This morning I concluded my own talks with the Prime Minister of France, and this is a final meeting with him. He'll now, this afternoon, meet with e… - Jimmy Carter

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This morning I concluded my own talks with the Prime Minister of France, and this is a final meeting with him. He'll now, this afternoon, meet with economic advisers, the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Energy, and others so that we, in shaping our own policies for the future, will know the special problems of France, and vice versa. These discussions which I have had with many foreign leaders have been very helpful to me. As you know, I've never served in Washington before January. I've got a lot to learn about the processes, and I've gone out of my way this year to expand my own circle of knowledge outside just domestic issues. Last week, I met with, I think, 19 heads of state of the Latin American countries. And I think we have a new relationship with them, brought about primarily by the prospect of the ratification of the Panama C. anal Treaty. We are continuing our negotiations with the Soviets on the SALT question; also, on a comprehensive test ban of nuclear weapons. And as you know, the Soviet Union in addition is a cochairman, along with us, of the Mideast talks that we hope will take place before the end of this year. This coming week, I'll have the first of a series of foreign ministers who will come and meet with me from the Middle Eastern region--Foreign Minister Dayan from Israel. And during the following weeks, I'll meet with all the others. These meetings that come to me directly are preceded, of course, by long discussions with the Secretary of State and others. We have, in addition, many other defense matters that have come to my desk. Quite often, we have foreign matters that don't relate to the prospect of war or the issue of peace. A recent one, concluded last week, was with the Canadians, on a means by which we might bring natural gas down to our country. And this is the biggest construction project ever undertaken in the history of the world, and I think we arrived at a common purpose there. We have already implemented the construction of a new Department of Energy. I approved it this week. Dr. Schlesinger has been working on this ever since I've been in office. We have finished in the House, I think, substantial legislation to set up an energy policy that might guide the new Department in its functions. We are running into additional problems in the Senate. The political pressures are enormous from the oil companies and others on the subject of energy. I think the House took very courageous action in this respect, and my hope and expectation is that the Senate will do the same. Welfare reform has been presented to the House and to the Senate this week in its final, legally drafted version of legislation. And before the Congress adjourns this year, hopefully in October, I will present to them my tax reform package as well. This will take a great deal of debate and study, along with welfare. And that, obviously, can't be concluded during this calendar year. We have, I think, been fairly successful so far. We've been learning, and I think that we put together a good organization here.