[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 26 (Monday, July 3, 2000)]
[Pages 1543-1544]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on House of Representatives Action on the Supplemental 
Appropriations Request

June 29, 2000

    I am pleased that the House passed with overwhelming support my 
emergency funding request for a range of essential and time-sensitive 
needs. It has been 4 months since I first sent this request to Capitol 
Hill, and the needs are all the greater today.
    With this funding, we will be able to support the courageous 
antidrug efforts of Colombia which can, in turn, help curb the flow of 
drugs in our Nation; we will help build homes for those still deprived 
of permanent housing by Hurricane Floyd; we will have funds available 
for low income Americans to pay for home cooling in the event of a 
dangerous summer heat wave; and we will provide support for our troops 
and efforts to build stability in Kosovo.
    I am also pleased that Congress has, at our urging, dropped several 
deeply problematic anti-environmental riders along with the tobacco 
rider which would block Federal Government litigation against tobacco 
companies to recover costs to taxpayers of smoking related illnesses.

[[Page 1544]]

    While it contains certain flaws, in total this bill will make our 
Nation safer and more secure by meeting essential and long-overdue needs 
at home and abroad.