President Clinton went to Capitol Hill today to talk about his administration’s legislative agenda. Interviews are available with these analysts:

NANCY SNOW
Snow, assistant professor of political science at New England College, is executive director of Common Cause in New Hampshire. “The other Y2K problem is the money chase in the presidential campaigns of 2000,” she said. “President Clinton should pay more than lip service to the need for campaign finance reform. Clinton wants to be seen on the side of the good guys who favor reform — but he, like so many other politicians, has shown no conviction on the issue…. How we finance campaigns in America is completely out of step with our democratic ideals that we market worldwide. Big money rules and 99 percent of us aren’t even involved in the process. The one sign of hope is what’s happening at the state level. The American people are starting to take the initiative on their own through clean elections proposals in states like Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Arizona and Massachusetts.” Snow is the author of “Propaganda, Inc.: Selling America’s Culture to the World.”
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LARRY AGRAN
Former mayor and current city council member in Irvine, California, Agran said: “I continue to be amazed at how timid the president’s programs are. While he calls for the most tepid support of American families, he proposes spending tens of billions of additional dollars each year for the military. The net result is that 40 million Americans, including 15 million children, are still mired in poverty.”

RON WALTERS
Walters, a professor of government and politics in the Afro-American Studies Program at the University of Maryland, is author of a forthcoming book about the conservative movement and black public policy. He said: “The big area where the funds need to flow is with respect to education, where school building and rehab, teacher training, after-school programs, Internet wiring and other initiatives could result in the possibility that students in poor inner-city or county schools might have the opportunity to achieve against the standards that are being set increasingly high for them.” Walters won an American Political Science Association award for his book “Black Presidential Politics in America.”

LYUBA ZARSKY
Co-director of the Nautilus Institute for Security and Sustainable Development, Zarsky said: “There needs to be a re-commitment to stronger environmental performance. Many corporations are adopting voluntary codes of conduct, but what we need is more public oversight, a greater role for communities and information disclosure.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167