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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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