2001 Ad

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, Nov 6, 2000 by Bill Clinton

October 27, 2000

Today I have signed into law H.R. 4635, the "Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2001" and the "Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2001."

This Act will fund vital housing, community development, environmental, disaster assistance, veterans, space, and science programs. Specifically, it provides funding for the Departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and several other agencies.

The Act funds a number of my Administration's priorities, including the Corporation for National and Community Service. National Service gives young people the opportunity to obtain funding for a college education while addressing community challenges that range from tutoring children and serving in community policing projects to building housing for the homeless. In addition, the Act will allow students in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges to participate in service-learning programs that provide substantial academic and social benefits, including the opportunity to learn responsible citizenship.

I am pleased that the Act provides full funding of HUD's highest priority: $13 billion for the renewal of all Section 8 contracts, thereby assuring continuation of HUD rental subsidies for low-income tenants in privately owned housing. I am also pleased that the Act provides $453 million for 79,000 incremental housing assistance vouchers for low-income households. In addition, the Act adequately funds programs to help distressed communities. These programs include Community Development Block Grants, assistance to the homeless, the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, and rural and urban empowerment zones. The CDFI Fund helps to create a network of community development banks across the country, thereby spurring the flow of capital to distressed neighborhoods and their currently underserved, low-income residents. Likewise, the rural and urban empowerment zones will help to revitalize communities so that they can take advantage of the strength of the economy and help those left behind in o ur economic boom. Additionally, $1.1 billion is provided for homeless assistance grants, enabling localities to continue to shape and implement comprehensive, flexible, coordinated "continuum of care" approaches to solving homelessness.

I am pleased that the Act adequately funds Fair Housing programs, which will enable HUD to expand significantly its activities aimed at reducing the level of housing discrimination nationwide.

The Act provides $7.8 billion for the EPA, which will enable the agency to carry out programs to protect our environment. I am pleased that the bill adequately funds the EPA's efforts to enforce environmental laws, enabling the agency to help protect the health and quality of life of Americans. I am pleased that the Act minimizes the inclusion of anti-environmental riders. Without my Administration's efforts, these riders would have given special deals to special interests, such as preventing action at numerous sites needing cleanup of sediments contaminated with PCBs and other chemicals, delaying an EPA rule to reduce harmful emissions from dieselfueled trucks and buses, and hampering commonsense initiatives to help businesses and consumers conserve energy and save money.

I am disappointed, however, that the final bill includes anti-environmental riders that my Administration opposed. I continue to oppose the use of the budget process to adopt these kinds of proposals without the benefit of full and open public debate through the regular legislative process. I urge Congress to refrain from sending me any additional anti-environmental riders on remaining bills. Although I am signing this legislation into law with these riders attached, I am directing the agencies to consider ways to implement them that will have the least harmful effect on the environment.

I am pleased that the Act sustains U.S. leadership across the scientific frontiers. This Act maintains the Nation's investment in discovery through innovation, which has fueled unprecedented economic growth for the past decade. The Act contains a $529 million increase for the National Science Foundation (NSF)--the largest increase ever--for a total investment of $4.4 billion that will boost university-based research and ensure balanced support for all science and engineering disciplines. Increased investments will spur new discoveries in the fields of information technology, nanotechnology, biocomplexity, and other areas of fundamental science and engineering. The Act also adequately funds the new Scholarship for Service program at NSF, a component of the Federal Cyber Services, which will provide scholarships to students pursuing academic careers in Information Assurance. One of the five education and training initiatives in the National Plan for Information Systems Protection, this program supports the Adm inistration's efforts to protect the Nation's critical infrastructures by increasing the number of skilled technologists working for the Federal Government. In exchange for up to 2 years of scholarship support, students will work for the Federal Government for an amount of time at least equal to the scholarship period.