Bill Clinton: “First of all, let me emphasize a couple of things. The Federal Government does not reimburse 100 percent of the losses…”

“First of all, let me emphasize a couple of things. The Federal Government does not reimburse 100 percent of the losses of these programs. Some of that has to be done from private sources; some of it has to be done from local match. Secondly, the ongoing budgets of many of these Departments, the Agriculture Department, for example, and FEMA, for another, contain funds which will be in the ordinary course of business directed to the area where it's most needed. So some of the ongoing budget will take care of this. Now, in answer to your specific question, I have consulted with the leadership about that. The 1990 budget bill plainly concede of genuine emergencies being funded outside the budgetary process. And I think it's almost universally acknowledged now that even though we don't have the specific figure, this year's deficit will be quite a bit lower than it was estimated to be in January because we're working so hard at reducing the deficit that interest rates are down and therefore the cost of servicing our debt is down. So I think we can handle this. I have heard the general principle advanced, it would be nice if we paid for it all with offsets, but I haven't seen any specific suggestions. And in the absence of those, I think we should just take the '90 law and proceed as is. If Senator Mitchell or the Speaker or Mr. Gephardt or anyone else has a different idea, of course, I'd be glad to hear it. The most important thing is that we get the aid out to those folks as quickly as possible. Economic Program”