[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 44 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Pages 2237-2241]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the House of Representatives Returning Without Approval the 
District of Columbia, Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, 
and Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill

November 3, 1999

To the House of Representatives:

    I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 3064, the FY 2000 
District of Columbia and Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.
    I am vetoing H.R. 3064 because the bill, including the offsets 
section, is deeply flawed. It includes a misguided 0.97 percent across-
the-board reduction that will hurt everything from national defense to 
education and environmental programs. The legislation also contains 
crippling cuts in key education, labor, and health priorities and 
undermines our capacity to manage these programs effectively. The 
enrolled bill delays the availability of $10.9 billion for the National 
Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, and other 
important health and social services programs, resulting in delays in 
important medical research and health services to low-income Americans. 
The bill is clearly unacceptable. I have submitted a budget that would 
fund these priorities without spending the Social Security surplus, and 
I am committed to working with the Congress to identify acceptable 
offsets for additional spending for programs that are important to all 
Americans.
    The bill also fails to fulfill the bipartisan commitment to raise 
student achievement by authorizing and financing class size reduction. 
It does not guarantee any continued funding for the 29,000 teachers 
hired with FY 1999 funds, or the additional 8,000 teachers to be hired 
under my FY 2000 proposal. Moreover, the bill language turns the program 
into a virtual block grant that could be spent on vouchers and other 
unspecified activities. In addition, the bill fails to fund my proposed 
investments in teacher quality by not funding Troops to Teachers ($18 
million) and by cutting $35 million from my request for Teacher Quality 
Enhancement Grants. These programs would bring more highly qualified 
teachers into the schools, especially in high-poverty, high-need school 
districts.
    The bill cuts $189 million from my request for Title I Education for 
the Disadvantaged, resulting in 300,000 fewer children in low-income 
communities receiving needed services. The bill also fails to improve 
accountability or help States turn around the lowest-performing schools 
because it does not include my proposal to set aside 2.5 percent for 
these purposes. Additionally, the bill provides only $300 million for 
21st Century Community Learning Centers, only half my $600 million 
request. At this level, the conference report would deny after-school 
services to more than 400,000 students.
    The bill provides only $180 million for GEAR UP, $60 million below 
my request, to help disadvantaged students prepare for college beginning 
in the seventh grade. This level would serve nearly 131,000 fewer low-
income students. In addition, the bill does not adequately fund my 
Hispanic Education Agenda. It provides no funds for the Adult Education 
English as a Second Language/Civics Initiative to help limited English 
proficient adults learn English and gain life skills necessary for 
successful citizenship and civil participation. The bill underfunds 
programs designed to improve educational outcomes

[[Page 2238]]

for Hispanic and other minority students, including Bilingual Education, 
the High School Equivalency Program (HEP), the College Assistance 
Migrant Program (CAMP), and the Strengthening Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities program.
    The bill underfunds Education Technology programs, including 
distance learning and community technology centers. In particular, the 
bill provides only $10 million to community based technology centers, 
$55 million below my request. My request would provide access to 
technology in 300 additional low-income communities. The bill provides 
$75 million for education research, $34 million less than my request, 
and includes no funding for the Department of Education's share of 
large-scale joint research with the National Science Foundation and the 
National Institutes of Health on early learning in reading and 
mathematics, teacher preparation, and technology applications.
    The bill does not fund the $53 million I requested to provide job 
finding assistance to 241,000 unemployment insurance claimants. This 
means that these claimants will remain unemployed longer, costing more 
in benefit payments. The bill also provides only $140 million of my $199 
million request to expand services to job seekers at One-Stop centers as 
recently authorized in the bipartisan Workforce Investment Act. The bill 
funds $120 million of the $149 million requested for efforts to improve 
access to One-Stops as well as continued support for electronic labor 
exchange and labor market information. It funds only $20 million of the 
$50 million requested for work incentive grants to help integrate 
employment services for persons with disabilities into the mainstream 
One-Stop system.
    The bill also does not provide funding for Right Track Partnerships 
(RTP). I requested $75 million for this new competitive grant program. 
Designed to help address youth violence, RTP would become part of the 
multi-agency Safe Schools/Healthy Students initiative, expanding it to 
include a focus on out-of-school youth.
    The bill provides $33 million less than my request for labor law 
enforcement agencies, denying or reducing initiatives to ensure 
workplace safety, address domestic child labor abuses, encourage equal 
pay, implement new health law, and promote family leave. In particular, 
the bill provides an inadequate level of funding for the Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration, cutting it by $18 million, or 5 
percent below my request.
    The bill also fails to provide adequate funding for the Bureau of 
International Labor Affairs (ILAB). The bill funds ILAB at $50 million, 
$26 million below my request. The bill would prevent ILAB from carrying 
out my proposal to work through the International Labor Organization to 
help developing countries establish core labor standards, an essential 
step towards leveling the playing field for American workers.
    The bill's funding level for the Bureau of Labor Statistics is $11 
million less than my request. The enrolled bill denies three important 
increases that would: (1) improve the Producer Price Index, which 
measures wholesale prices; (2) improve measures of labor productivity in 
the service sector; and, (3) improve the Employment Cost Index, used to 
help set wage levels and guide anti-inflation policy. It also denies 
funding for a study of racial discrimination in labor markets.
    The bill denies my request for $10 million to fund AgNet, even 
though the Senate included report language that supports AgNet in 
concept. AgNet, an Internet-based labor exchange, would facilitate the 
recruitment of agricultural workers by growers and the movement of 
agricultural workers to areas with employment needs.
    The bill would cut the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG) by $209 
million below FY 1999 and $680 million below my request. The SSBG serves 
some of the most vulnerable families, providing child protection and 
child welfare services for millions of children. In addition, the 
failure to provide the Senate's level of $2 billion in advance 
appropriations for the Child Care and Development Block Grant would mean 
220,000 fewer children receiving child care assistance in FY 2001. The 
bill also fails to fund my National Family Caregiver Support program, 
which would provide urgently needed assistance to 250,000 families 
caring for older relatives.

