Again, I ask Congress to pass a juvenile crime bill that provides more prosecutors and probation officers to crack down on gangs and guns and drugs and bar violent juveniles from buying guns for life.  And I ask you to dramatically expand our support for after-school programs.  I think every American should know that most juvenile crime is committed between the hours of 3:00 in the afternoon and 8:00 at night.  We can keep so many of our children out of trouble in the first place if we give them some place to go other than the streets, and we ought to do it.

Drug use is on the decline.  I thank General McCaffrey for his leadership, and I thank this Congress for passing the largest anti-drug budget in history.  Now I ask you to join me in a ground-breaking effort to hire a thousand new Border Patrol agents and to deploy the most sophisticated available new technologies to help close the door on drugs at our borders.

Police, prosecutors, and prevention programs, good as they are, they can’t work if our court system doesn’t work.  Today, there are large numbers of vacancies in our federal courts.  Here is what the chief justice of the United States wrote:  “Judicial vacancies cannot remain at such high levels indefinitely without eroding the quality of justice.”

I simply ask the United States Senate to heed this plea and vote on the highly qualified nominees before you, up or down.

We must exercise responsibility not just at home but around the world.  On the eve of a new century, we have the power and the duty to build a new era of peace and security.  But make no mistake about it; today’s possibilities are not tomorrow’s guarantees.  America must stand against the poisoned appeals of extreme nationalism.  We must combat an unholy access of new threats from terrorists, international criminals and drug traffickers.

These 21st century predators feed on technology and the free flow of information and ideas and people, and they will be all the more lethal if weapons of mass destruction fall into their hands.  To meet these challenges, we are helping to write international rules of the road for the 21st century, protecting those who join the family of nations and isolating those who do not.

Within days, I will ask the Senate for its advice and consent to make Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic the newest members of NATO.  For 50 years, NATO contained communism and kept America and Europe secure.  Now these three formerly communist countries have said yes to democracy.  I ask the Senate to say yes to them, our new allies.

By taking in new members and working closely with new partners, including Russia and Ukraine, NATO can help to assure that Europe is a stronghold for peace in the 21st century.

Next, I will ask Congress to continue its support for our troops and their mission in Bosnia.  This Christmas, Hillary and I traveled to Sarajevo with Senator and Mrs. Dole and a bipartisan congressional delegation.  We saw children playing in the streets where, two years ago, they were hiding from snipers and shells.  The shops were filled with food.  The cafes were alive with conversation.  The progress there is unmistakable; but it is not yet irreversible.