For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
July 24, 2001
Statement by the President
Today I signed into law H.R. 2216, the "Supplemental Appropriations
Act, FY 2001," which provides funding for the Department of Defense and
other departments.
This important supplemental appropriation
provides urgently needed resources to enhance defense readiness and
operations and maintenance; to improve the morale of our service men
and service women, and their families; to provide needed home energy
assistance for low-income families; to aid -victims of radiation
exposures associated with the Government's nuclear weapons testing
program; to provide a U.S. contribution for the global trust fund to
combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis; and for other purposes.
I commend the Congress for expeditiously
providing critical resources needed to improve our support for our men
and women in the military while maintaining a strict fiscal
discipline. The Congress provided this additional funding
within the budget agreement's discretionary spending
limits. The resources I requested for the Department of
Defense will help our military readiness and help lay the groundwork
for further strengthening after Secretary Rumsfeld's ongoing strategy
review.
I applaud the Congress for passing this
bill without resorting to the abusive use of the emergency
designation. We have seen "emergencies" become a recurring
part of the budget process, and become magnets for special-interest,
non-essential spending.
I will continue to work with the Congress
and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to see that FEMA
meets its obligations to perform its extremely important role of
disaster relief in a thorough and timely manner.
I hope the bipartisan approval of this
bill is a harbinger of improved, more orderly deliberations for the
remainder of the FY 2002 appropriations process. The fiscal
discipline demon-strated in this Supplemental Appropriations Act,
developed with collegiality and in a timely manner, sets a standard for
how the Congress should handle spending bills for the next fiscal
year.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 24, 2001.
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