    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 23 (Monday, June 12, 2000)]
    [Pages 1307-1309]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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

    June 6, 2000

         The President. Today is the first full day back to work for Members
    of Congress since Memorial Day. Three weeks from now they leave again
    for the Fourth of July recess. Those 3 weeks provide a critical window
    of opportunity for Congress to make real progress on some of our
    Nation's most vital priorities. I urge congressional leaders to seize
    that opportunity.
        They can get off to a strong start by passing without delay the
    emergency budget supplemental request I sent to Congress back in
    February. This is funding for pressing national needs, where delay means
    putting American families in hardship and our national interests at
    risk.
        The legislation includes funding for crucial safety maintenance on
    the air traffic control system. Without this funding, we could see more
    flight delays as we enter the peak summer tourist season.
        It includes housing assistance for victims of Hurricane Floyd, many
    of whom still are living in temporary shelters. These families will have
    to spend yet another winter there if they cannot begin rebuilding their
    homes during this summer's construction season.
        It includes money to battle the record number of forest fires that
    have been burning across America last year, especially out West.
    Delaying this funding could erode our capacity to fight further blazes
    this summer.
        It includes emergency assistance for families who have struggled all
    winter with high

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    heating oil costs and who now face a scorching summer. Without this
    assistance, these low income Americans, many of them elderly and infirm,
    may not be able to afford the fans and air conditioning that can
    literally save their lives.
        It includes funding to keep illegal drugs out of our Nation by
    supporting the Colombian Government's courageous fight against drug
    traffickers. Delays in this funding come at a time when cocaine
    production is increasing in Colombia, where more than 80 percent of the
    cocaine on United States streets comes from. It also comes at a time
    when Colombia, Latin America's oldest democracy, is fighting to preserve
    its very system of government and way of life in the face of intense
    pressure.
        It includes funding to lift crippling debt burdens from the world's
    poorest nations, funding for our troops in Kosovo and for building
    civilian institutions there. Delaying this funding may force the Army to
    put off regular maintenance of tanks and other weaponry or even to
    cancel combat exercises crucial to the readiness of our troops around
    the world. It will also delay the day when we can bring our troops home
    from Kosovo.
        Each and every one of these investments is urgently needed, and the
    package as a whole enjoys strong bipartisan support. Leaders in the
    House clearly understand that. That's why they put the emergency
    spending bill on a fast track for passage. But in the Senate, instead of
    taking swift action, the emergency spending bill has been attached to
    next year's spending bills. The Senate weighed them down with further
    unrelated provisions, such as one that would block our efforts to get
    the tobacco companies to pay back the Government for health costs caused
    by tobacco products.
        This process is not the right thing to do when the needs of the
    country covered by the bills are so urgent. The emergency spending bill
    should have been passed months ago. Let's do it now, so that we can move
    on to other pressing business that we can and should pass this summer.
        That includes the Senate following quickly the House's example in
    providing normal trade relations with China. It also, I hope, will
    include raising the minimum wage by a dollar over 2 years; passing a
    strong, enforceable Patients' Bill of Rights; reforming Medicare and
    adding a voluntary prescription drug benefit; passing commonsense gun
    legislation to close the gun show loophole, require child safety locks,
    ban the importation of large capacity ammunition clips.
        I hope it will include education reform, demanding more from our
    schools and investing more in them, including modernizing 6,000 of our
    schools that are now falling apart. I hope it will include strong, fair
    hate crimes legislation. And I hope it will include clean spending bills
    that I can sign, not those loaded down with anti-environmental riders,
    special interest provisions for the tobacco industry, and other add-ons
    I have vetoed in the past and would have no choice other than to veto in
    the future.
        Now, we can do all of this in short order if congressional leaders
    will stop delaying and start voting. Almost every one of these issues
    has been thoroughly debated, and almost every one of them enjoys strong
    bipartisan support. We could pass them if they could just be brought up
    for a vote. It's time to put progress ahead of partisanship.
        When Congress adjourns this summer, we ought to be able to look back
    and say we took real steps to make our country better. We ought to be
    able to say we made the most of this historic moment of unparalleled
    prosperity. That's what the American people sent us here to do, and they
    deserve no less. As I have said repeatedly, the fact that this is an
    election year should not have an impact on that. If we just pass the
    things that there is strong bipartisan majority support for, there will
    still be plenty of matters over which there are honest disagreements
    that can be presented to the American people to resolve. All I'm asking
    for is a vote on the things that are urgently needed in the national
    interest and those things that clearly the majority of Congress
    supports.
        Thank you.
         Q. Mr. President, could you explain a little more about the urgency
    for the Colombia funds? And why not ask for that money as part of a
    foreign ops bill?
         The President. Well, we asked for it in an emergency supplemental
    bill. And that's where we think--we think it should be passed on an
    emergency basis because the

