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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release January 6, 1994

Statement by the President

The Nation mourns the loss of our beloved former Speaker of the House, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill Jr.

As U.S. House Speaker, Tip O'Neill was the Nation's most prominent, powerful and loyal champion of working people. He loved politics and government because he saw how politics and government could make a difference in people's lives. And he loved people most of all -- his neighbors, his constituents and his family.

Last fall, Tip was generous to me with his advice and his stature when he joined our effort to win approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement. His stand moved me, because working people had been the cause of his long and colorful career, and in his heart he knew that more open trade would mean a better quality of life for working Americans.

On a day of sadness for my family and Tip's, Hillary and I wish his wife, Millie, and their family our deepest sympathies for a husband and a father now gone and for a beautiful life well lived.