[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

[[Page 1308]]

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

[[Page 1309]]

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.