President Bush spoke to a meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council on recent developments in the Middle East. He lauded the efforts of the Secretary of Defense and the soldiers in the field for the success in the Persian Gulf war. President Bush said the states were the “laboratories of democracy in the world’s greatest experiment in freedom and diversity.” He discussed the need for “new initiatives in government,” to come in part from state and local governments. He advocated giving money to the states for distribution at state and local level rather than federal program funding, and said his definition of federalism amounted to “more flexibility and fewer mandates.”