Gore declares national monuments in Pacific Northwest; Bush touts government reform

June 9, 2000
Web posted at: 6:17 PM EDT (2217 GMT)

PASCO, Washington (CNN) -- Democratic presidential hopeful Vice President Al Gore on Friday designated two national monuments on behalf of the Clinton Administration during a campaign swing through the Pacific Northwest.

Dressed in blue jeans and a button-down shirt, the vice president declared the Hanford Reach, a prime salmon-spawning stretch of the Columbia River in Washington State, off-limits to road-less development under the 1906 Antiquities Act.

Gore toured the 51-mile stretch of river in a boat named "Can Do II." The area, along with 200,000 acres of surrounding wilderness, served as a security buffer for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the government produced plutonium during the Cold War era.

"Today by protecting the Hanford Reach as a national monument ... we can guarantee that the Columbia rolls on clean and pure for generations to come," said Gore, who addressed a local audience gathered on the banks of the river.

Gore also declared the Cascade-Siskiyou region in neighboring Oregon a national monument. The area includes Soda Mountain and nearby lands where plant and animal life are abundant.

"These lands are among America's great natural treasures, and we owe it to future generations to preserve them," said Gore. "We act today so that, years from now, Americans will still be able to paddle free-flowing waters and hike pristine peaks, enjoying these extraordinary stretches of our natural heritage."

The Reach designation was opposed by some local residents who hoped that some irrigated farming could take place on the land. Republicans blocked attempts in Congress to impose federal restrictions on the river.

But the monuments were declared through President Bill Clinton's use of his executive power under the Antiquities Act, which allows creation of monuments on federal land for scientific or historic reasons.

During the address, Gore also urged that a public forum be held in Oregon among those who stand for or against breaching four dams across the Snake River to help save the region's endangered salmon population.

"I will bring together all interested parties to find a real solution. Mine will be an inclusive approach based on solid science," Gore said. The federal government alone can never restore the salmon here, it will take the cooperation of the states, local governments, tribes, private landowners and all who are affected by this issue."

The Gore campaign said a similar summit held a couple of years ago helped resolve coastal salmon disputes. Industry and labor officials say that breaching the dams, as environmentalists have called for, would threaten businesses and jobs.

"Extinction is not an option, and massive economic dislocation is not an option" Gore pledged. "I'll make sure that as we restore the salmon, we do it in a way that is fair to the region's industries, farmers and working families."

Gore's Republican opponent, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, has voiced opposition to any attempt to breach the Snake River dams. His campaign criticized Gore on Friday for not taking a position on the breaching issue.

"It appears that Al Gore is more concerned about politics than policy. The citizens of the Pacific Northwest deserve to know where the vice president stands on an issue as important as breaching the dams," said Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett.

Campaigning in Pennsylvania, Bush on Friday unveiled additional reform programs he says would create a more "citizen-centered" government that might save tax payers $88 billion over five years.

"Today, when Americans look to Washington, they see a government slow to respond, slow to reform and ignoring all the changes going on around it," Bush told a private audience in Philadelphia, site of the upcoming Republican National Convention.

"Throughout this campaign, I have set forth policies that capture my vision of government reform," Bush said. "They are guided by three principles: government should be citizen-centered, results-oriented, and, wherever possible, market-based."

In particular, Bush vowed to reduce the federal bureaucracy over the next eight years by not replacing approximately 40,000 of the 80,000 senior and mid-level government managers scheduled to retire during that period.

The Texas governor also proposed creating a chief information officer, and spending $100 million on a program to support interagency e-commerce proposals.

In addition, Bush suggested creating a "sunset review board" to recommend elimination of duplicative jobs, and to make government more modern by moving all significant government procurement to the Internet.

"In size and scale, modern government will never resemble what the framers envisioned. In spirit, however, it should always be citizen-centered, always listening and answering directly to the people," said Bush, who spoke at Carpenter's Hall, the site where the First Continental Congress was held in 1774.

As he did during a campaign stop in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Thursday, Bush took aim at Gore's "Reinventing Government" program. According to project officials, the 1993 program has saved the federal government at least $107 billion by reducing bureaucratic waste, cutting contracting costs and using updated technology such as the Internet to provide services.

Bush refuted those claims Friday, and asserted that the Clinton Administration had "reshuffled" instead of streamlining government.

"The administration claims to have reduced the number of low- and mid-level workers in the federal government. As it turns out, many positions have been eliminated, but the layers of middle and senior managers have multiplied."

The jab came a day after Bush complained about a lack of civility in Washington with comments that were especially critical of the Clinton-Gore administration.

Bush was welcomed to Pennsylvania on Thursday by Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, who has been widely mentioned as a leading candidate for vice president. During his address in Philadelphia, Bush praised Ridge's efforts to reform public contracting in Pennsylvania by using on-line bidding.

Bush aides told CNN on Friday that the Texas governor will spend the weekend at his family's vacation retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine, meeting with several top aides to craft convention strategy, lay plans for his convention acceptance speech and possibly interview some prospective vice presidential nominees.

Aides said that Bush and his top advisors -- campaign strategist Karl Rove, communications director Karen Hughes, policy director Josh Bolton, media strategist Mark McKinnon and others -- will spend Saturday through Wednesday in Kennebunkport.

The Bush campaign would not confirm or deny stories that some vice presidential prospects may also come to Kennebunkport. Bush's vice-presidential selection process is being led by former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, advisers said a 60-second commercial touting Bush's plan to let workers invest some of their Social Security taxes in personal accounts will begin running next week.

"The Bush plan guarantees everyone at or near retirement every dollar of their benefits," an announcer says. "The Bush plan gives younger workers a choice to invest a small part of their Social Security in sound investments they control for higher returns."

Gore has criticized the plan as risky, saying such investments in the stock market could leave some retirees with diminished benefits. He has proposed keeping Social Security solvent by paying down the national debt and transferring interest savings to the program.

The Republican ad will be on the air in the same 15 states where the Democratic National Committee is airing commercials featuring the vice president's plan to cover prescription drug costs, Bush officials said.

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