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Statement on Signing Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Legislation

June 12, 1997

I am pleased to sign into law tonight the disaster relief bill that Congress has just sent to me.

This bill provides the desperately needed resources for hundreds of thousands of people who have suffered terribly from the flooding and other natural disasters in the Dakotas, Minnesota, California, and 29 other States. It also includes the necessary funds for the Department of Defense in connection with our peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia and Southwest Asia. It does not include the unacceptable political provisions of the bill I vetoed that had nothing to do with the goal of providing disaster relief.

When our people are in need, we Americans come to their assistance as one nation. I applaud the Congress for heeding my call to remember that fundamental principle.

NOTE: H.R. 1871, 1997 Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Recovery from Natural Disasters, and for Overseas Peacekeeping Efforts, Including Those in Bosnia, approved June 12, was assigned Public Law No. 105-18.

William J. Clinton, Statement on Signing Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Legislation Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/223863

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