[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: WILLIAM J. CLINTON (2000, Book I)]
[June 6, 2000]
[Pages 1103-1105]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]
Remarks on Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Legislation and an
Exchange With Reporters
June 6, 2000
The President. Today is the first full day back to work for Members
of Congress since Memorial Day. Three weeks from now they leave again
for the Fourth of July recess. Those 3 weeks provide a critical window
of opportunity for Congress to make real progress on some of our
Nation's most vital priorities. I urge congressional leaders to seize
that opportunity.
They can get off to a strong start by passing without delay the
emergency budget supplemental request I sent to Congress back in
February. This is funding for pressing national needs, where delay means
putting American families in hardship and our national interests at
risk.
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The legislation includes funding for crucial safety maintenance on
the air traffic control system. Without this funding, we could see more
flight delays as we enter the peak summer tourist season.
It includes housing assistance for victims of Hurricane Floyd, many
of whom still are living in temporary shelters. These families will have
to spend yet another winter there if they cannot begin rebuilding their
homes during this summer's construction season.
It includes money to battle the record number of forest fires that
have been burning across America last year, especially out West.
Delaying this funding could erode our capacity to fight further blazes
this summer.
It includes emergency assistance for families who have struggled all
winter with high heating oil costs and who now face a scorching summer.
Without this assistance, these low income Americans, many of them
elderly and infirm, may not be able to afford the fans and air
conditioning that can literally save their lives.
It includes funding to keep illegal drugs out of our Nation by
supporting the Colombian Government's courageous fight against drug
traffickers. Delays in this funding come at a time when cocaine
production is increasing in Colombia, where more than 80 percent of the
cocaine on United States streets comes from. It also comes at a time
when Colombia, Latin America's oldest democracy, is fighting to preserve
its very system of government and way of life in the face of intense
pressure.
It includes funding to lift crippling debt burdens from the world's
poorest nations, funding for our troops in Kosovo and for building
civilian institutions there. Delaying this funding may force the Army to
put off regular maintenance of tanks and other weaponry or even to
cancel combat exercises crucial to the readiness of our troops around
the world. It will also delay the day when we can bring our troops home
from Kosovo.
Each and every one of these investments is urgently needed, and the
package as a whole enjoys strong bipartisan support. Leaders in the
House clearly understand that. That's why they put the emergency
spending bill on a fast track for passage. But in the Senate, instead of
taking swift action, the emergency spending bill has been attached to
next year's spending bills. The Senate weighed them down with further
unrelated provisions, such as one that would block our efforts to get
the tobacco companies to pay back the Government for health costs caused
by tobacco products.
This process is not the right thing to do when the needs of the
country covered by the bills are so urgent. The emergency spending bill
should have been passed months ago. Let's do it now, so that we can move
on to other pressing business that we can and should pass this summer.
That includes the Senate following quickly the House's example in
providing normal trade relations with China. It also, I hope, will
include raising the minimum wage by a dollar over 2 years; passing a
strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights; reforming Medicare and
adding a voluntary prescription drug benefit; passing commonsense gun
legislation to close the gun show loophole, require child safety locks,
ban the importation of large capacity ammunition clips.
I hope it will include education reform, demanding more from our
schools and investing more in them, including modernizing 6,000 of our
schools that are now falling apart. I hope it will include strong, fair
hate crimes legislation. And I hope it will include clean spending bills
that I can sign, not those loaded down with anti-environmental riders,
special interest provisions for the tobacco industry, and other add-ons
I have vetoed in the past and would have no choice other than to veto in
the future.
Now, we can do all of this in short order if congressional leaders
will stop delaying and start voting. Almost every one of these issues
has been thoroughly debated, and almost every one of them enjoys strong
bipartisan support. We could pass them if they could just be brought up
for a vote. It's time to put progress ahead of partisanship.
When Congress adjourns this summer, we ought to be able to look back
and say we took real steps to make our country better. We ought to be
able to say we made the most of this historic moment of unparalleled
prosperity. That's what the American people sent us here to do, and they
deserve no less. As I have said repeatedly, the fact that this is an
election year should not have an impact on that. If we just pass the
things that there is strong bipartisan majority support for, there will
still be plenty of matters over which there are honest disagreements
that can be presented to the American people to resolve. All I'm asking
for is a vote on the things that are urgently needed in the
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national interest and those things that clearly the majority of Congress
supports.
Thank you.
Q. Mr. President, could you explain a little more about the urgency
for the Colombia funds? And why not ask for that money as part of a
foreign ops bill?
The President. Well, we asked for it in an emergency supplemental
bill. And that's where we think--we think it should be passed on an
emergency basis because the Colombian Government is under great stress
now, and because they can't begin to deal with the challenges posed by
the drug traffickers in Colombia without extra support--not only to
build up their forces, their police forces in the country but also to
give alternatives to those who are growing the plants, the coca plants,
to find another way to make a living, and to do other things that will
deal with some of the border problems we have in the countries that
border Colombia.
But I think most of us have seen that democracy itself is under
great stress throughout the Andean region, in no small measure because
of the power of the drug traffickers. And I say again, Colombia is the
oldest democracy in Latin America, and I believe their very way of life
is under stress because of this. And I think that if we were to pass
this quickly, and then send a clear signal to the Colombians that we
support democracy and we support their efforts against the drug
traffickers, you would see a big response from other countries of the
world to help them. The world would rally behind them. It would, I
believe, change the entire psychology of the drama that is unfolding
down there.
And if it's a battle that we lose to the drug traffickers, the price
would not only be more drugs on the streets of America but also
potentially destabilizing the entire Andean region and the whole move
we've seen these last 15 or 20 years toward democracy in South America
and throughout Latin America. It's very troubling to me. And I think
there are people in the Congress--I know there are, in both parties--who
strongly agree.
We all know that the Senate operates differently, on different
rules, than the House. We all know there are all kinds of problems and
conflicting interests. But this is something we really ought to put
beyond that. And I think that what happened is that this emergency
supplemental got caught up in a whole lot of conflicting pressures in
the Senate and the ability of those who disagree with one thing or
another to use the rules to delay it. But somehow we've got to cut
through all this. The national interest in Colombia and in the other
things that I itemized just cries out for action. It's just imperative
that we get it as quickly as possible.
Q. Mr. President, have you talked to Senator Lott directly about
this, in trying to move some of these things? And what ----
The President. I have, I have. I've talked to him on more than one occasion. I have not talked to him
since I've been back, because I haven't had a chance to this morning;
I've been working all day. But I will talk to him.
Q. What--what is his counterargument?
The President. I believe that on the merits, I think he wants to do it. And you know, it's a difficult
situation. I think what is required is for everybody in the Senate to
recognize that this is something we ought to just put beyond whatever
the other squabbles are, and get it done and put it behind us. And so--I
believe he wants to do that, and I hope we can find a way to do that.
Peruvian Elections
Q. Mr. President, would you like to see the U.S. take any action
toward Peru--possible sanctions, or anything--regarding irregularities
in their recent election?
The President. Well, we just got back from my trip. I think I ought
to have a chance to talk about all that. I haven't--I don't feel--I may
not know enough to answer that. I'm disappointed, obviously, that the
election didn't unfold as we thought it would after the first round. And
I have to figure out exactly what all the reasons are and get a briefing
before I can make a comment beyond that.
Note: The President spoke at 2:28 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
White House.