    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1995, Book I)]
    [June 7, 1995]
    [Pages 828-829]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval
    Legislation for Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions
    for Fiscal Year 1995
    June 7, 1995

    To the House of Representatives:
        I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 1158, a bill
    providing for emergency supplemental appropriations and rescissions for
    fiscal year 1995.
        This disagreement is about priorities, not deficit reduction. In
    fact, I want to increase the deficit reduction in this bill.
        H.R. 1158 slashes needed investments for education, national
    service, and the environment, in order to avoid cutting wasteful
    projects and other unnecessary expenditures. There are billions of
    dollars in pork--unnecessary highway demonstration projects,
    courthouses, and other Federal buildings--that could have been cut
    instead of these critical investments. Indeed, the Senate bill made such
    cuts in order to maintain productive investments, but the House-Senate
    conference rejected those cuts.
        For example, H.R. 1158 would deprive 15,000 young adults of the
    opportunity to serve their communities as AmeriCorps members.
        It would deprive 2,000 schools in 47 States of funds to train
    teachers and devise comprehensive reforms to boost academic standards.
        It would reduce or eliminate antiviolence and drug prevention
    programs serving nearly 20 million students.
        It would prevent the creation and expansion of hundreds of community
    development banks and financial institutions that would spur job

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    growth and leverage billions of dollars of capital in distressed
    communities across the country.
        And it would seriously hamper the ability of States to maintain
    clean drinking water, thus jeopardizing the health of residents.
        In the end, the Congress chose courthouses over education, pork
    barrel highway projects over national service, Government travel over
    clean water.
        At my instruction, the Administration has provided alternatives to
    the Congress that would produce greater deficit reduction than H.R.
    1158, cutting even more in fiscal year 1995 spending than is included in
    H.R 1158. But the spending reductions would come out of unnecessary
    projects and other spending, not investments in working families.
        My position on this legislation has been made clear throughout the
    legislative process. The Administration strongly and consistently
    opposed the House version of the bill because it would have
    unnecessarily cut valuable, proven programs that educate our children,
    invest in our future, and protect the health and safety of the American
    people. We worked closely with the bipartisan leadership of the Senate
    to improve the bill, and I indicated my approval of those improvements.
    Regrettably, the conference went well beyond the spending reductions
    contained in the bipartisan compromise despite my Administration's
    consistent urging to adhere to the Senate bipartisan leadership
    amendment.
        In addition, I continue to object to language that would override
    existing environmental laws in an effort to increase timber salvage.
    Increasing timber salvage and improving forest health are goals that my
    Administration shares with the Congress. Over the last 6 months, my
    Administration has put in motion administrative reforms that are
    speeding salvage timber sales in full compliance with existing
    environmental laws. It is not appropriate to use this legislation to
    overturn environmental laws. Therefore, I urge the Congress to delete
    this language and, separately, to work with my Administration on an
    initiative to increase timber salvage and improve forest health.
        My Administration has provided the Congress with changes that would
    enable me to sign revised legislation. I urge the Congress to approve a
    bill that contains the supplemental funding included in H.R. 1158--for
    disaster relief activities of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
    for the Federal response to the bombing in Oklahoma City, for increased
    antiterrorism efforts, and for providing debt relief to Jordan in order
    to contribute to further progress toward a Middle East peace
    settlement--along with my Administration's alternative restorations and
    offsets.
        I will sign legislation that provides these needed supplemental
    appropriations and that reduces the deficit by at least as much as this
    bill. However, the legislation must reflect the priorities of the
    American people. H.R. 1158, as passed, clearly does not.

                                                          William J. Clinton

    The White House,

    June 7, 1995.