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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary


For Immediate Release April 8, 2000

PRESIDENT CLINTON URGES CONGRESS TO ACT ON AMERICA'S PRIORITIES

     Patients' Rights, Gun Safety, Minimum Wage, and the Supplemental
               Appropriations Bill: The Time to Act is Now

Today, in his weekly radio address, President Clinton urged Congress to act before the spring recess on national priorities that have been unnecessarily delayed. He called on Congress to put partisan politics aside and pass a strong, enforceable, Patients' Bill of Rights; common sense gun safety legislation; a simple $1 increase in the minimum wage; and the supplemental budget request to fund urgent domestic and international priorities. President Clinton also highlighted the real everyday consequences of inaction on those initiatives, including: (1) thousands of doctors see patients whose health has declined because a managed care plan refused to approve a diagnostic test or rejected a referral to a specialist; (2) 12 children a day continue to be killed by gunfire; (3) hundreds of dollars a year are lost to millions of working families; and (4) international and domestic safety are jeopardized.

AMERICAN FAMILIES PAY THE PRICE FOR CONGRESSIONAL DELAYS.

PRESIDENT CLINTON URGES CONGRESS TO PUT AMERICA'S PRIORITIES AHEAD OF POLITICS. Today, President Clinton urged the Congress to:

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