Remarks on the Home Heating Oil Reserve and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Transition and an Exchange With Reporters

Home Heating Oil Reserve

The President. Good afternoon. I want to say a few words in a moment about Togo West and Hershel Gober and the direction of theDepartment of Veterans Affairs and its mission. But first, I'd like to make one brief announcement.

Since March, I have asked Congress to establish a home heating oil reserve in the Northeast to reduce the chance that future shortages will hurt consumers, as they did last winter. Congress recently, again, has failed to act, and time is running out. Winter may seem far off on this hot day, but if we don't do something now, reserve stocks of heating oil may not be in place before the cold weather comes. That's why today I am taking action to establish a home heating oil reserve to help families avoid higher energy costs this winter.

First, I'm directing Secretary Richardson to exchange crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for 2 million barrels of home heating oil to store in the Northeast. Second, we're taking steps to establish this reserve on a permanent basis. The action I take today will leave us far better prepared to face the winter months. But it does not relieve Congress of the responsibility to act.

So I renew my call to Congress: Please, provide the authority so we can tap into this new home heating oil reserve when we need it; take up my energy budget initiatives and the tax incentives; pass comprehensive electricity restructuring; reauthorize the strategic petroleum reserve. These are things Congress can do right now to build a better, safer, more secure, and more affordable energy future. I ask them again to do their part to increase our energy supply, protect the environment, increase energy conservation, and keep our economy strong.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Transition

This morning I accepted the decision of Togo West to step down as Secretary of Veterans Affairs by month's end, after more than 2 years of effective leadership on behalf of our 25 million veterans and their families.

Every day, in every way, Togo West has given his all to make sure America does right by our men and women who have served us in uniform. As Secretary of the Army at the beginning of our administration, Togo West was known as a "soldier's Secretary." His leadership helped make the Army part of the best trained, best equipped, most potent fighting force in the world. He took special care to make sure that America took good care of our Army families. And he brought that same sense of purpose to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Under his leadership, the VA has begun to confront some long-neglected problems head on, reaching out to more than 400,000 veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, pressing for answers to the Gulf war syndrome and proper care for those who suffer from it, beginning the process of building five new national cemeteries, the most since the Civil War, and making a special effort to bring homeless veterans back into the society they did so much to defend.

His leadership and devotion to our veterans helped improve lives and make this country a better place. And on behalf of all Americans, Togo, I want to thank you for more than a quarter century of service and selfless devotion to our Nation.

To carry forward the vital work of the Department of Veterans Affairs, I turn to one who knows the work and the mission of the VA as well or better than anyone ever has, Deputy Secretary Hershel Gober. You all know we've been friends for many years. He did a superb job as the State director of veterans affairs in Arkansas when I served as Governor. He did a superb job as Acting Director between the tenures of Secretaries Jesse Brown and Togo West. There are few people in our country who have ever been as prepared for a job as Hershel Gober is for this one.

He has an ear for the needs of our veterans because he has the heart of a soldier. A veteran of both the Army and the Marine Corps, Hershel Gober served two terms in Vietnam, earning the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Soldier's Medal. A few years ago, I was honored that he agreed to head a delegation back to Vietnam to seek the fullest possible accounting of our men and women still missing in uniform.

Hershel has already made his mark on the critical issue of veterans' health care. Early in our administration, he came to me and recommended that we look for ways to bring health care closer to the veterans who needed it. Since then, we've opened more than 200 outpatient clinics all across America and have more planned this year. That's one of the big reasons we were able to treat—listen to this—400,000 more veterans last year than we did the year before.

Hershel Gober has been a strong partner for both Secretary Brown and Secretary West. He will serve in a great tradition, and I thank him for agreeing to do so. Now I'd like to ask them both to say a few words, beginning with Secretary West.

[At this point, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Togo D. West, Jr., and Secretary of Veterans Affairsdesignate Hershel W. Gober made brief remarks.]

The President. Thank you.

Middle East Peace Summit

Q. Mr. President, the Israeli Government is falling apart. How is Barak going to be able to negotiate a peace?

The President. Well, first, I think it's important to note that, as the news reports this morning in Israel reflect, a solid majority of the people want him to come and want him to pursue peace.

Look, if this were easy, it would have been done a long time ago. This is difficult. It is perhaps the most difficult of all the peace problems in the world, certainly dealing with the most difficult issues of the whole Middle East peace process, on which I have worked for nearly 8 years now. But both Prime Minister Barak and Chairman Arafat have the vision, the knowledge, the experience, and the ability and the shear guts to do what it takes, I think, to reach an agreement, and then to take it back to their people and see if they can sell it.

And keep in mind, Prime Minister Barak has said that the people of Israel will have their say on this. So this is really, I think, a matter of trying to come to grips with the issues on the merits, asking whether the price of peace is greater than the price of continued conflict and all the associated difficulties and heartbreaks and uncertainties and insecurity that that carries.

And I'm going to do my best to help them. I admire both of them for coming. It's not easy for either to come. But they have come because they think that the price of not doing it is greater than the risk of going forward. And I hope we'll have the thoughts and prayers and best wishes of all Americans. It's going to be a difficult process. But the fact that they're coming means that we still have a chance.

Q. Mr. President, given the fact that these are the most difficult issues, do you think you can do this in just 8 days? And would you consider delaying your trip or abandoning your trip to Japan?

The President. Well, first of all, let me say, just because they're difficult doesn't mean they're not understood. I mean, I would say the answer to that would clearly be, no, if this were happening in 1993 or '94. But an enormous amount of time and thought has gone into this. I think both sides have a pretty clear idea of what the various options are.

And I don't want to set an artificial deadline for these talks. But I think that they need to listen to each other, and I need to listen to them, and we need to get right after it, because it's not as if we don't know what's out there to be done. And this has been simmering on the stove for some years now, and I think we understand generally what the options are, and we'll go there and go to work, do our very best.

Thank you.