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Wednesday, Feb. 4, 1998

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**Sen. Jeff Bingaman, right front, reaches to shake President Bill
Clinton\'s hand as the president steps forward to speak in the
Administration Building Auditorium. In the rear from left to right are
Energy Secretary Federico Peña, Rep. Bill Redmond and Laboratory
Director John Browne.** *Photos by John Bass*

**The Lab forever changed the 20th century, says President Clinton**

Calling Los Alamos a place that forever changed the 20th century,
President Bill Clinton on Tuesday told a standing room only audience
that the Laboratory will play an even greater role in ensuring a
stronger America in the next century because of its scientific
expertise.

The [president\'s 16-minute
speech](http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/New/html/19980203-5617.html) in the
Administration Building Auditorium was interrupted several times by
applause. The speech also touched on Laboratory scientific research and
technology that he said will not only ensure the safety and reliability
of the nation\'s nuclear stockpile, but also contribute meaningful
advances to other pressing national security issues, such as
environmental clean up and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

\"It is almost impossible to exaggerate the responsibility and
opportunity these labs have to build a consensus in this country,\"
Clinton said of convincing world leaders that greenhouse gas emissions
is a significant problem.

And the president also talked about some initiatives he has proposed in
the 1999 budget that he said will continue to involve the national
laboratories and ensure science and technology\'s role in America\'s
future.

\"Los Alamos in so many ways is the place that forever changed the 20th
century,\" the president told the audience, which included a large
contingent of local and national news media reporters and photographers,
Lab employees, their invited family members and guests. \"I am delighted
to be back in New Mexico.\"

A large blue banner hung from a wall at the rear of the auditorium;
inscribed in yellow letters was \"LANL Welcomes President Clinton.\"

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="3.2708333333333335in"
height="3.09375in"}The auditorium stage was decked out with additional
signs and several flower arrangements along the front of the stage.

Clinton said it was Los Alamos\' scientific and technical expertise that
helped end the second world war; that same excellence is now being
harnessed to address a number of other national issues, global climate
modeling, greenhouse gas emissions and Medicare-fraud detection among
them, heading into the next century.

\"We know now things that we couldn\'t have ever before because of what
science is teaching us . . . ,\" the president said.

The president said the \$1.7 trillion 1999 federal budget that he
submitted to Congress on Monday not only provides for the first balanced
budget since 1969 but also provides \$31 billion for a 21st century
research fund.

The Department of Energy, the National Cancer Institute, National
Science Foundation and National Institutes of Health will be the chief
beneficiaries of this fund to continue research in a number of important
areas, he said.

And the budget proposal also includes \$40 million for the federal
government to purchase the Valle Grande near the Lab. \"We had to move
forward to protect the magnificent Valle Grande,\" the president said,
eliciting a large applause.

All the initiatives, he said, can be accomplished with a balanced
national budget. \"Because we are doing this the right way, there will
be funds available to make the investments necessary to preserve our
economy,\" said Clinton.

Because of science and technology, \"breakthroughs which now seem
normal, just a couple years ago seemed impossible,\" the president said,
referring mapping human genes and discovering underlying causes for
debilitating diseases, among other things.

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="3.28125in"
height="2.5729166666666665in"}Turning to global greenhouse gases,
Clinton said it is imperative that these mostly manmade gases be reduced
or \"we will disrupt our climate in ways that are potentially disastrous
for people all around the world into the 21st century.\"

Before his talk, Clinton toured the Lab\'s Data Communications Center,
where Laboratory Director John Browne briefed the president on the
Lab\'s supercomputing initiatives, including global ocean modeling and
transportation simulation.

Clinton walked onto the Administration Building Auditorium stage to a
standing ovation and the familiar tune of \"Hail to Chief,\" flanked by
Department of Energy Secretary Federico Peña, U.S. Senator Jeff
Bingaman, D-N.M., Rep. Bill Redmond, R-N.M., Laboratory Director Browne
and a large contingent of Secret Service and security officials.

