Clinton Works on Millennial Speech

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Monday December 27 3:58 PM ET

Clinton Works on Millennial Speech

By ANNE GEARAN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton is spending the last week of the 20th century preparing for Y2K, but he's not laying in stores of canned goods and firewood.

Clinton is working on the millennium speech he will give on New Year's Eve as well as the budget he plans to submit to Congress early in the year, spokeswoman Julia Payne said Monday.

Like many Americans, Clinton will also take some time off this week. Although the weather is blustery in Washington, the president is not ruling out golf. And he may help his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, begin her move to their house in Chappaqua, N.Y., where she is establishing residency for a Senate run.

Clinton spent a couple of hours at work Monday morning, and planned to do the same each day this week, Ms. Payne said.

``Part of what he is doing, believe it or not, is working on the 2001 budget,'' even though the ink is barely dry on the 2000 spending plan, she said.

During the afternoons, Clinton plans to relax with his wife and daughter, as well as his mother-in-law and other visiting relatives.

The Clintons are not going to the Renaissance Weekend in Hilton Head, S.C., for the New Year's lectures and discussions as they have in years past.

The president has no scheduled speeches or other public appearances until New Year's Eve, when he and Mrs. Clinton attend two millennium commemorations during the day and then are hosts for the big celebration on the National Mall.

Clinton has invoked the dawn of a new millennium often this past year - telling audiences of his hopes for peace, racial harmony and scientific advance. He will probably concentrate on those themes in an address near midnight Dec. 31 at the Lincoln Memorial, and again in his final State of the Union address on Jan. 27.

A lot of the focus at the White House and elsewhere has been on the possibility that vital computerized services may fail as 1999 turns to 2000.

Clinton's Y2K point man, John Koskinen, has said there is no need for panic or extraordinary preparations, and Clinton himself said recently he plans no special precautions.

Koskinen will brief Clinton regularly this week, and the White House is setting up a Y2K command center to monitor possible problems with electrical power systems, phone service and the like.

-- (in@the.news), December 28, 1999

Answers

Now what do you guys think he'll REALLY be doing?

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 28, 1999.

An intern? [g,d&r]

-- Ron Schwarz (rs@clubvb.com.delete.this), December 28, 1999.

It'll be short and to the point:

"My fellow Americans. Happy New Year. You're all under arrest."

-- John Whitley (jwhitley@inforamp.net), December 28, 1999.


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