Remarks at the congressional Asian-Pacific American Caucus Institute dinner

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, May 20, 1996

Thank you, Admiral, for that wonderful introduction. And I want to thank Tamlyn Tomita and Garrett Wang, your co-emcees, for standing up here with me. I made them come out. I said, I want you to stand up here with me because you make me look young and fresh and alive. [Laughter] So I thank them for doing that. To Gloria Caoile, your dinner chair; Francey Youngberg, your executive director; Rona Figueroa, and all the Members of Congress who are here. And a couple of former Members of Congress who are here, my good friend, Norm Mineta, who is being honored tonight, and Frank Horton, who was the primary, sponsor of the bill creating Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. I thank you, sir.

I don't know how many Members of Congress are here. I saw Congressman Underwood, Congressman Abercrombie, Congresswoman Pelosi, and I know Congressman Matsui is here - or Doris would stop speaking to him. So however many Members of Congress who are here, I'm delighted to join you tonight.

I was honored to be here last year at your inaugural dinner. I'm proud of what we have accomplished together since then. More than anything else tonight I would like to say a simple thank you - thank you on behalf of the United States for the many contributions that the 9 million Americans who trace their roots to Asia and the islands of the Pacific make to our country every day. And thank you, particularly to those of you and those whom you represent throughout this country who have participated in the efforts of our administration and without whom we would not have been able to accomplish much of what has been done.

As we debate the issue of immigration again this year, we should never forget that America is a great country because we have welcomed successive generations of immigrants to our shores. Because we are a nation of laws we should do everything we can and we should do more than we have to, to stop illegal immigration. I have done more than has previously been done. But we should avoid bashing immigrants. We are nearly, all of us, immigrants or the children or grandchildren or great-grandchildren of immigrants. The Native Americans were here first, and I think they crossed an ice cap to get here.

This is a country founded on a certain set of ideas, a certain set of values, a certain set of principles. And anybody willing to embrace them, to work hard to make the most of their own lives, to be responsible, can be an American citizen. That is the special thing about the United States, and we should never forget it.

I have been especially fortunate to have so many people from the Asian-Pacific American community in our administration, more than 170 all told, more than any previous administration, and I am grateful. When I took office I learned that it had been 14 years since the last Asian-American had been nominated to the Federal bench. I have nominated four, and I'm proud of every one of them.

I almost hate to start with this, but there are a few Asian-Americans I would feel bad if I didn't mention tonight who have been part of this administration: I thank my Deputy Assistant for Public Liaison, Doris Matsui, who made sure I came tonight; Barbara Chow, Special Assistant for Legislative Affairs; Maria Haley, Director of the Export-Import Bank; Ginger Lew, the Deputy Administrator at SBA; Valerie Lau at Treasury; David Tseng at Labor; Raj Anand at Agriculture; T.S. Chung at Commerce; Dang Pham at Education; Dennis Hayashi at HHS; Will Itoh, now our Ambassador to Thailand, formerly on my National Security Council staff; and Stuart Ishimaru at Justice. Those are a few of the people who serve you every day in the Clinton administration.

Three and a half years ago when I took the Oath of Office, I did so with a clear vision of what I hoped our country could be like as we move into the 21st century. I wanted this to be a country where every person, without regard to race or gender or income, would have a chance to live out his or her dreams. I wanted this to be a country where we were coming together around our basic values, not being driven apart for cheap, short-term political reasons.

I wanted this to be a country that would continue to be the greatest and strongest country in the world and the world's strongest force for peace and freedom and prosperity. We've still got a good ways to go, but without question, if you compare where we are today with where we were then, we have made progress on all three fronts.

Our economic strategy to reduce the deficit, expand trade, invest more in our people, our technology and our potential for growth means that our deficit is less than half of what it was 4 years ago, but we have 8 1/2 million more jobs, the lowest combined rates of inflation, mortgage rates, and unemployment in 27 years, a 15-year high in homeownership, an all-time high in exports and new business formations for 3 years in a row. Nearly 8,500 SBA loans have been approved to start those new small businesses.

We've increased educational opportunities from more positions for children in Head Start to more affordable college loans to the national service program. We've done our part to help lower the crime rate by passing a crime bill which will put 100,000 police officers on the street - we're more than 40 percent of the way there in less than 2 years - banning assault weapons and passing the Brady bill which has kept 60,000 people with criminal records from getting handguns.