\"Mr. President, welcome back to Los Alamos,\" Browne said. \"Los Alamos
is both honored and proud that you have chosen to visit our Lab for a
second time during your administration. Thank you very much.\"

Browne thanked Clinton for his support of the Lab\'s national stockpile
stewardship mission. \"We are confident that we can do our job of
maintaining the safety and reliability of our nuclear weapons without
nuclear testing,\" said Browne.

He also applauded the president\'s vision for the future. \"You have a
vision for America that has science and technology as a driving engine
for a better world,\" he said. \"We share your vision Mr. President and
we look forward to continuing our contributions to the nation as we move
toward these goals in the next century.\"

Bingaman introduced Clinton to another standing ovation. He also thanked
the president for returning to Los Alamos and said Clinton understands
the importance of the national laboratories, not only in its nuclear
deterrence role, but also in other national issues, including health
care, energy, conservation and commercial innovation.

\"The excellence at Los Alamos National Laboratory is an indispensable
part of America\'s science and technology leadership in the 21st
century,\" said Bingaman.

Energy Secretary Peña said he admired Clinton\'s courage, vision,
dedication and leadership in leading the U.S. into the next century.
Referring to Clinton\'s balanced budget proposal for fiscal year 1999,
Peña said, \"The last time a Congress saw a balanced budget, the Beatles
had just released \'Hey Jude.\' So it\'s been a long time.\"

Peña said the president\'s commitment to technology \"has put the
Department of Energy ahead of the entire world in supercomputing power .
. . important to Los Alamos.

\"On behalf of the employees of Los Alamos and the Department of Energy,
we are committed to keeping our nuclear deterrent safe, secure and
reliable in full support of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. We can do
the job,\" Peña told the president and the audience.

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="2.53125in"
height="2.8541666666666665in"}After leaving Los Alamos, President
Clinton flew to Albuquerque for some activities on Civic Plaza downtown
before returning to Washington, D.C., early this morning.

*\--Steve Sandoval*

 

**President pleased with Laboratory visit**

President Clinton was pleased by his visit to the Laboratory Tuesday,
telling an aide that he really liked visiting the national laboratories,
Lab Director John Browne said.

Browne, speaking at a news conference for local media shortly after the
presidential visit, said Clinton was in high spirits as he toured the
Central Computing Facility, then addressed an audience of employees and
their families in the Administration Building Auditorium.

\"He said, \'Boy, that\'s a great visit. I really love these
laboratories,\'\" Browne recalled the president telling an aide near the
end of the two-hour visit.

The visit was important to the Laboratory, Browne said, because Clinton
made a strong statement in support of stockpile stewardship, a primary
mission for the Lab. Demonstrating strong presidential support is
important to sustain backing for the program in the administration and
in the Congress, he said.

Clinton also clearly recognized Los Alamos\'s role as a national
laboratory that can employ its expertise to help solve a variety of
important problems in non-defense areas, Browne said, adding that he was
impressed by the president\'s commitment to science and technology as a
way to address national problems.

Much of the news conference focused on details of the Accelerated
Strategic Computing Initiative, or ASCI, which was a major focus of the
presidential visit and a key component of the stockpile stewardship
program. Stockpile stewardship, in turn, is a vital factor in approval
of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty now pending before the U.S. Senate.

ASCI is designed to produce the computing horsepower to allow Browne,
and his counterparts at Lawrence Livermore and Sandia national
laboratories, to assure the president that the nation\'s nuclear
stockpile is safe, secure and reliable in the absence of underground
testing.

Browne said Clinton told him that the visit helped give him the
confidence that the CTBT is the correct direction for the country to go
and that he hoped the U.S. Senate will ratify the treaty.

\"He thought it would be a close call,\" Browne said. \"He thought it
would be a good, hard debate.\"

William \"Buck\" Thompson, who joined Browne at the news conference,
described the hectic preparation for the presidential visit, saying many
people in the Laboratory, its subcontractors and the community put in a
lot of hours over the weekend to produce what he called \"a very
spectacular visit.\"

Thompson said the first indications of a possible visit came last
Wednesday, but it was not confirmed until the following day, giving
people five days to prepare. However, Karl Braithwaite, director of the
Government Relations Office, noted that was more notice than the Lab had
for the previous visit by Clinton in May of 1993.

*\--John A. Webster*