For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
January 10, 2002
President Signs Labor, Health & Human Services, Education Appropriations
Statement by the President
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:
- $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.
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