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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
March 21, 2002

Text of a Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives
March 21, 2002

Dear Mr. Speaker:

I ask the Congress to consider expeditiously the enclosed requests, totaling $27.1 billion, for emergency FY 2002 supplemental appropriations. The requests provide for emergency expenses to support the war on terrorism, homeland security, and economic revitalization activities as the Nation continues to recover and rebuild following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

I hereby designate specific requests contained in the accompanying material as emergency requirements pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, as amended. By category, these emergency requests total:

• Defense: $14.0 billion

• International: $1.6 billion

• Homeland Security: $3.3 billion (excludes $1.9 billion in a contingent appropriation for the Department of Transportation)

• Assistance to New York: $5.5 billion

The emergency funding requests include a total of $2.7 billion in budget authority that would be made available contingent upon my transmittal of later budget requests to the Congress designating the specific amounts requested as an emergency requirement. This contingent budget authority includes $1.9 billion allocated to the Department of Transportation for the Transportation Security Administration and $750.0 million allocated to the Department of Labor for economic recovery and assistance to dislocated workers.

This transmittal also contains $240.0 million in non-emergency requests that are fully offset by proposed reductions.

All of the requests in this transmittal are for the purpose of fulfilling a known and urgent FY 2002 requirement and are unable to reasonably be met through the use of existing agency funds.

The details of these requests are set forth in the enclosed letter from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. I concur with his comments and observations.

Sincerely,

GEORGE W. BUSH

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