[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 40 (Monday, October 9, 2000)]
[Page 2297]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on House of Representatives Action on Conservation 
Appropriations

October 3, 2000

    I am pleased by the bipartisan agreement approved by the House today 
providing guaranteed funding to protect critical lands across America. 
By doubling our conservation investment next year and guaranteeing even 
greater funding in the years ahead, this agreement is a major step 
toward ensuring communities the resources they need to protect their 
most precious lands--from neighborhood parks to threatened farmland to 
pristine coastlands.
    While we had hoped for even more, the very real gains achieved in 
the Interior appropriations bill would not have been possible without 
the many conservation, wildlife, and recreation groups, and citizens 
around the country, who worked so hard to secure dedicated conservation 
funding. I commend the many Members of Congress who came together in a 
true bipartisan spirit to make this a national priority.
    I also am pleased that the bill provides critical funding for 
cleaner water, energy security, Native Americans, and the arts, and that 
objectionable riders that threatened serious harm to our environment 
have been fixed or dropped.
    A century ago President Theodore Roosevelt put America on the path 
of land stewardship. With this agreement, we enter a new century better 
prepared to honor and fulfill this vital conservation vision.