[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 32, Number 2 (Monday, January 15, 1996)]
[Pages 23-24]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Seventh Continuing Resolution

January 6, 1996

    Today I have signed into law H.R. 1358, the Seventh Continuing 
Resolution for fiscal 1996, which provides funds for a long list of 
Federal activities through September 30.
    This continuing resolution builds upon H.R. 1643, which I signed 
early this morning and which put all Federal workers back on the job 
with pay from December 16 to January 26 and provided funding for a 
limited list of Federal activities.
    While both measures help to restore needed Government services, the 
Congress has not ended the partial shutdown of the Federal Government, 
nor the suffering it is causing millions of Americans and thousands of 
businesses. The shutdown 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 many smaller 
agencies.
    This bill provides full-year funding for allowances to Peace Corps 
volunteers, their spouses and minor children; activities, including 
administrative expenses, needed to process single-family mortgage loans 
and refinancing for low-income and moderate-income families; projects 
and activities directly related to the security of U.S. diplomatic posts 
and facilities abroad; the Federal Emergency Management Agency's 
emergency food and shelter program; retirement pay and medical benefits 
for Public Health Service Commissioned Officers, payments under the 
Retired Serviceman's Family Protection Plan and Survivor Benefit Plan 
and for the medical care of dependents and retired personnel, and 
payments to the Social Security trust funds, which the Secretary of 
Health and Human Services deemed necessary because of Commissioned 
Officer pay raises; and projects and certain activities of the Federal 
Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Organized 
Crime Drug Enforcement, Federal Prison System, U.S. Attorneys, U.S. 
Marshals Service, Support of U.S. Prisoners, Fees and Expenses of 
Witnesses, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Executive 
Office for Immigration Review.
    Also funded are projects and activities of the Judiciary; Health 
Care Financing Administration State surveys and certifications; trade 
adjustment assistance benefits and North American Free Trade Act 
benefits; payments to health care trust funds; expenses of Medicare 
contractors; grants to States for

[[Page 24]]

Medicaid; the general business loan guaranty program and section 504 
certified development company program; surety bond guarantees revolving 
fund; visitors services on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land 
Management; disease control, research, and training; Indian self-
determination and self-governance projects and activities of tribes or 
tribal organizations; expenses of the Kendall Demonstration Elementary 
School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf; and payments for 
benefits and interest on advances, and expenses of operation and 
administration, for black lung disabilities and disabled coal miners.
    This measure also extends, from December 31, 1995, to June 30, 1996, 
the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 1994 
and extends the San Carlos Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 
1992 from December 31, 1995, to December 31, 1996. The bill also 
includes fisheries related provisions.
    Even with H.R. 1643 and H.R. 1358 in place, however, the Congress 
has not funded significant activities covered by the six appropriations 
bills that are not enacted. The Congress has not provided funds to help 
put 100,000 more police officers on the streets of our communities; 
funds for the States for social services and job training; funds for 
Head Start; funds to help U.S. businesses with export financing; funds 
to help the Environmental Protection Agency enforce environmental laws; 
and funds to continue the Shuttle program and other key initiatives at 
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
    Along with denying services to our citizens, the shutdown is 
threatening the vitality of thousands of businesses which supply goods 
and services to the Federal Government under contract. The jobs of 
thousands of workers in those businesses are at risk. The longer the 
shutdown continues, the more that its effects will be felt. Clearly, 
this is no way to run the Government and deliver services and benefits 
to millions of Americans, whether they are elderly, children, students, 
working parents, or businessmen and women.
    More than 3 months into fiscal 1996, the Congress has not even sent 
me three of the six remaining, full-year appropriations bills. I vetoed 
the other three because they would have been bad for the country. Those 
bills underfunded essential programs for the environment, for veterans, 
for law enforcement, for technology, and for Native Americans.
    At this point, the Congress should work with me to reach agreement 
on these six measures. At the very least, the Congress should send me an 
acceptable continuing resolution that will fully reopen the Government 
while they work with me to find common ground on the budget.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
January 6, 1996.

Note: H.R. 1358, approved January 6, was assigned Public Law No. 104-91.