Clinton Urges Volunteerism to Mark King Day

Americans on Monday should make the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday “a day on, not a day off,” by joining a nationwide volunteer campaign, President Clinton said Saturday.

With Vice President Al Gore and District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams, Clinton planned to set an example with his own community service project at a home for the elderly in the northwest section of the city.

It’s part of a drive by the administration’s AmeriCorps national service program to deploy 100,000 volunteers nationwide Monday.

“To honor what would have been Dr. King’s 70th birthday, I urge all Americans to rise to the highest calling in our land: the calling of active citizenship,” the president said in his weekly radio broadcast from the Oval Office.

AmeriCorps projects include painting schools, reading to children and cleaning up parks to mark the day. Clinton urged Americans to log on to the AmeriCorps Web site, www.americorps.org, and sign up for projects.

House Republicans have an ambitious legislative agenda that has nothing to do with impeachment, Rep. Tillie K. Fowler (R-Fla.), vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, said in the GOP’s weekly radio address.

Her remarks echoed pledges from Senate Republicans last week who promised that the impeachment trial underway in the Senate will not consume all the legislators’ time and energy.

In her address, Fowler said the House GOP, under the leadership of its new speaker, Rep. J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), will focus on education, Social Security, tax relief and military funding.