[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 2 (Monday, January 14, 2002)]
[Pages 50-52]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Signing the Departments of Labor, Health and Human 
Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002

January 10, 2002

    Today I have signed into law H.R. 3061, the ``Departments of Labor, 
Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies 
Appropriations Act, 2002.'' The legislation provides funding for key 
domestic programs, including the important education initiatives that 
have been a top priority of my Administration.
    I appreciate the bipartisan effort that has gone into producing this 
Act. The bill abides by the agreed-upon aggregate funding level for 
Fiscal Year 2002 of $686 billion and supports several of my 
Administration's key initiatives with:

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    -- $10.4 billion for title I grants to close the achievement gap 
      between rich and poor students;
    -- $1 billion for Reading First and Early Reading First to help 
      schools meet the goal of ensuring that all students can read 
      fluently by third grade;
    -- $2.9 billion for State grants for improving teacher quality;
    -- $7.5 billion for State Grants for Special Education, an increase 
      of $1.2 billion over FY 2001;
    -- $23.2 billion for the National Institutes of Health to support 
      biomedical research to help prevent, detect, diagnose, and treat 
      disease and disability;
    -- full funding for the Consolidated Health Centers to provide 
      quality health care to millions of uninsured and underserved 
      Americans;
    -- additional resources for Drug Abuse Treatment services to help 
      narrow the treatment gap between those in need of treatment and 
      those with access to it; and
    -- full funding for Global HIV/AIDS activities to reduce the impact 
      of HIV/AIDS in developing countries, including a further U.S. 
      contribution to the global trust fund to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, 
      and tuberculosis.
    While I am supportive of the overall bill, I have strong concerns 
that this bill creates a serious fiscal problem for 2002 by underfunding 
the Pell Grant program, which provides critical financial assistance to 
low-income students seeking higher education. The bill mandates a Pell 
Grant maximum award of $4,000, but provides only enough funding to pay 
for a maximum award of $3,600, creating a shortfall of nearly $1.3 
billion. The Congress disregarded my requests to provide resources for 
the Pell Grant program commensurate with the maximum award. My 
Administration will ask the Congress to correct this shortfall in the FY 
2003 Budget. I am committed to maintaining a strong Pell Grant program 
that ensures qualified students have access to college, and budgeting 
responsibly for its full costs.
    I am pleased that the final version of the bill retains the 
prohibition against research in which human embryos are destroyed, and 
reinforces my determination on August 9, 2001, to support federally 
funded stem cell research in an ethical manner.
    I am also pleased that the final version of the bill retains current 
law regarding funding for needle exchange programs.
    The first proviso of section 207 of the Act purports to make certain 
transfers between appropriations for the Department of Health and Human 
Services subject to approval by the congressional appropriations 
committees. Under the principles enunciated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 
INS v. Chadha, the Congress cannot by law make transfers of 
appropriations subject to the approval of committees of the Congress. At 
the same time, the intention of the Congress that the executive branch 
have flexibility to transfer funds among appropriations for the 
Department of Health and Human Services is plain from the language of 
the Act. Accordingly, the executive branch shall treat the portion of 
the proviso of section 207 that purports to provide for congressional 
committee approval of transfers as having no force and severable from 
the remainder of the proviso of section 207 and the Act.
    Also, section 217, addressing the Acting Director of NIH, and 
section 622, amending the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and 
Affordability Act of 1997, shall be implemented in a manner consistent 
with the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.
    Several provisions of the Act purport to make funding available for 
particular projects ``in the amounts specified in the statement of the 
managers on the conference report accompanying this Act.'' Although 
specifications of projects and amounts in a statement of managers cannot 
satisfy the constitutional requirements of bicameral approval and 
presentment to the President needed to give them the force of law, my 
Administration will treat these specifications in a manner reflecting 
the comity between the executive and legislative branches on such 
matters.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 January 10, 2002.

Note: H.R. 3061, approved January 10, was assigned Public Law No. 107-
116.

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