[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 1 (Monday, January 8, 1996)]
[Pages 13-14]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing District of Columbia Appropriations Legislation

January 4, 1996

    Today I have signed into law House Joint Resolution 153, which 
provides authority for the District of Columbia to continue full 
operations.
    This measure continues the authority provided by the Fourth 
Continuing Resolution for FY 1996, which I signed December 22, and will 
enable the District to continue to operate, using District funds, 
through January 25.
    Because H.J. Res. 153 allows the District government to continue to 
operate without disruption, it is a step in the right direction. 
Nevertheless, it is only a step. It does not end the partial shutdown of 
the Federal Government that continues to affect the Departments of 
Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban 
Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and Veterans Affairs; the 
Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration; the Small Business Administration; and nearly three 
dozen smaller agencies.
    This shutdown is hurting millions of innocent Americans--such as the 
600,000 senior citizens who may not get services under the ``Meals on 
Wheels'' program, or the 2,500 moderate- and low-income working families 
per day who cannot get their Federal Housing Administration (FHA) 
mortgage loans processed. The longer the shutdown contin- 

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ues, the more Americans across the country will feel its impact.
    The shutdown has forced the Administration to furlough 280,000 
workers in these departments and agencies. And while the Administration 
has kept 480,000 others on the job because they perform emergency 
services, we cannot pay them until the shutdown ends. Thus, by not 
ending the shutdown, the Congress is disrupting the lives of three-
quarters of a million Federal workers, most of whom live paycheck to 
paycheck and are having severe problems paying their mortgages or rent, 
buying food, and protecting their families.
    I am concerned that this bill contains an objectionable provision 
that would single out poor women by prohibiting the use of District 
funds for providing abortion services. I oppose including this provision 
in the regular fiscal year 1996 District of Columbia Appropriations 
Bill, and I urge the Congress to send that bill to me--in a form I can 
sign--as expeditiously as possible.
    Once again, I urge the Congress to end this shutdown immediately by 
sending me an acceptable continuing resolution to fund these departments 
and agencies, or acceptable fiscal 1996 appropriations bills for them.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
January 4, 1996.

Note: H.J. Res. 153, approved January 4, was assigned Public Law No. 
104-90. This statement was released by the Office of the Press Secretary 
on January 5.