Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 5132 - Dire Emergency Supplemental Appropriation for Disaster Assistance

(House Floor)
(Sponsor: Whitten (D), Mississippi; Byrd (D), West Virginia)

The purpose of this Statement of Administration Policy is to express the Administration's views on the Conference Report accompanying H.R. 5l32, a bill to provide supplemental appropriations for disaster assistance.

The President has committed to provide approximately $600 million in disaster assistance to the areas affected by recent Presidentially-declared disasters. He has agreed to the associated "emergency" language in the House-passed bill, and he has indicated that he would sign the House-passed bill. The Senate and the Conferees approved such funding. Regrettably, however, they chose to expand the bill substantially. The Conferees approved a total of over $2 billion in spending, declaring all of the new spending as an "emergency," thus exempting it from any fiscal discipline.

If the bill were presented to the President in its current form, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto it. The Administration continues to hope that a reasonable bill might be developed — and has attempted to suggest several ways in which a mutually agreeable outcome might be achieved. The President would sign immediately either the House-passed version of the bill or a bill that:

• includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Small Business Administration Disaster Assistance provisions contained in the Conference Report;
  
  
• funds the SBA Section 7(a) general business loan program at the levels contained in the Conference Report on a non-emergency basis (Funding is currently available within the domestic discretionary caps for financing this continuing Federal program.);
  
  
• funds the Summer Youth Employment program, if the size and character of the program would allow funds to be spent efficiently this summer and allow them to be appropriately designated as an "emergency" requirement. (The Conferees chose to provide $675 million for this program, an amount that cannot be used efficiently at this late date, and prohibited the obligation of any of these funds unless the President designates the entire amount as an "emergency".)

The issues raised by the $1.5 billion in additional spending approved by the Conferees — without offsets and without appropriate attention to a responsible definition of "emergency" requirements — are among a larger set of related issues being discussed by the Bipartisan leadership and the Administration. Among these related issues are matters of important program reform -- above and beyond the issues of funding. It is not helpful to these discussions to attempt to advance funding increases for non-disaster programs on an "emergency" basis while failing to address the crucial issues of reform.