[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 27 (Monday, July 10, 2000)]
[Pages 1575-1576]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on the Senate Vote on Appropriations Legislation

June 30, 2000

    I am deeply disappointed that today the Senate passed a Departments 
of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies 
appropriations bill that fails to make crucial investments in our 
Nation's future. While the Senate bill provides more acceptable funding 
for some programs than the House version, it relies on unacceptable 
spending cuts and falls short on critical funding for education, health 
care, and worker training. The Senate bill invests too little in 
improving our schools and demands too little from them; fails to provide 
funds to reduce class size and repair aging schools; includes a fatally 
flawed so-called patient protection provision that excludes over 110 
million Americans from protections and actually eliminates some of the 
limited accountability provisions now in State law; bankrupts the Social 
Services Block Grant, drastically reducing services to abused children, 
the elderly, and the disabled; and shifts funds from the State 
Children's Health Insurance Program, undermining the bipartisan 
agreement passed by Congress in 1997 to insure millions of low income 
children.
    This bill also shortchanges vital health care programs, including 
domestic and global HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, mental health and 
substance abuse services, family planning, health care access for the 
uninsured, training for health professionals in children's hospitals, 
nursing home quality, and oversight of Medicare contractors. The bill 
fails to guarantee funding for critical education priorities such as 
reducing class size and making urgent repairs to our schools, including 
Native American schools. It underfunds programs that would strengthen 
accountability and turn around failing schools, expand before-school and 
after-school opportunities, assist low income students in preparing for 
college, help bridge the digital divide, improve teacher quality, and 
expand English language/civics education programs for adults. The bill 
also denies adequate resources for training programs to help unemployed 
workers and low income youth train for and find jobs, assistance to help 
more low income fathers work and support their children, efforts to 
ensure workplace safety and enforce domestic labor laws, and initiatives 
to address illegal and abusive child labor practices abroad.
    Finally, I am deeply disappointed that the Senate chose to follow 
the House's imprudent action to block the Department of Labor's standard 
to protect our Nation's workers from ergonomic injuries. After more than 
a decade of experience and scientific study and millions of unnecessary 
injuries, it is clearly time to finalize this standard.
    For these reasons, as well as for others, this bill is unacceptable. 
I will veto this bill and any other bill that fails to provide necessary 
resources for education, health care,

[[Page 1576]]

worker training, and other vital initiatives. We need to work on a 
bipartisan basis to develop a bill that strengthens our schools, 
adequately funds public health priorities, addresses the needs of our 
Nations' workers, and provides for other important national priorities 
while honoring our commitment to fiscal discipline.

 Note:  This item was not received in time for publication in the 
appropriate issue.