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    Colombian Government is under great stress now, and because they can't
    begin to deal with the challenges posed by the drug traffickers in
    Colombia without extra support--not only to build up their forces, their
    police forces in the country but also to give alternatives to those who
    are growing the plants, the coca plants, to find another way to make a
    living, and to do other things that will deal with some of the border
    problems we have in the countries that border Colombia.
        But I think most of us have seen that democracy itself is under
    great stress throughout the Andean region, in no small measure because
    of the power of the drug traffickers. And I say again, Colombia is the
    oldest democracy in Latin America, and I believe their very way of life
    is under stress because of this. And I think that if we were to pass
    this quickly, and then send a clear signal to the Colombians that we
    support democracy and we support their efforts against the drug
    traffickers, you would see a big response from other countries of the
    world to help them. The world would rally behind them. It would, I
    believe, change the entire psychology of the drama that is unfolding
    down there.
        And if it's a battle that we lose to the drug traffickers, the price
    would not only be more drugs on the streets of America but also
    potentially destabilizing the entire Andean region and the whole move
    we've seen these last 15 or 20 years toward democracy in South America
    and throughout Latin America. It's very troubling to me. And I think
    there are people in the Congress--I know there are, in both parties--who
    strongly agree.
        We all know that the Senate operates differently, on different
    rules, than the House. We all know there are all kinds of problems and
    conflicting interests. But this is something we really ought to put
    beyond that. And I think that what happened is that this emergency
    supplemental got caught up in a whole lot of conflicting pressures in
    the Senate and the ability of those who disagree with one thing or
    another to use the rules to delay it. But somehow we've got to cut
    through all this. The national interest in Colombia and in the other
    things that I itemized just cries out for action. It's just imperative
    that we get it as quickly as possible.
         Q. Mr. President, have you talked to Senator Lott directly about
    this, in trying to move some of these things? And what ----
         The President. I have, I have. I've talked to him on more than one
    occasion. I have not talked to him since I've been back, because I
    haven't had a chance to this morning; I've been working all day. But I
    will talk to him.
         Q. What--what is his counterargument?
         The President. I believe that on the merits, I think he wants to do
    it. And you know, it's a difficult situation. I think what is required
    is for everybody in the Senate to recognize that this is something we
    ought to just put beyond whatever the other squabbles are, and get it
    done and put it behind us. And so--I believe he wants to do that, and I
    hope we can find a way to do that.

    Peruvian Elections

         Q. Mr. President, would you like to see the U.S. take any action
    toward Peru--possible sanctions, or anything--regarding irregularities
    in their recent election?
         The President. Well, we just got back from my trip. I think I ought
    to have a chance to talk about all that. I haven't--I don't feel--I may
    not know enough to answer that. I'm disappointed, obviously, that the
    election didn't unfold as we thought it would after the first round. And
    I have to figure out exactly what all the reasons are and get a briefing
    before I can make a comment beyond that.

    Note: The President spoke at 2:28 p.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the
    White House.