Statement on Signing the Seventh Continuing Resolution

Statement on Signing the Seventh Continuing Resolution

January 6, 1996

Today I have signed into law H.R. 1358, the Seventh Continuing
Resolution for fiscal 1996, which provides funds for a long list of
Federal activities through September 30.
This continuing resolution builds upon H.R. 1643, which I signed
early this morning and which put all Federal workers back on the job
with pay from December 16 to January 26 and provided funding for a
limited list of Federal activities.
While both measures help to restore needed Government services, the
Congress has not ended the partial shutdown of the Federal Government,
nor the suffering it is causing millions of Americans and thousands of
businesses. The shutdown continues to affect the Departments of
Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban
Development, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and Veterans Affairs; the
Environmental Protection Agency; the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration; the Small Business Administration; and many smaller
agencies.
This bill provides full-year funding for allowances to Peace Corps
volunteers, their spouses and minor children; activities, including
administrative expenses, needed to process single-family mortgage loans
and refinancing for low-income and moderate-income families; projects
and activities directly related to the security of U.S. diplomatic posts
and facilities abroad; the Federal Emergency Management Agency's
emergency food and shelter program; retirement pay and medical benefits
for Public Health Service Commissioned Officers, payments under the
Retired Serviceman's Family Protection Plan and Survivor Benefit Plan
and for the medical care of dependents and retired personnel, and
payments to the Social Security trust funds, which the Secretary of
Health and Human Services deemed necessary because of Commissioned
Officer pay raises; and projects and certain activities of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation, Drug Enforcement Administration, Organized
Crime Drug Enforcement, Federal Prison System, U.S. Attorneys, U.S.
Marshals Service, Support of U.S. Prisoners, Fees and Expenses of
Witnesses, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Executive
Office for Immigration Review.
Also funded are projects and activities of the Judiciary; Health
Care Financing Administration State surveys and certifications; trade
adjustment assistance benefits and North American Free Trade Act
benefits; payments to health care trust funds; expenses of Medicare
contractors; grants to States for

Medicaid; the general business loan guaranty program and section 504
certified development company program; surety bond guarantees revolving
fund; visitors services on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land
Management; disease control, research, and training; Indian self-
determination and self-governance projects and activities of tribes or
tribal organizations; expenses of the Kendall Demonstration Elementary
School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf; and payments for
benefits and interest on advances, and expenses of operation and
administration, for black lung disabilities and disabled coal miners.
This measure also extends, from December 31, 1995, to June 30, 1996,
the Yavapai-Prescott Indian Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 1994
and extends the San Carlos Apache Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of
1992 from December 31, 1995, to December 31, 1996. The bill also
includes fisheries related provisions.
Even with H.R. 1643 and H.R. 1358 in place, however, the Congress
has not funded significant activities covered by the six appropriations
bills that are not enacted. The Congress has not provided funds to help
put 100,000 more police officers on the streets of our communities;
funds for the States for social services and job training; funds for
Head Start; funds to help U.S. businesses with export financing; funds
to help the Environmental Protection Agency enforce environmental laws;
and funds to continue the Shuttle program and other key initiatives at
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Along with denying services to our citizens, the shutdown is
threatening the vitality of thousands of businesses which supply goods
and services to the Federal Government under contract. The jobs of
thousands of workers in those businesses are at risk. The longer the
shutdown continues, the more that its effects will be felt. Clearly,
this is no way to run the Government and deliver services and benefits
to millions of Americans, whether they are elderly, children, students,
working parents, or businessmen and women.
More than 3 months into fiscal 1996, the Congress has not even sent
me three of the six remaining, full-year appropriations bills. I vetoed
the other three because they would have been bad for the country. Those
bills underfunded essential programs for the environment, for veterans,
for law enforcement, for technology, and for Native Americans.
At this point, the Congress should work with me to reach agreement
on these six measures. At the very least, the Congress should send me an
acceptable continuing resolution that will fully reopen the Government
while they work with me to find common ground on the budget.
William J. Clinton
The White House,
January 6, 1996.