Presidential Radio Address - 26 January 2002

THE PRESIDENT: Good  morning. A few days from now I will go before Congress to report on the state of the union, and lay out my priorities for the coming year and beyond. These priorities reflect a single, overarching commitment: To enhance the security of America and its people.

Government's responsibilities  begin  with the defense of our nation. Our fight  against  terrorism  began  in  Afghanistan, but it will not end there. America must not rest until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. In this work, our military must have every resource, every weapon needed to achieve full and final victory.

My budget  calls  for the largest increase in defense spending in the last  20  years,  investing  in  more  precision weapons, missile defenses, unmanned  vehicles, and high-tech equipment for our soldiers on the ground.

I will  also  seek another pay increase for the men and women who wear our country's  uniform. We will  spend  what it takes to win the war against terrorism.

A related  priority is homeland security. We will pursue a sustained strategy to  protect our people from the threat of terrorism.

The federal government has  already  acted  to  increase airport security, investigate terrorist  activity  and  improve  our  response  capability. In the next budget, we will do even more. I'll be calling on Congress to nearly double funding for homeland defense to $38 billion.

We will  complete  the  hiring  of  tens  of thousands of new federal airport  security  workers. We will  strengthen  the border patrol, hire another 300 FBI agents to help fight the war on terror.

We'll provide more money so  that state and local firefighters, police officers and EMTs have the  equipment  they need. The American people are on watch against future attacks, and their government will be as well.

The third  key  of  my  budget  is  to  fight the recession and build economic security for the American people. Government doesn't create jobs, but it  can  encourage an environment in which jobs are created.

I'm glad the Senate  is  finally  moving  forward,  and  I urge it to pass a strong stimulus bill, like one that passed the House last year.

Every budget  reflects fundamental choices, and my administration has made  choices  to  fit  the times.

We'll work to create jobs and renew the strength of our economy. We'll protect our people in every way necessary, and we  will  carry on the campaign against global terror until we achieve our goal:  The peace that comes from victory.

Thank you for listening.