But what's really important, it seems to me, is that Arkansas shared in what happened to the country. So when people ask you if it made a difference, here are a few numbers you might want to keep in mind: 35 million people have taken advantage of the family and medical leave law, which I signed after it was vetoed by people who said that it would hurt the economy. If I was trying to hurt the economy, I did a poor job.

We have 22 1/2 million new jobs, a 30-year low in unemployment, a 40-year low in women's unemployment, the lowest Hispanic and African-American unemployment ever recorded. Thirteen million more people get some form of college aid, thanks to the HOPE scholarship, the lifetime learning tax credit, the Pell grant, which will go to $3,750 this year. Seven million people have moved off welfare--a 60-percent drop in the welfare rolls; 3.3 million children now have health insurance under the Children's Health Insurance Program. And Governor, I want to thank you for your interest, and Mrs. Huckabee, in getting our kids health insurance. It's the first time in a dozen years the number of people without health insurance is going down.

Two million children have moved out of poverty; 1.3 million children are in after-school programs or summer school programs as the result of Federal funds that did not exist on the day I became President. In 4 years we've gone from an experimental program at $1 million to one of over $1.5 billion, serving 1.3 million children. There are 4 million latch-key kids in this country, a lot of them in Arkansas, and I think we ought to keep working until every child has a wholesome school to stay in after school rather than going back on the street, something to say yes to, rather than getting in trouble.

Six hundred and eleven thousand felons, fugitives, and stalkers were unable to buy handguns because of the Brady law, and yet, not a single Arkansas hunter missed an hour in the deer woods; no sports shooter missed a single contest. Two hundred thousand young Americans have served in AmeriCorps, a lot of them right here in Arkansas. When the tornado hit the capital neighborhoods--and I saw all the trees blown down in the backyard of the Governor's mansion, and I went over to the grocery store that was flattened--I saw young AmeriCorps kids from all over this country, working here in Arkansas to try to help fix things and clean things up, and I am grateful for that. And I might say, I learned a couple of days ago that those 200,000 people in 6 years are more people than have served in the Peace Corps in the entire 40 years of its existence. [Applause] Thank you.

One hundred and twenty-five thousand community police officers on the street; crime at a 25-year low; 37,000 teachers hired all over America in the early grades, on our way to 100,000 and a class size average of 18 in the first three grades; 90 percent of our kids immunized against serious childhood diseases for the first time in the history of the country. We had Betty Bumpers and Rosalynn Carter over at the White House the other day to celebrate that. The largest increase in Head Start in history; the highest homeownership in history--the first time we've ever had more than two-thirds of the American people in their own homes.