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Journalism of Courage
WASHINGTON, November 27: US President Bill Clinton has signed the last two bills needed to fund the US Government in the current fiscal year.
But he complained that they did not offer money for an International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme or to pay off US arrears to the United Nations.
Clinton yesterday inked the two bills – the $ 13.1 billion Foreign Operations Act and a $ 31 billion measure funding the Commerce, Justice and State Departments and other Federal Activities – before leaving for a four-day thanksgiving holiday.
The two pieces of legislation complete the funding for the Federal Government for fiscal 1998, which began on October 1, 1997. The President has until Tuesday to decide whether to use his line-item veto power to cancel any funding in them.
In statements announcing he had signed the bills, Clinton, a Democrat, complained about money that the Republican-held congress sliced from the legislation.
The foreign operations act has been the subject of much wrangling between Clinton and Congress, which stripped out funding for the IMF’s New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) lending programme. The NAB would double the resources available to the IMF to respond to major emergencies threatening the world financial system.
The US contribution that Congress cancelled would have amounted to $ 3.5 billion.
Clinton chided Congress for the omission, citing the IMF’s efforts to cope with the recent financial crises in Asia as a reason to fund the NAB, which would make available about $ 46 billion when ratified by all the contributor countries. “The decision by the Congress not to provide this authority is irresponsible,” he wrote. “Recent events in southeast Asia only underscore the threat of shocks to the global financial system and the need for a strong and responsive IMF.”
In signing the $ 31 billion bill funding various federal departments, Clinton criticized Congress’ decision not to include funding to help repay the about $ 1.3 billion the United States owes the United Nations.
“I am deeply disappointed … That the Congress did not enact legislation to capitalize on all of our work this year to craft a broadly supported package of reforms for the United Nations system and to provide the related arrears funding,” Clinton said.
“Recent events in Iraq have underscored the need for strong US leadership in the United Nations,” he added, referring to the dispute over UN Inspectors searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.
