EXPANDING ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES:
Historic Economic Gains. The unemployment rate and poverty rate for African Americans are both at the lowest levels on record, with an 8.1% unemployment rate in 1999 (down from 14.2% in 1992) and a 26.1% poverty rate in 1998 (down from 33.1% in 1993). Median household income for African Americans is up 15.1% (or $3,317) since 1993.

Tax Cuts For Working Families. President Clinton’s 1993 Economic Plan provided tax cuts to 15 million hard-pressed working families by expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The average family with two children who received the EITC received a tax cut of $1,026. In 1997, the EITC lifted 1.1 million African Americans out of poverty. This year the President proposed expanding the EITC to provide tax relief to 6.4 million additional working families.

Minimum Wage Increased. The President raised the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour -- directly benefiting 1.3 million African American workers -- and called for passage of an additional $1.00 an hour increase.

Creating New Tools to Help Families Move from Welfare to Work. Since enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law, millions of families have moved from welfare to work. With the President’s leadership, the 1997 Balanced Budget Act included $3 billion to move long-term welfare recipients and low-income non-custodial fathers into jobs. The President’s Access to Jobs initiative helps communities design innovative transportation solutions, such as van services, to help former welfare recipients and other low-income workers get to work. President Clinton succeeded in securing 110,000 new housing vouchers in FY 1999 and FY 2000 to help welfare recipients and hard-pressed working families move closer to job opportunities. And the Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit provides tax incentives to encourage businesses to hire long-term welfare recipients.

More Than Three Times the Number of Small Business Loans. Between 1993 and 1999 the Small Business Administration (SBA) approved more than 13,000 loans to African American entrepreneurs under the 7(a) and 504 loan programs. In 1999 alone, the SBA granted 2,181 loans, worth $383.2 million, to African American small business owners -- more than three times the number of loans granted in 1992.

Expanding Investment in Urban and Rural Areas. Spurring economic development in distressed communities, the Clinton-Gore Administration has created 31 Empowerment Zones and more than 100 Enterprise Communities, including 20 rural Enterprise Communities that are creating new jobs, new opportunities and stronger communities. President Clinton's New Markets Initiative is helping to bring economic development and renewal to communities that have not benefited from the soaring economy.

BUILDING ONE AMERICA:
President's One America Initiative. President Clinton has led the nation in an effort to become One America: a place where we respect others’ differences and embrace the common values that unite us. The President was actively involved in public outreach efforts to engage Americans in this historic effort, and followed up on the work of the Initiative on Race by appointing Robert B. (Ben) Johnson as Assistant to the President and Director of the new White House Office on the President’s Initiative for One America.

An Administration that Looks Like America. The President has appointed the most diverse Cabinet and Administration in history, with twice as many African American appointees as any previous administration. Thirteen percent of Clinton Administration appointees, and 16 percent of Federal bench nominations, are African American.

IMPROVING OUR NATION'S HEALTH:
Extended Health Care to Millions of Children with the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In the Balanced Budget of 1997, President Clinton won $24 billion to provide health care coverage to up to 5 million more children. In October 1999, the President announced new outreach efforts to enroll millions of eligible children.

Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities by 2010. President Clinton's initiative is designed to help eliminate racial disparities in six key health areas: infant mortality, diabetes, cancer screening and management, heart disease, AIDS and immunizations. President Clinton won a 200% increase for this initiative in the FY00 budget.

Providing Access to Health Care Services for Uninsured Workers. Last year, the President proposed and won $125 million in funding for a program to coordinate systems of care, increase the number of services delivered and establish an accountability system to assure adequate patient care for the uninsured and low-income. This year, the President has proposed funding this initiative at $125 million, representing a substantial down payment on the President’s plan to invest $1 billion over 5 years.

Addressing HIV/AIDS in the Minority Community. Minority communities make up the fastest growing portion of the HIV/AIDS caseload. In FY00, the President builds on last year's progress with a $210 million investment -- a 45 percent increase -- to improve prevention efforts in high-risk communities and expand access to new HIV therapies.

Expanding Coverage to Uninsured Americans. The President has proposes a 10-year, $110 billion initiative that would dramatically improve the affordability of and access to health insurance. The proposal would expand coverage to at least 5 million uninsured Americans and expand access to millions more. If enacted, these policies would be the largest expansion of coverage since Medicare was created in 1965.

INVESTING IN EDUCATION:
Turning Around Failing Schools. 11 million low-income students now benefit from Title I- Aid to Disadvantaged Students, and all our children are benefiting from higher expectations and a challenging curriculum geared to higher standards. The FY00 budget provides an additional $134 million accountability fund to help turn around the worst performing schools and hold them accountable for results. In the 1994-95 school year, 26 percent of the children benefiting from Title I were African American.

Establishing the GEAR-UP Mentoring Program for Middle School Children. The President and Vice President created and expanded GEAR-UP, a mentoring initiative, to help over 750,000 low-income middle school children finish school and prepare for college. This year the President has proposed a 62.5 percent increase in FY01 to serve 1.4 million students.

Increased Funding and Grants for HBCUs. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have increased funding for Historically Black Colleges by over $250 million between FY92 and FY98 -- an increase of nearly 25 percent. Today, America’s 105 HBCUs are educating almost 300,000 African American students.

Helping Students Finish College. The President has proposed new College Completion Challenge Grants to help reduce the college drop-out rate, with pre-freshman summer programs, support services and increased grant aid to students. This $35 million initiative will improve the chances of success for nearly 18,000 students.

MAKING OUR COMMUNITIES SAFER:
Putting 100,000 More Police on the Streets. In 1999, ahead of schedule and under budget, the Clinton-Gore Administration met its commitment to fund an additional 100,000 police officers for our communities. As a part of the COPS Program, the President announced new grants to increase community policing in high-crime and underserved neighborhoods. To help keep crime at record lows, the President won funding in the FY 2000 budget for the first installment toward his goal to hire up to 50,000 more officers by 2005.

Preventing Hate Crimes. The President signed the Hate Crimes Sentencing Enhancement Act, which provides for longer sentences for hate crimes, and hosted the first White House Conference on Hate Crimes. President Clinton is calling for passage of the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in order to strengthen hate crimes laws.

Working to Expand Civil Rights Enforcement:. This year President Clinton has proposed a significant increase in funding to prosecute criminal civil rights cases (including hate crimes and police misconduct), enforce the American with Disabilities Act, pursue EEOC employment actions and prevent housing discrimination, and other civil rights enforcement efforts.

Working to End Racial Profiling. To help determine where and when racial profiling occurs, the President directed Cabinet agencies to collect data on the race, ethnicity, and gender of individuals subject to certain stops by federal law enforcement. The President has also supported increased resources for police integrity and ethics training and to improve the diversity of local police forces.