 The President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, thank you. And Connie, it's good to see you and so many of the agency heads, whose employees we are honoring here today. Welcome to the White House complex. White House complex. That's because nothing in Washington is ever simple. But almost nothing. Today, we're here to honor a quality that is both simple and noble. Dedication. True dedication to public service. When our administration came to Washington nearly eight years ago, we promised the American people a government that would stop doing what it shouldn't be doing and did a good job on all that was left. Today, we're honoring those who've helped us keep that promise. You're the ones who have taken our broad policies and put them into practice one day at a time. You're the best of our senior career services. The men and women who stand out above all the rest. And we're here today to show our appreciation for you. It's been said that a bureaucrat is someone who has a problem for every solution. And by that standard, there isn't a bureaucrat in the room today. You've taken the chances. You've exercised the judgment. You've found the solutions, and you've made them work. Thanks to you, as well as the agency heads you serve under and many of your colleagues, both political and non-political, America today has overall the best-run federal government we've ever had. I can't mention all of you and what you've accomplished, but I thought that you'd like to hear a few examples of what some who share these awards with you today have achieved. For example, there's Peter Algair, an assistant U.S. trade representative. Under his direction, American negotiators obtained elimination of Korea's import licensing restrictions on U.S. computers, on construction equipment, and on a wide range of consumer products. He's won revisions of Singapore's copyright law and the near elimination of Singapore's exports of pirated records, tapes, and videocassettes. And thanks to his work, improved patent and copyright laws have been negotiated with Korea and Taiwan, and America is far more able to protect its intellectual property in Asia. Another example, Stephen Higgins, director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and a frontline commander in the fight against armed career criminals and armed drug traffickers. He has pioneered the use of firearms laws against the drug cartels using those laws, much as other G-men once used the tax laws against Al Capone. Congress and the press have joined in admiring the extraordinary work that he and the men and women of his agency have done against the Jamaican cocaine distribution organization. And any time you can get Congress and the press to agree with those of us in the administration on anything, you've done something right. Doing something right must run in the family. Stephen's brother Maurice, who is executive director for contracting in the Naval Air Systems Command, is also receiving an award. He's a big reason the price the government pays for major naval aircraft did not go up one penny between 1982 and 1987. I'm told Stephen and Maurice, his mother and stepfather, have come all the way from Kansas to celebrate with their sons. And you both can be very proud. One last example, Dr. Janet Norwood, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment, unemployment, price, productivity, and wage reports are among the most sensitive and significant data that the federal government produces. And yet when we came into office, the way we determined many of our economic statistics was badly out of date. Dr. Norwood has directed numerous improvements in national data, including the revision of the consumer price index, as well as improvements in employment and unemployment data for individual states. Every one of you has a story like these stories to tell. Every one of you has shown that an old ideal continues to live, that public service is a public trust. Every one of you deserves the gratitude of the entire nation, and today we show that gratitude. So thank you all. God bless you. And now, with a little help, I'll present the Distinguished Service Awards or Distinguished Rank Awards. From the Department of Agriculture, the award winner, Donald J. Novotny, is unable to be here today, accepting for him William Davis, assistant administrator for commodity and marketing programs for an agricultural service. Oh, excuse me. I'm sorry. F. Dale Robertson, also from the Department of Agriculture. From the Agency for International Development, Duff Gillespie. From the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Andrea Corcoran, and Paula Tocini. From the Department of Commerce, John Golden, and Donald Johnson. From the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Marvin Atkins, Craig Fields, and Stephen Hanmer. From the Department of the Air Force, Maurice Fowler, Pat Scatulli, and Pat Scatulli. From the Department of the Army, Kisuk Chung, George Dawesman, Joe Higgs, Richard Rhodes. From the Department of the Navy, Robert Doak, Maurice Higgins, Ronald Knudsen, and Phillip Selwyn. From the Department of Education, Sally Christensen. From the Environmental Protection Agency, Dawn Clay, Thomas Hauser, and Morgan Kinghorn. From the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Francis Riley. From the Department of Health and Human Services, James Benson, Kathleen Buto, Barbara Gagel, and Martin Gellert. From the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Peter Kaplan. From the Department of the Interior, Dean Bibles, Phillip Cohen, and William Kendig. From the Department of Justice, Robert Bonbaugh, Harry Flickinger, John Hughes, and Michael Quinlan. From the Department of Labor, Janet Norwood. From the Merit Systems Protection Board, Lucretia Myers. From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, William Ballhouse, John Bussey, Aaron Cohen, John O'Brien, and James Odom. From the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Victor Stello. From the National Science Foundation, Sandra Toy. From the Office of Management and Budget, James McRae, and Kenneth Schwartz. From the Securities and Exchange Commission, William McLucas and Linda Quinn. From the Department of State, Michael Matheson, and Elizabeth Verville. From the Department of the Treasury, Stephen Higgins, Michael Murphy, John Simpson, and John Weddick. From the United States Trade Representative, Peter Allgear. And finally, from the Veterans Administration, Robert Coy, Lois High, and Thomas Mullen.