FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: MELINDA SHELTON, 767; DIANE MINOR, 773
The National Organization for Women will lead a demonstration outside the White House to protest President Clinton's signing of the punitive welfare bill passed by Congress.
White House officials have said the president will sign the bill at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 22. The demonstration will be at 12 noon on the White House sidewalk, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
NOW launched its "Hungry for Justice" campaign Aug. 1 to protest President Clinton's announcement that he would sign this welfare bill, despite his objections to provisions that will plunge millions of poor people deeper into poverty. For three weeks, hundreds of people have joined NOW at weekday noon speakouts and nightly candlelight vigils in Lafayette Park. NOW officers, staff and other activists have been fasting since the campaign began.
On Monday, NOW Action Vice President Rosemary Dempsey attended a meeting hastily called by presidential senior advisor Alexis Herman and Betsy Meyers, head of the White House Office on Women. Dempsey and other women's rights leaders were told that President Clinton would sign the bill.
"They could not give us one scintilla of hope the president would veto this horrible bill," Dempsey said. "We are outraged that President Clinton chooses to disregard data on the damage this bill will cause and the advice of most of his cabinet members and advisors.
"Unbelievably, they asked us to work with the White House to 'fix' the bill and soften the blow this will have. But we told them that if President Clinton signs the bill, we can't even guarantee that our activists will back his re-election -- not after the betrayal of the people and the ideals that got him into the White House four years ago."