[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 30 (Monday, July 31, 1995)]
[Pages 1309-1311]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Signing Emergency Supplemental Appropriations and Rescissions 
Legislation and an Exchange With Reporters

July 27, 1995

    Good morning. Before I sign this bill I'd like to thank the 
congressional leadership from both parties for sticking with this 
project through thick and thin. Right before we came in one of the 
Senators said this is the only bill he'd ever seen that was passed

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16 different times. But I want to thank everyone who worked on this and 
say a special word of thanks to the Appropriations Committee members and 
especially to the Senate and House Appropriations Committee Chairs, who 
are here today, who burned the midnight oil to get this done.
    The bill I am here to sign is proof that we can put party politics 
aside and do things that are good for our country. We're never going to 
agree on everything, and we shouldn't. That's the way our system works. 
But there is so much we do agree upon that if we deal with our 
disagreements openly and honestly, we plainly can make progress.
    On balance I am very pleased with this bill. The timber provisions 
are not exactly what I wanted, but they are better than they were, and I 
believe we can and should carry out the timber salvage plans and that we 
can do it consistent with our forest plan and with existing 
environmental laws.
    The budget cutting in this bill is exactly the kind of thing we 
should be doing. Together we are making a down payment on a balanced 
budget, cutting $16 billion in spending from this year's budget, cutting 
unnecessary spending but maintaining our commitment to education, to 
health care, to the environment. At the same time, the Congress has 
voted for funds that will help the people of California finish the work 
that has to be done to recover from the earthquake; that will help the 
people in Oklahoma City to deal with the financial aspects, at least, of 
the terrible tragedy they endured; that will help us to step up the 
fight against terrorism; and that will enable us to keep our commitment 
to the Middle East peace process.
    This is how we should work together. We agree we should balance the 
budget. We disagree on how. But this shows that we can work through 
those disagreements. Everyone here just about was raised with the old 
saying that where there's a will there's a way. If we have the will to 
balance the budget, we know we can find the way because of what happened 
on the rescission bill.
    Let me again say a word of thanks to the Members who are here. To 
Chairman Hatfield and Chairman Livingston and to Senator Lott and to 
Senator Ford, I thank you very, very much. And it's an honor and a 
pleasure to be able to sign this legislation that you've provided to the 
American people.
    Thank you.

[At this point, the President signed the bill.]

Bosnia

    Q. Mr. President, are you going to veto the Bosnia arms bill?
    The President. Hasn't passed yet.
    Q. Mr. President, do you think it's time for the allies to make a 
similar agreement with the U.N. to defend Bihac?
    The President. Well, you know what we did at NATO. We agreed that 
since NATO and the United Nations had said that Bihac and Sarajevo 
should both be protected, we urged that our NATO planners begin working 
on the plans for that. And of course, that's what I believe the United 
Nations should do.
    Now that we understand what has to be done to compensate the 
UNPROFOR forces, the United Nations must never again be caught in a 
position where it makes a commitment as it did in Srebrenica and then 
does not attempt to keep that commitment.
    So, I certainly believe that should be done. But I was very pleased, 
I must say, by Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali's actions yesterday, and 
I hope that this indicates that the United Nations is going to keep its 
commitments. And the United States is certainly determined to see that 
it does so.
    And I think the vote in the Senate should be taken as a message, 
simply a message to do that. The United States Senate, both the 69 
people who voted for the resolution and the 29 people who voted against 
it, all believe that the United Nations must move aggressively to 
protect the people of Bosnia from what they have endured.
    Q. Mr. President, because of so many hollow allied threats in the 
past, why should the Bosnian Serbs be scared of this latest allied 
threat of massive airstrikes?
    The President. Well, they ought to be able to tell from what's going 
on here in the United States that if the U.N. fails the next time, that 
there will be a different course.

Note: The President spoke at 9:08 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. H.R. 1944, approved July 27, was assigned Public Law No. 
104-19.

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