[[Page 2239]]

    By funding the Title X Family Planning program at last year's level, 
family planning clinics would be unable to extend comprehensive 
reproductive health care services to an additional 500,000 clients who 
are neither Medicaid-eligible nor insured. The bill also fails to fund 
the Health Care Access for the Uninsured Initiative, which would enable 
the development of integrated systems of care and address service gaps 
within these systems.
    The bill fails to fully fund several of the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention's (CDC) critical public health programs, 
including:
<bullet>    childhood immunizations (-$44 million), so that 
            approximately 300,000 children may not receive the full 
            complement of recommended childhood vaccinations;
<bullet>    infectious diseases (-$36 million), which will impair CDC's 
            ability to investigate outbreaks of diseases such as the 
            West Nile virus in New York;
<bullet>    domestic HIV prevention (-$4 million);
<bullet>    race and health demonstrations (-$5 million), which will 
            impair better understanding of how to reduce racial 
            disparities in health; and,
<bullet>    health statistics (-$10 million) for key data collection 
            activities such as the National Health and Nutrition 
            Examination Survey and health information on racial and 
            ethnic population groups.
    The Congress has failed to fund any of the $59 million increase I 
requested for the Mental Health Block Grant, which would diminish 
States' capacity to serve the mentally ill.
    In addition, the Congress has underfunded my request for the 
Substance Abuse Block Grant by $30 million, and has underfunded other 
substance abuse treatment grants by a total of $45 million. These 
reductions would widen the treatment gap in FY 2000 and jeopardize the 
Federal Government's ability to meet the National Drug Control Strategy 
performance target to reduce the drug treatment gap by 50 percent by FY 
2007.
    The bill provides only half of the $40 million requested for 
graduate education at Children's Hospitals, which play an essential role 
in education the Nation's physicians, training 25 percent of 
pediatricians and over half of many pediatric subspecialists.
    The bill underfunds the Congressional Black Caucus' AIDS Initiative 
in the Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund by $15 million, 
thereby reducing current efforts to prevent the spread of HIV. By not 
fully funding this program, the scope of HIV/AIDS prevention, education, 
and outreach activities available to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS in 
minority communities will be more limited.
    The bill fails to fund Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) 
program management adequately. These reductions would severely impede 
HCFA's ability to ensure the quality of nursing home care through the 
Nursing Home Initiative. The bill does not adequately fund the request 
for Medicare+Choice user fees. This decrease would force HCFA to scale 
back the National Medicare Education Campaign. The Congress has not 
passed the proposed user fees totaling $194.5 million that could free up 
resources under the discretionary caps for education and other 
priorities.
    The bill includes a provision that would prevent funds from being 
used to administer the Medicare+Choice Competitive Pricing Demonstration 
Project in Kansas and Arizona. These demonstrations which are supported 
by MEDPAC and other independent health policy experts, were passed by 
the Congress as part of the Balanced Budget Act in order to provide 
valuable information regarding the use of competitive pricing 
methodologies in Medicare. The information that we could learn from 
these demonstrations is particularly relevant as we consider the 
important task of reforming Medicare.
    The bill contains a highly objectionable provision that would delay 
the implementation of HHS' final Organ Procurement and Transplantation 
rule for 90 days. This rule, which was strongly validated by an 
Institute of Medicine report, provides a more equitable system of 
treatment for over 63,000 Americans waiting for an organ transplant; its 
implementation would likely prevent the deaths of hundreds of Americans. 
Since almost 5,000 people die each year waiting for

