Statement on Signing the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Act, 1995

Today I have signed into law H.R. 4539, the "Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1995."

The Act provides a total of $11.6 billion in discretionary budget authority for various programs in the Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Postal Service, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Executive Office of the President, and several smaller agencies.

I am pleased that the Act appropriates $39 million from the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund to several Treasury agencies to fight crime and promote gang resistance programs.

The Act also provides important funding for the United States Customs Service to support the commitments made to enhance the enforcement of trade laws and regulations related to NAFTA. This initiative remains an Administration priority.

This Act funds the IRS tax compliance initiative, which is essential in ensuring that everyone pays his or her fair share of their Federal taxes. This initiative is expected to have deficit-reducing potential by strengthening audit and debt collection activities, thereby generating additional revenue without raising taxes.

Several other provisions in H.R. 4539 condition the President's authority—and the authority of certain agency officials—to use funds appropriated by this Act on the approval of congressional committees. The Administration will interpret such provisions to require notification only, since any other interpretation of such provisos would contradict the Supreme Court ruling in INS vs. Chadha.

Regrettably, the Congress has continued its past practice of including personnel floors and other restrictions in several of the Treasury agencies funded by the enrolled bill. Such measures run counter to our efforts to reduce the number of Federal employees, as recommended by the National Performance Review and mandated in the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act of 1994. These restrictions would exclude over 20,000 Treasury employees from reduction, thereby imposing a greater burden on other agencies. While we have made a start on deficit reduction, we cannot fully achieve our goals without making reductions in the Federal work-force, fairly apportioned among all departments and agencies.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON

The White House,

September 30, 1994.