THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Mr. Vice 
President, Mr. Speaker, members of Congress, and ladies and 
gentlemen:  I'd like to begin by thanking the Library of Congress for 
hosting us here.  It's my understanding this may be the only time in 
American history a piece of legislation has been signed here, and 
perhaps the first time in three decades when one has been signed on 
Capitol Hill.  If that is so, then this is certainly a worthy 
occasion.
             
             I thank Lilly Tomlin for reminding us that the Internet 
can be fun -- (laughter) -- and the students at Calvin Coolidge for 
reminding us that the Internet can do a world of good.
             
             I thank the Vice President, who fought for this bill for 
so long on behalf of the American people.  And I thank the members of 
Congress in both parties, starting with the leadership, who believed 
in the promise and the possibility of telecommunications reform.  I 
thank the vast array of interest groups who had sometimes conflicting 
concerns about this bill who were able to work together and work 
through them so that we could move this together.
             
             This law is truly revolutionary legislation that will 
bring the future to our doorstep.  In the State of the Union, just a 
few days ago, I asked the Congress to pass this law, and they did 
with remarkable speed and dispatch.  Even the years that were spent 
working on it were a relatively short time given the tradition of 
congressional decision-making over major matters.
             
             This historic legislation in my way of thinking really 
embodies what we ought to be about as a country and what we ought to 
be about in this city.  It clearly enables the age of possibility in 
America to expand to include more Americans.  It will create many, 
many high-wage jobs.  It will provide for more information and more 
entertainment to virtually every American home.  It embodies our best 
values by supporting the kind of market reforms that the Vice 
President mentioned, as well as the V-chip.  And it brings us 
together, and it was passed by people coming together.
             
             This bill is an indication of what can be done when 
Republicans and Democrats work together in a spirit of genuine 
cooperation to advance the public interest and bring us to a brighter 
future.
             
             It is fitting that we mark this moment here in the 
Library of Congress.  It is Thomas Jefferson's building.  Most of you 
know President Jefferson deeded his books to our young nation after 
our first library was burned to the ground in the War of 1812.  The 
volumes that line these walls grew out of Jefferson's legacy.  He 
understood that democracy depends upon the free flow of information.  


He said, "He who receives an idea from me receives instruction 
himself without lessening mine.  And he who lights his paper at mine 
receives light without darkening me."  
             
             Today, the information revolution is spreading light,  
the light Jefferson spoke about, all across our land and all across 
the world.  It will allow every American child to bring the ideas 
stored in this reading room into his or her own living room or school 
room.  
             
             Americans have always had a genius for communications.  
The powers of our Founding Fathers' words reverberated across the 
world from the moment they were said down to the present day.  From 
the Pony Express to the miracle of a human voice over the phone line, 
American innovations and communications have broken the barriers of 
time and space to make it easier for us to stay in touch, to learn 
from each other, to reach for a highest aspirations.  
             
             Today our world is being remade yet again by an 
information revolution, changing the way we work, the way we live, 
the way we relate to each other.     Already the revolution is so 
profound that it is changing the dominant economic model of the age.  
And already, thanks to the scientific and entrepreneurial genius of 
American workers in this country, it has created vast, vast 
opportunities for us to grow and learn and enrich ourselves in body 
and in spirit.
             
             But this revolution has been held back by outdated laws, 
designed for a time when there was one phone company, three TV 
networks, no such thing as a personal computer.  Today, with the 
stroke of a pen, our laws will catch up with our future.  We will 
help to create an open marketplace where competition and innovation 
can move as quick as light.  
             
             An industry that is already one-sixth of our entire 
economy will thrive.  It will create opportunity, many more high-wage 
jobs and better lives for all Americans.  Soon, working parents will 
be able to check up on their children in class via computer.  
Families heading off on vacation trips will be able to program the 
fastest route in their car computers, thanks to the work the 
Department of Transportation is now doing.  On a rainy Saturday 
night, you'll be able to order up every money ever produced or every 
symphony ever created in a minute's time.  
             
             For those of us who like to watch too many movies and 
listen to too much music in a single sitting, that may be a mixed 
blessing.  
             
             This law also recognizes that with freedom comes 
responsibility.  Any truly competitive market requires rules.  This 
bill protects consumers against monopolies.  It guarantees the 
diversity of voices our democracy depends upon.  Perhaps most of all, 
it enhances the common good.  Under this law, our schools, our 
libraries, our hospitals will receive telecommunication services at 
reduced cost.  This simple act will move us one giant step closer to 
realizing a challenge I put forward in the State of the Union to 
connect all our classrooms and libraries to the Information 
Superhighway by the year 2000 -- not through a big government 
program, but through a creative ever-unfolding partnership led by 
scientists and entrepreneurs, supported by business and government 
and communities working together.
             
