Statement on Signing a Resolution Providing Funding for Continued Government Operation

I am today signing H.J. Res. 666, a temporary continuing resolution, providing funds for the Government to operate through October 19, 1990.

In vetoing the previous continuing resolution, I said I would not sign any such resolution until the Congress had passed a budget resolution. I want to thank the Members of the Congress who voted to sustain my veto.

The Congress has now passed a budget resolution which, if fully implemented, would reduce the Federal deficit by $500 billion over the next 5 years. If achieved, this would be the largest deficit reduction program in history. While I am not fully satisfied with the budget resolution, it does provide a framework within which the committees of the Congress can now work to provide substantive law that comes close to fulfilling the letter -- and that does fulfill the spirit -- of the Bipartisan Budget Summit Agreement announced on September 30, 1990.

The next step in implementing the budget resolution is the passage of a budget reconciliation bill. Its component parts are to be submitted to the budget committees of the Congress by October 12th.

There is, unfortunately, no assurance that the congressional committees will, in fact, produce a fully satisfactory reconciliation bill. But I repeat: I will not accept business as usual.

I am obliged to make clear that the reconciliation bill now called for:

-- must be largely consistent with the Bipartisan Budget Summit Agreement;

-- must achieve the intended savings from each of the specified committees on a basis that is scored by both the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office as "real" -- no smoke, no mirrors;

-- must include mutually agreeable, growth-oriented tax incentives;

-- must include the process reform measures announced in the Bipartisan Budget Summit Agreement;

-- must be fully and satisfactorily enforceable on a continuing basis;

-- must be produced on a bipartisan basis -- with full and fair opportunities for constructive participation by both parties and both branches; and

-- must be passed by both Houses of the Congress in satisfactory form by October 19th.

As the responsibility for action now shifts to the committees of the Congress, I will be following the work of the committees closely. And if, by October 19th, the Congress has failed to pass a budget reconciliation bill that meets the tests I have outlined, I will again have to withhold my signature from any continuing resolution.

George Bush

The White House,

October 9, 1990.