Bill Clinton: “Act of 1996 August 21, 1996 Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for that wonderful introduction…”

“Act of 1996 August 21, 1996 Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for that wonderful introduction, Merit, and thank you for the courage of your example. I want to begin by recognizing the Members of Congress who are here who worked on this so hard. In addition to Senators Kassebaum and Kennedy, we have Senator John Breaux, Senator Bill Cohen, Senator Byron Dorgan, Senator Carl Levin, Congressman Mike Bilirakis, Congressman John Conyers, Congressman Harris Fawell and Congressman Dennis Hastert, Congressman David Hobson, and Congressman Bill Thomas. I thank all of them for their work on this. I thank Secretary Shalala for her hard work; the SBA Administrator, Phil Lader, who is here. I'd also like to recognize a gentleman in the audience who did a lot of work with the First Lady on this and who is, I'm sure, happy to be here today, our former Surgeon General, Dr. Everett Koop. Thank you, sir, for being here. And Dr. Henry Foster, it's nice to see you; thank you for being here, sir. There are so many others I'd like to thank. I want to thank all the consumer groups, the business groups, the labor groups, the grassroots people, the people who were personally affected by health care problems and problems in our system, who are here. All of you worked so hard to make this day a reality. I want to thank all the people who worked on the staff at the White House, the people especially who worked with the First Lady from 1993 on.…”