[[Page 2240]]

an organ transplant, we must be allowed to move forward on this issue 
and implement the rule without further delay.
    The bill does not provide any of the $9.5 million I requested for 
HHS' Office of the General Counsel and Departmental Appeals Board to 
handle legal advice, regulations review, and litigation support, and to 
conduct hearings and issue decisions on nursing home enforcement cases 
as part of my Nursing Home Initiative. This would increase the backlog 
of nursing home appeals and impair Federal oversight of nursing home 
quality and safety standards. A reduction in funds for enforcement is 
inconsistent with the concerns that the GAO and the Congress have raised 
about this issue.
    The bill cuts funds to counter bioterrorism. It funds less than half 
my request for CDC's stockpile, limiting the amount of vaccines, 
antibiotics, and other medical supplies that can be stockpiled to deploy 
in the event of a chemical or biological attack. In addition, the bill 
does not include $13.4 million for critical FDA expedited regulatory 
review/approval of pharmaceuticals to combat chemical and biological 
agent weapons.
    The bill provides full funding of $350 million in FY 2002 for the 
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. However, the bill provides only $10 
million of the $20 million requested for the digital transition 
initiative in FY 2000. This funding is required to help the public 
broadcasting system meet the Federal deadline to establish digital 
broadcasting capability by May 1, 2003.
    The enrolled bill delays the availability of $10.9 billion of 
funding until September 29, 2000. While modest levels of delayed 
obligations could potentially be sustained without hurting the affected 
programs, the levels in the enrolled bill are excessive, resulting in 
delays in NIH research grants, delays in CDC immunizations for children, 
and delays in the delivery of health services to low income Americans 
through community health centers and rural health clinics.
    The bill also seriously underfunds critical Departmental management 
activities in the Departments of Labor and Education and the Social 
Security Administration (SSA). For Education, these reductions would 
hamstring efforts to replace the Department's accounting system and 
undermine the new Performance-Based Organization's plans to streamline 
and modernize student aid computer systems. Reductions to the Department 
of Labor (DOL) would undercut the agency's ability to comply with the 
requirements of the Clanger-Cohen and Computer Security Acts, adjudicate 
contested claims in several of its benefits programs, and examine and 
update the 1996 study on Family and Medical leave policies. For SSA, the 
reductions would result in significantly longer waiting times for 
disability applicants and millions of individuals who visit SSA field 
offices.
    In adopting an across-the-board reduction, the Congress has 
abdicated its responsibility to make tough choices. Governing is about 
making choices and selecting priorities that will serve the national 
interest. By choosing an across-the-board cut, the Congress has failed 
to meet that responsibility.
    This across-the-board cut would result in indiscriminate reductions 
in important areas such as education, the environment, and law 
enforcement. In addition, this cut would have an adverse impact on 
certain national security programs. The indiscriminate nature of the cut 
would require a reduction of over $700 million for military personnel, 
which would require the military services to make cuts in recruiting and 
lose up to 48,000 military personnel.
    In adopting this cost-saving technique, the Congress is asserting 
that it will not have to dip into the Social Security surplus. However, 
this cut does not eliminate the need to dip into the Social Security 
surplus.
    For these reasons, this across-the-board cut is not acceptable.
    In addition to the specific program cuts and the 0.97 percent 
across-the-board reduction, the bill contains a $121 million reduction 
in salaries and expenses for the agencies funded by this bill, 
exacerbating the problems caused by the bill's underfunding of critical 
Departmental management activities. If, for example, the $121 million 
reduction were allocated proportionately across all agencies funded in 
the Labor/HHS/Education bill, HHS would have to absorb an approximately 
$55 million reduction to its salaries and expenses accounts, Labor would 
be cut by about $14 million, Education by

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about $5 million, and SSA by some $45 million. This would dramatically 
affect the delivery of essential human services and education programs 
and the protection of employees in the workplace.
    With respect to the District of Columbia component of the bill, I am 
pleased that the majority and minority in the Congress were able to come 
together to pass a version of the District of Columbia Appropriations 
Bill that I would sign if presented to me separately and as it is 
currently constructed. While I continue to object to remaining riders, 
some of the highly objectionable provisions that would have intruded 
upon local citizens' right to make decisions about local matters have 
been modified from previous versions of the bill. That is a fair 
compromise. We will continue to strenuously urge the Congress to keep 
such riders off of the FY 2001 D.C. Appropriations Bill.
    I commend the Congress for providing the Federal funds I requested 
for the District of Columbia. The bill includes essential funding for 
District Courts and Corrections and the D.C. Offender Supervision Agency 
and provides requested funds for a new tuition assistance program for 
District of Columbia residents. The bill also includes funding to 
promote the adoption of children in the District's foster care system, 
to support the Children's National Medical Center, to assist the 
Metropolitan Police Department in eliminating open-air drug trafficking 
in the District, and for drug testing and treatment, among other 
programs. However, I continue to object to remaining riders that violate 
the principles of home rule.
    I look forward to working with the Congress to craft an 
appropriations bill that I can support, and to passage of one that will 
facilitate our shared objectives.
                                            William J. Clinton
The White House,
November 3, 1999.