[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 39 (Monday, October 4, 1999)]
[Pages 1845-1846]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Returning Without Approval to the House of Representatives 
the ``District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2000''

September 28, 1999

    H.R. 2587, the ``District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2000,'' 
approves local funding and provides for targeted Federal funding for the 
District of Columbia that we all support. The bill includes essential 
funding for District Courts and Corrections and the DC Offender 
Supervision Agency and makes some progress towards providing requested 
funds for a new tuition assistance program for District of Columbia 
residents.
    However, I have decided to veto this bill because Congress has added 
a number of unacceptable riders that prevent local residents from making 
their own decisions about local matters. Congress has interfered in 
local decisions in this bill in a way that it would not have done to any 
other local jurisdiction in the country. For example, this bill bars the 
District from spending its own funds to seek voting rights for the 
citizens of the District of Columbia. Congress should not impose

[[Page 1846]]

such conditions on the District of Columbia. And it is wrong for some in 
Congress to threaten to cut funding that would fight crime, expand 
educational opportunity by providing tuition assistance, and improve 
children's health simply because they are unwilling to let the people of 
the District of Columbia make local decisions about local matters, as 
they should under home rule.