Remarks to the UUNET and MCI WorldCom Employees in Ashburn, Virginia

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, March 6, 2000

March 1, 2000

Pennsylvania and Michigan Shootings

Thank you very much, Melissa. To Bernie and John and Mark, thank you for welcoming me and Ambassador Barshefsky and our whole team here. I leaned over to John when I looked at all of you out here, and I said, now, "I can't believe all these people are off work now. What terrible thing can happen?" [Laughter] What could I be responsible for doing to the Internet today? [Laughter]

I am profoundly honored to be here, and I thank all of you for allowing me to come. I came here to talk about your future; but because this is the only opportunity I'll have today to speak, through you and the media, to the American people, I have to make a brief comment about one other issue.

Today there was another terrible shooting in the Wilkinsburg community in Allegheny County in western Pennsylvania. We don't know all the facts yet, but it was a bad situation. Yesterday, of course, that tragedy occurred in Michigan, where a very young child was killed by another very young child. I just talked to the superintendent of schools there, right before I came out.

I want to say two things about it to all of you. First of all, these are personal tragedies that, because of instantaneous media coverage, we all know and feel. And we owe the families of the victims and the communities our prayers and our best wishes.

Secondly, as citizens, these incidents, particularly the one yesterday in Michigan, call on us to recognize the fact that we simply haven't done everything we can do to keep guns away from criminals and children. And so today I have to say again to Congress: You have had legislation now that would require child safety locks, would close the gun show loophole, would take other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands for well over 6 months. You're supposed to take a recess next week. Before you take the recess, please send me this legislation. It will help keep America safer.

Normal Trade Relations Status for China

Now, I want to talk to you today about your future, which is unfolding at a breathtaking rate. We were talking before we came out. I said, "Tell me a little about the growth." So John said, 'Well, 5 years ago we had 40 employees. Today, we have 8,000." Bernie said, "Five years ago, we had 2,000 employees. Today, we have 88,000." You're getting along reasonably well. [Laughter]

I have been going around the country saying to my fellow Americans everywhere that in a new economy in which we have now in the last 7 years 21 million new jobs, the lowest unemployment and welfare rolls in 30 years, the lowest poverty rates in 20 years, the lowest female unemployment rate in 40 years, the lowest African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates ever recorded, the highest homeownership on record, and the longest economic expansion in our history, the world is changing so fast, if you want to keep doing well, you have to keep trying to do better; that it is very important that all of us understand that we'll never get anywhere by standing still. Although given the pace at which you're growing, I'm glad I'm giving you the chance to stand still for a little bit today. [Laughter]

This shift in our economy is changing the landscape of our country, both symbolically and literally. I first saw the landscape of northern Virginia as a freshman in college, 36 years ago. But it looks different than it did when I became President, 7 years ago. Everywhere you look, there's a brandnew facility. This place is truly amazing. And beneath all the booming business parks and green pastures, there are countless miles of cable, conducting more than over half the Internet traffic in the entire world.

There are more high-tech firms in northern Virginia today than there were farms in 1970, when the region led the State in the production of milk. [Laughter] Here in Loudoun County, there are more high-tech workers than there were residents in 1980. It has been an amazing thing. Workers like you and firms like UUNET are the new engines driving our economy. You represent about 8 percent of our employment but 30 percent of our growth over the last decade, something you can be very proud of.

The new technologies that you use are also finding their ways into every sector of our economy, making companies of all kinds more competitive. UUNET provides a lot more than Internet service. Every day you show us something about the power of ideas, the power of imagination, the power of enterprise, values that are at the core of America's character and at the bottom of this booming new globalized economy, in a marketplace that is much, much wider and fuller of possibility than any of us could have imagined when this company sold its first commercial connection in 1988.

In just 12 years, you've extended your reach to 100 countries, expanding your global network by more than 1,000 percent a year. The global network is a big part of your future, and that's what I want to talk about today, and what Government's role in that is.

People ask me all the time, well, this is the highest percentage of growth in jobs in the private sector and the smallest percentage in the Government of any recovery we've ever had, since we could measure such things. As a matter of fact, since I've been President, we've reduced the size of Government to its smallest point in 40 years, since 1960.