For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 26, 2002

Fact Sheet: A Record of Accomplishment for America

President George W. Bush has made great progress on bringing people together to enact his agenda for a safer, stronger, and better America. The end of the 107th Congress marks a remarkable time of bipartisan accomplishment on the issues that matter most to Americans, including:

• Strengthening Homeland Security: The President proposed and signed into law legislation to create a new Department of Homeland Security -- the most significant transformation of our government in half a century. President Bush has also signed legislation to increase aviation security, enhance border security and port security, improve protections against bioterrorism, and expand the ability of law enforcement to prevent terrorism. Already, President Bush's leadership in creating a new Transportation Security Administration has resulted in significant improvements in aviation security.

• Expanding Economic Opportunity: Immediately upon taking office, the President took steps to address the nation's economy. The President proposed and signed tax relief that boosted our economy so people could find jobs, strengthened small businesses, and put more money in people's pockets when they needed it most. The President also signed an economic stimulus bill giving short-term help to displaced workers and long-term stimulus to help businesses create more jobs. The President signed into law terrorism insurance legislation that will help building projects nationwide to move forward again -- creating thousands of good hard hat jobs. And, the President signed Trade Promotion Authority legislation to boost our economy and jobs by opening foreign markets to U.S. products and services.

• Winning the War on Terrorism: The President signed legislation to help win the war against terrorism, pay our troops, and help New York City recover from the terrorist attacks. And, the President signed into law historic increases in defense spending to boost national security. This increase in defense spending will meet new and emerging threats; modernize our military; improve intelligence; fund new high-tech weapons; protect our troops against chemical and biological attacks; and give our troops and their families a well-deserved pay raise and important quality of life improvements.

• Improving Education for Every Child: As he promised, the President proposed and signed the most historic education reforms in a generation that will hold schools accountable for improvement and ensure that no child in America is left behind. The President's education reform agenda will improve reading and math instruction, establish clear standards and accountability for results, require a quality teacher in every classroom, and increase parental involvement and control over their children's education.

• Building a Global Coalition for a Safer World: President Bush called on the United Nations to live up to its founding purpose and confront the "grave and gathering danger" of Saddam Hussein's outlaw regime. He worked with other world leaders to secure passage of a strong, principled Security Council resolution that makes clear what the Iraqi regime needs to do to meet its obligations to the international community. President Bush also worked to secure a bipartisan Congressional resolution that told the United Nations, and all nations, that America is united in its resolve to stand up to Iraqi aggression.

• Maintaining Fiscal Discipline: The President worked with Congress to fund key priorities and meet national challenges, and held the line on unnecessary spending.

• Making Prescription Drugs More Affordable: In addition to launching a Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card program, the President announced a new FDA rule to lower prescription drug costs by improving access to generic drugs, which are safe and effective and can be much less costly alternatives to brand-name prescription drugs. The proposed rule is expected to lead to savings in drug costs of over $3 billion per year for millions of consumers. When the new Congress convenes in 2003, President Bush will continue working to modernize and strengthen Medicare, including adding a Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors.

• Strengthening Health Care for All Americans: The President signed into law legislation to help meet his goal of providing health care for 6.1 million more Americans through 1,200 new and expanded community health center sites. And, he signed legislation that will give patients quicker access to innovative, life-saving technologies and greater options to choose health are products that best meet their individual needs.

• Cracking Down on Corporate Corruption: The President proposed and signed tough corporate accountability legislation that will expose and punish acts of corruption, restore confidence in corporate America, and protect small investors.

• Protecting Family Farmers and Promoting Agriculture: On May 13, 2002, the President signed legislation creating a safety net for the American farmers who feed our Nation and much of the world. The Administration also put forward an aggressive plan to open international markets for U.S. farmers, while reducing subsidies.

• Reforming the Campaign Finance System and the Elections Process: The President signed legislation to improve our campaign finance system, and he signed historic election reforms to help states and localities update their systems of voting and ensure the integrity of elections in America.

• Protecting the Most Vulnerable Members of Our Society: President Bush signed the Born Alive Infants Protection Act, important and bipartisan legislation to ensure that every infant born alive is considered a person under federal law.

• Cleaning Up Our Environment: The President signed brownfields legislation that will encourage the restoration and redevelopment of old industrial properties - cleaning up our environment, creating new jobs and protecting small businesses from frivolous lawsuits. The President signed important new conservation measures into law, and he launched a new Healthy Forests Initiative that will significantly step up efforts to prevent the damage caused by catastrophic wildfires. He proposed the Clear Skies Initiative, an effort to aggressively reduce air pollution from power plants by 70 percent and improve air quality throughout the country. He announced an aggressive new Global Climate Change strategy to cut the growth in greenhouse gas intensity by 18 percent over the next 10 years.

• Issuing a National Call to Service: The President issued a call to all Americans to engage in volunteer service and created the USA Freedom Corps to foster a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility. The USA Freedom Corps is working with government agencies, the non-profit sector, businesses, schools, and other institutions to achieve this goal. Through the largest clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever created, it is matching volunteers with opportunities in record numbers to prepare for crises at home, help those in need, and extend American compassion around the world.

• Leading the Fight Against HIV/AIDS: President Bush has requested record levels of funding for care, treatment, prevention, and research to find a cure or vaccine for HIV/AIDS. The President has expanded America's leadership role in tackling the global HIV/AIDS crisis, proposing a full 82% increase in funding over FY 2001 levels to fight global HIV/AIDS. The United States government made the founding contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria and is one of only two countries to date that has made a second donation. And, this spring, President Bush announced a $500 million initiative to prevent maternal to child transmission of HIV and to care for women and families in the most heavily impacted countries in Africa and the Caribbean.

• Expanding Homeownership Opportunities for All Americans: In June 2002, President Bush announced an aggressive announced homeownership agenda to increase the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million by the end of this decade. The President's homeownership agenda will dismantle barriers to homeownership by providing down payment assistance, increasing the supply of affordable homes, increasing support for self-help homeownership programs, and simplifying the homebuying process. The President also issued "America's Homeownership Challenge" to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to take concrete steps to tear down the barriers to homeownership that face minority families.

Making Progress on Other Key Issues: President Bush also worked to make important progress in Congress on other key issues, such as:

• Developing a comprehensive national energy strategy to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and expand conservation, encourage energy efficiency, and increase domestic exploration and production.
• Rallying the Armies of Compassion by working to increase support for America's charities, faith-based organizations, and community groups, as well as creating a level playing field so faith-based and community organizations can help more people in need; and
• Protecting the pensions of America's workers.

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