At the outset of the second Clinton Administration, two Cabinet members offer overviews of how they are pursuing and accomplishing their mandates. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the U.S. Government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. Its programs include medical and social science research, infectious disease prevention, immunization services, food and drug monitoring, health insurance for elderly and disabled Americans as well as those in low-income brackets, financial assistance for low-income families, enforcement of child support regulations, improvement of maternal and infant health, child abuse and domestic violence prevention, treatment and prevention of substance abuse, and various services for senior citizens. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was created to help the nation's communities meet their development needs, spur economic growth in distressed neighborhoods, provide housing assistance for the poor, help rehabilitate and develop moderate and low-cost housing, and enforce America's fair housing laws.

The subject of health care was vigorously pursued by a White House task force during the first Clinton Administration, sparking energetic nationwide debate throughout the public and private sectors. That debate continues today.

Over the past four years, the Department of Health and Human Services has made important commitments to the American people.

We pledged to protect our nation's children, and to pay special attention to the needs of our adolescents. We enhanced our long- term promises to improve health care and guarantee economic independence for all Americans. We supported legislation, signed by President Clinton, that will ensure health insurance protection for an estimated 25 million Americans who move from one job to another, who are self-employed, or who have pre- existing medical conditions. And we made new commitments to tough management at our Department, finding innovative ways to do business and achieve results.

Today, those pledges are reaping benefits. Childhood immunization rates are at their highest levels ever in the United States. Infant mortality is at an all-time low. The welfare rolls have been reduced by two million people, and teen pregnancy rates are declining. We re making work pay with more child care, better child support enforcement, and a reformed welfare program.

We launched an historic children's tobacco initiative to seize power back from the cigarette advertisers and place it in the hands of parents. We demanded quality from every Head Start program. And we dramatically reduced the amount of time it takes for new drugs to gain approval from the Food and Drug Administration, paving the way for new advances in AIDS treatment and pharmaceuticals for other uses to reach Americans faster, while preserving high standards for safety and effectiveness.

Under our zero tolerance policy for fraud and abuse, our Operation Restore Trust program is saving $10 in health care costs for every anti-fraud dollar we spend. And we re protecting Medicare for seniors and the disabled, giving beneficiaries enhanced benefits and greater choices in their medical care.

Over the next four years, we are determined to complete the job in many of these areas, and to prepare to meet the goals of the 21st century. We must reduce the ranks of the uninsured, especially among our children. We must ensure that the quality of health care in America remains among the finest in the world. We must continue to seek economic independence for all Americans, while providing a safety net when help is needed. We must continue to address aggressively the problem of teenage drug and alcohol abuse. We must extend our crusade against waste, fraud, and abuse in general. And we must assure the solvency of Medicare in both the near and long term for all Americans, young and old.

These are tough challenges. But in an America where the doors of opportunity are wide open and the keys of responsibility are in every person's hands, we can achieve them.

At HHS, we have developed a multifaceted strategy to promote the positive development of America's young people, particularly disadvantaged children, spending approximately one-sixth of the total HHS budget in this regard.

The HHS strategy focuses on two broad areas:

• Strong Foundations for young children and families that involves a Head Start, a Healthy Start, and a Safe Start.

• Safe Passages for older children and teenagers.

During their teen years, children need social and community supports to navigate a safe passage from adolescence to adulthood. HHS is working to ensure that federal, state, and local legislation limiting tobacco use is enforced. The Department also is using resources for public education of America's young people on the dangers of drug use. We have established a new Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative to support prevention efforts in communities with high teen pregnancy rates.

Despite low-growth budgets, HHS has increased significantly investments in these priority areas for children, and results have followed. For example, a record number of two-year- olds are now properly vaccinated. Vaccine-preventable diseases are at record lows. In our Head Start program, enrollment is up, children are being served at a younger age, and the quality of the program itself is improving.

In the area of Medicaid, President Clinton has insisted on the continued guarantee of coverage for needy children. In welfare reform, the Administration's proposals focus on making families self-sufficient while protecting children. The Administration also supports tough new rules requiring absent parents to support their children.

The new HHS Governing Council for Children and Youth, established in the fall of 1995, aims at bringing together all parts of the Department to better serve children, youth and families by pooling resources and establishing continuity among efforts in their behalf. Finally, HHS seeks to shatter bureaucratic barriers between the public and private sectors of our nation so as to build new, beneficial partnerships for children.

The central responsibility of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is, simply stated, to ensure that Americans live in decent housing.

For homeless citizens, that means helping them get the shelter and support services they need to build self-sufficient, independent lives.

For low-income Americans, it means sustaining a safe and adequate network of public housing and affordable rental housing in the private market.

And for all Americans, it means fostering home ownership as a benefit to families and communities, and guaranteeing fundamental fairness by enforcing U.S. Government fair housing laws.

To help the homeless, the Clinton Administration created a Continuum of Care strategy that encourages local leaders to put together comprehensive programs that tackle the multiple causes of homelessness: unemployment, physical and mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse. As Columbia University researchers concluded in a recent (December 1996) report, Continuum of Care has sparked major investments from both governmental and non-governmental sources and has greatly increased the numbers of homeless people assisted.

We at HUD are also taking decisive steps to improve public housing through a four-part strategy:

• Demolishing the worst of the blighted, crime-infested high-rise buildings and replacing them with low-rise apartments and townhouses.

• Fighting crime through new collaborations between U.S. Government investigators and local police, and by empowering local housing authorities to evict residents whose drug-dealing and violence threaten law-abiding families.

• Working with local authorities to improve their oversight of public housing.

• Changing the rules to encourage residents to study, train for jobs, and work steadily. Wage-earners now can increase their incomes without seeing their rents go up automatically.

HUD supports other low-income families with supplemental rent payments that enable them to find the affordable rental housing they need in the private market. We also work to foster equal housing opportunity for all Americans in public and private housing markets and protect them from discrimination through enforcement of U.S. Government laws that forbid housing discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, or family status.

Home ownership represents the American Dream for most families. Nationally, the home ownership rate stands at 65.6 percent of all households its highest rate in 15 years. All the factors that can make home ownership possible are moving in the right direction. The economy is stronger, more jobs are available, and interest rates are low.

Two years ago, HUD helped launch a partnership of private organizations and public agencies committed to getting more Americans into their own homes. The National Partners in Home Ownership is working to make buying a home easier for minorities, women, and immigrants. The Federal Housing Administration, HUD's lead agency in making mortgage insurance available to low- and moderate-income Americans, has cut costs by $2,000 over the last three years, making it easier for people to buy homes.

The Partners goal is to add eight million new home owners by the end of the year 2000. That target, we feel certain, is within our grasp.