             We know the Information Age will bring blessings for our 
people and our country.  But like most human blessings, we know the 
blessings will be mixed.  We also know that the programming beamed 
into our homes can undercut our values and make it more difficult for 
parents to raise their children. 
             

             Children sometimes are exposed to images parents don't 
want them to see because they shouldn't.  A comprehensive study 
released just yesterday confirms what every parent knows -- televised 
violence is pervasive and numbing, and if exposed constantly to it, 
young people can develop a numbing, lasting, corrosive reaction to 
it.  Televised violence in too much volume and intensity over too 
long a period of time may teach our children that such violence has 
no consequences and is an unavoidable part of modern life.  Neither 
is true.  
             
             In my State of the Union address, when I asked Congress 
to pass the telecommunications law I mentioned in particular the 
V-chip designed to strengthen families and their ability to protect 
their children from television violence and other inappropriate 
programs as they determine.  I am very proud that this new 
legislation includes the V-chip.  It's not such a big requirement, as 
you can see -- here is one -- but it can make a big difference in the 
lives of families all over America.  
             
             I thank the Congress and the members of both parties for 
giving parents who want to take more responsibility for their 
children's upbringing an important tool to do so.  I thank the 
Congress for reducing the chances that the hours spent in church or 
synagogue or in discussion around the dinner table about right and 
wrong and what can and cannot happen in the world will not be undone 
by unthinking hours in front of a television set.  
             
             Of course, parents now have to do their end of the job 
and decide what they do or don't want their young children to see.  
But if every parent uses this chip wisely, it can become a powerful 
voice against teen violence, teen pregnancy, teen drug use, and for 
both learning and entertainment.  The responsibility of parents to do 
this is something they deserve and something they plainly need.  Now 
that they have it, they must use it.
             
             I want to acknowledge in this audience the activists, 
the parents who pushed for the V-chip and thank you very much for 
making it possible.
             
             To make the V-chip as effective as it can be, I have 
challenged the broadcast industries to do what the movies have done, 
to rate programming in a way that will help the parents to make these 
decisions.  I invited the entertainment industry leaders to come to 
the White House to work with me to improve what our children see on 
television, and I'm pleased to announce that exactly three weeks from 
today, on February 29th, we will convene our meeting and get to work.  
I thank the leaders of the entertainment industry for coming and I 
will look forward to working with them.
             
             In 1957, President Eisenhower signed another important 
bill in to law, another bill that was like this.  It seized the 
opportunities of the moment.  It made them more broadly available to 
all Americans.  It met the challenge of change.  It reinforced our 
fundamental values and aspirations.  And it was done in a harmonious, 
bipartisan spirit.
             
             The Interstate Highway Act literally brought Americans 
closer together.  We were connected city to city, town to town, 
family to family, as we had never been before.  That law did more to 
bring Americans together than any other law this century, and that 
same spirit of connection and communication is the driving force 
behind the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
             
             When President Eisenhower signed the highway bill, he 
gave one of his pens to the father of that legislation, Senator 
Albert Gore, Sr., of Tennessee.  His son, the Vice President, in many 
ways is the father of this legislation because he's worked on it for 
more than 20 years, since he first began to promote what he called, 
in the phrase he coined, "The Information Superhighway."
             

             You heard him say today that he always dreamed that a 
child from his little home town of Carthage could come home from 
school and be able to connect to the Library of Congress.  I'm proud 
that the Vice President is able to be here today and to play the role 
he deserves to play in this.  And I thank all the others who have 
done this.  But two days ago, I asked him if he would give me the pen 
that his father got from President Eisenhower to begin the signing of 
this legislation.  And so, that is the very nice pen you see.  
             
             Mr. Speaker, I don't know what we can do about this in a 
bipartisan manner, I'm afraid that people would say that in the '50s 
that's the time when people in Washington were real leaders and pens 
were real pens.  (Laughter.)
             
             At any rate, I'm going to begin, in honor of Senator 
Gore, Sr., and Vice President Gore, the signing with that pen that 
President Eisenhower used to sign the Interstate Highway Act, and 
then go on with the signing.
             
             And again, let me say to all of you, I wish every person 
here who has played a role in this could have one of these pens.  I 
am very, very grateful to you.  And then after I sign the actual 
bill, we're going to sign a copy of the bill over here and send it 
into cyberspace.  I believe that this is the first bill that ever 
made that journey, and that will make me whatever it was Ernestine 
said, a cybernaut, or whatever she said.  (Laughter.)
             
             Again, let me thank you from the bottom of my heart, 
every one of you, for making this great day for America possible.  
Thank you.  (Applause.)  

             END                          11:48 A.M. EST