Bill Clinton: “Well, first of all, we've already been in touch with Congresswoman Norton about this in some detail. Let me back up and…”

“Well, first of all, we've already been in touch with Congresswoman Norton about this in some detail. Let me back up and say that I think on balance the legislation was very good for the District of Columbia because it will have the effect of injecting about $200 million in cash into the city this year, as the State--the Federal Government pays a higher share of the Medicaid budget of DC, begins to take over the prisons, begins to assume the pension liabilities. What I was hoping to do was to remove from the District of Columbia the burdens that normally are borne by a State but that this city has had to bear; and then to give the local officials more responsibility for the things that a city must do: run a good school system, keep the streets safe, repair the roads and the highways and the streets, and do the other things that the city has to do. And the Congress, simultaneously, wanted to strengthen the whole reform system that was represented by the control board. And it was a congressional initiative and, if you will, a condition of getting the financial relief that the provisions that you mentioned were adopted, which, among other things, require a joint agreement of new department heads between the Mayor and the head of the control board. Here's what I've asked Frank Raines to do. Frank Raines, as all of you know, is representing me in our DC negotiations. I've asked him to try to get together with the parties and see if we can find a way to make these appointments consistent with home rule and that, if he finds the situation to be untenable, to come back to me with some suggestions about what we should do then. Let me just say one other thing. There are some very interesting tax provisions in this bill which are similar to the tax credits that we gave generally around the country for people to hire people off welfare, for people who go into the inner cities and the high poverty areas, and then there is, for the first time ever, a zero capital gains on people that start trade or businesses in high poverty areas of DC. So we are trying to rebuild the economic infrastructure of the city as well. Director Raines is going to try and work through it for me and come back with a set of recommendations. President's Advisory Board on Race”