Clinton Cites ‘Extraneous Provisions,’ Vetoes Aid Bill

Acting with dispatch, President Clinton vetoed an $8.6-billion disaster relief bill on Monday and demanded the Republican-controlled Congress approve a replacement measure stripped of “extraneous provisions.”

“The time has come to stop playing politics with the lives of Americans in need,” Clinton said in a written message that accompanied the veto.

Countered House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas): “With this veto, he is denying relief to flood-ravaged families.”

The funding portion of the legislation enjoys widespread support in Congress. It includes $5.6 billion in relief for victims of natural disasters in 35 states, the flood-ravaged Dakotas and Minnesota among them. Also contained in the measure is $1.9 billion for the Pentagon, much of it to cover expenses incurred by peacekeeping operations in Bosnia.

In his message, Clinton listed a handful of objections, but controversy has centered on two provisions that Republicans inserted.

One would prevent any government shutdown this fall regardless of whether Clinton and Congress reach agreement on regular spending bills. Republicans say the provision is necessary to avoid a repetition of the shutdowns of 18 months ago. But Clinton wrote lawmakers to point out it would cut $18 billion from the amount envisioned in the balanced-budget agreement he recently reached with the GOP leadership.

The second provision would ban the use of sampling in the nation’s census in the year 2000. “Without sampling, the cost of the decennial census will increase as its accuracy, especially with regard to minorities . . . decreases substantially,” Clinton wrote.

Republicans argue that sampling is of dubious constitutionality, and they say they are willing to provide enough money to physically count everyone.

Beyond that, Republicans fear that if sampling is used, their majority in the House could be in jeopardy when legislative district lines are redrawn in several states before the 2002 elections.

According to White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Clinton vetoed the measure moments after it arrived at the White House. The bill arrived at 1:50 p.m. EDT, he said, and was vetoed at 2:09 p.m. It was sent back to the Capitol by car at 2:18--an elapsed time of 28 minutes.