Clinton Urges Approval of Critical Funds ‘Right Now’

President Clinton urged Congress to approve emergency spending bills “right now,” including money to settle U.S. debts to the United Nations, to pay for deployment of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf and to aid victims of natural disasters.

In his weekly radio address, the president also accused Republican lawmakers Saturday of trying to slip unrelated, controversial provisions into the emergency spending legislation, “proposals guaranteed to produce gridlock and delay.”

“Congress shouldn’t hold emergency aid for families hostage to controversial provisions,” said Clinton. “Congress shouldn’t demand ransom to maintain America’s world leadership and meet America’s responsibility to our national security.”

Noting that Congress has 68 workdays remaining this session, Clinton said: “We must act now--not over the next 68 days, but right now, in the next several days.”

In the radio address, taped before he and his wife, Hillary, left Friday for a weekend stay at Camp David, Md., Clinton called the emergency funding measures “vital to the national interest.” He said Republicans are to blame if the money is delayed by extraneous debate.

The president criticized Republican efforts to attach an antiabortion measure to a spending bill that would pay off $1 billion in past-due U.N. bills and increase financing for the International Monetary Fund. The bill is unpopular among Republicans.

Clinton also rapped GOP efforts to attach language to the emergency spending bill that would block the Federal Communications Commission from ordering free broadcast time for political candidates. At Clinton’s request, the FCC is drafting proposals to require broadcasters either to provide free time or give deeper discounts on ads than they do now.

One of two emergency funding bills before Congress includes more than $1.8 billion to pay for keeping U.S. troops in Bosnia longer than originally planned as well as for the recent buildup of American forces in the Persian Gulf. It also provides $642 million for recovery from storms and other natural disasters in Florida, California, New England and Guam.

Republicans do not oppose spending the money, but they want the added costs to be offset by cuts in domestic programs.

Although Clinton did not directly threaten a veto, he recalled that when Congress attached controversial measures to similar emergency legislation last year, “I said no.”

“Congress would be unwise to head down that road again,” he said. “Instead, let’s work together to enact a straightforward emergency measure. No unacceptable provisions, no gimmicks.”

The Republicans did not touch on emergency spending bills in their weekly address but on education.

Rep. Anne M. Northup of Kentucky said the federal government should stop telling communities how to educate their children and let towns run their own schools.

Northup, a member of the Education appropriations subcommittee, said educators are constantly telling her that “they get very little federal money but a ton of federal regulation.” Republicans believe they have a solution, she said.

The alternative would involve sending education money in the form of block grants to states and requiring that 95% of the funds be spent in the classrooms.