[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 29 (Monday, July 24, 1995)]
[Page 1255]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development 
Appropriations Legislation

July 18, 1995

    The 1996 VA-HUD appropriations bill passed today by the House 
Appropriations Committee is unacceptable.
    By abolishing AmeriCorps it would eliminate opportunities for 
thousands of young people to serve their communities through the 
national service program. By dramatically slashing resources for the 
Environmental Protection Agency and imposing severe restrictions on that 
agency, the bill would decimate the Government's ability to protect the 
American people from air and water pollution. By cutting assistance for 
the Nation's homeless in half, it would punish some of the weakest and 
most vulnerable in our society.
    We need to balance the budget, and we need to cut spending to do it. 
But there is a right way and a wrong way. A bill so contrary to the 
priorities and concerns of the American people clearly represents the 
wrong way.
    I will not stand by as the Republican majority tries to impose this 
extreme agenda on the Nation. If this bill is presented to me in its 
current form, I will veto it. I call on the Congress to correct the 
appropriations bills now under consideration before they reach my desk, 
not after.