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Saturday Morning News

Clinton Heads to Big Easy for Weekend of Fund Raising

Aired April 8, 2000 - 9:09 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Money and elections top President Clinton's agenda this weekend. The top fund raiser for the Democratic Party departs Washington this hour for New Orleans.

CNN's Kathleen Koch has a preview from the White House.

Hi, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Well, as you've pointed out, despite the fact that he is a lame duck, Mr. Clinton remains a powerhouse fund raiser for his party. So this morning the president heads off to the Big Easy, New Orleans, for a Cajun brunch to raise money for the Democratic National Committee.

National party, the Democrats report that they start out the month of April with a war chest of $21 million. That's compared to a war chest of only about $5 million at the same time during the 1996 presidential election cycle. And the Democrats do say much of that is thanks to the president.

After the morning fund raiser, the president will head upstate to Alexandria, Louisiana, where a little golf is expected to be on the schedule. And the president this evening will then attend a musical performance at a local church before returning to the White House tonight.

Now, this morning, before he does depart, the president in his radio address will be putting pressure on Congress to address some of his highest-priority issues. The president first of all does want to see a patient's bill of rights passed to give Americans more leverage in dealing with their health care providers.

Another top issue for the president is raising the minimum wage by a dollar an hour to help especially low income American families. And another important priority for the president is what he calls common-sense gun safety legislation. The president would like to see a measure that would require gun safety locks on handguns that would bar the import of high-capacity ammunition clips and also would require background checks at gun shows. That would close what the president calls the gun show loophole.

Now, the president had challenged Congress to take action on that last measure before April 20, which is the anniversary of the shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. But with Congress heading off on its spring recess in less than a week, it's very unlikely that any of these issues will see any action before later in the spring.

Reporting live at the White House, I'm Kathleen Koch.

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