I found this little snip buried in a news article and went snooping and found the President's statement. I can only guess that this huge sum of money is going to help further the Y2K efforts of the US Treasure, Post Office and IRS.It says in this statement that $250 million is going for Year 2000 conversion requirements for IRS computer systems What do you think? http://www.pub.whitehouse.gov/uri-res/I2R?urn:pdi://oma.eop.gov.us/1999/9/30/5.text.1

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT

I have signed into law today H.R. 2490, the "Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act, 2000," which provides $13.7 billion in discretionary budget authority for programs in the Department of the Treasury, the United States Postal Service, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Executive Office of the President, and several smaller agencies. I commend the Congress for producing a bipartisan bill that allows us to continue the IRS reform effort and the national youth anti-drug media campaign and to fund important law enforcement efforts and other programs.

The bill provides $12.4 billion for the Department of the Treasury, including $132 million for violent crime reduction programs. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is funded at $8.2 billion. I believe that these funds will strengthen the IRS's ability to provide timely and accurate data for American taxpayers. The bill also includes $144 million for the Earned Income Tax Credit compliance initiative and $250 million for Year 2000 conversion requirements for IRS computer systems. Law enforcement bureaus within the Department of the Treasury are funded at $3.4 billion. I am pleased that the Congress has fully funded my request for the expansion of the Youth Crime Gun Interdiction Initiative.

The bill provides $185 million for the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) national youth anti-drug media campaign. This money will enable ONDCP's national media campaign to continue its effort to change youth attitudes about drug use and its consequences. The campaign is a model public-private partnership, exposing 90 percent of all 9- to 17-year-olds to anti-drug messages at least four times a week.

I am pleased that the enrolled bill requires health plans participating in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program that provide prescription drug coverage to provide prescription contraceptive coverage as well. I am also pleased that the enrolled bill allows agencies to use appropriated funds to support day care centers at Federal facilities. This provision should improve the affordability of child care for lower-income Federal employees.

Several provisions in the Act purport to condition my authority or that of certain officers to use funds appropriated by the Act on the approval of congressional committees. My Administration will interpret such provisions to require notification only, since any other interpretation would contradict the Supreme Court's ruling in INS v. Chadha.

Section 622 of the Treasury/General Government Appropriations Act prohibits the use of appropriations to pay the salary of any employee who interferes with certain communications between Federal employees and Members of Congress. I do not interpret this provision to detract from my constitutional authority and that of my appointed heads of departments to supervise and control the operations and communications of the executive branch, including the control of privileged and national security information.

I urge the Congress to complete action on the remaining FY 2000 appropriations bills as quickly as possible and send them to me in an acceptable form.

-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), October 03, 1999

Answers

I forgot to mention that this is dated September 29,1999 Forgive me if this was already posted somewhere.

-- LOON (blooney1-@aol.com), October 03, 1999.

It's way too late to be throwing money at the IRS' code remediation. If they think they need that kind of money this late in the game, why, they may not be able to collect taxes next year! Just think, all those bloodsucking bureaucrats out of work.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), October 03, 1999.

Is that $13.7 billion in addition to what they previously got? If so, wouldn't surprise me. Thos agencies are there to f* with us one way or the other. Even the Post Office (USPS), with its big push to compile a national database of the current "sleeping location" of everyone in the country. (See http://www.postalwatch.com). The latest step is photo ID and PROOF of residence for getting mail at places like Mail Boxes Etc. and P.O. Boxes. Next will be registration of all family members (not on the list, no mail delivered), of roommates and officemates, etc.

-- A (A@AisA.com), October 04, 1999.

In my neck of the woods, PNW, the Census Bureau is going full force to hire people for the 2000 Census. Lots of activity in their new digs.

-- Sammie (sammie0nospam@hotmail.com), October 04, 1999.

One of the things that they are doing is buying new computers.PROCESSING, ASSISTANCE, AND MANAGEMENT

For necessary expenses of the Internal Revenue Service for tax returns processing; revenue accounting; tax law and account assistance to taxpayers by telephone and correspondence; programs to match information returns and tax returns; management services; rent and utilities; and services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner, $3,312,535,000, of which up to $3,950,000 shall be for the Tax Counseling for the Elderly Program, and of which not to exceed $25,000 shall be for official reception and representation expenses.

TAX LAW ENFORCEMENT

For necessary expenses of the Internal Revenue Service for determining and establishing tax liabilities; providing litigation support; issuing technical rulings; examining employee plans and exempt organizations; conducting criminal investigation and enforcement activities; securing unfiled tax returns; collecting unpaid accounts; compiling statistics of income and conducting compliance research; purchase (for police-type use, not to exceed 850) and hire of passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)); and services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner, $3,336,838,000, of which not to exceed $1,000,000 shall remain available until September 30, 2002, for research, and of which not to exceed $150,000 shall be for official reception and representation expenses associated with hosting the Inter-American Center of Tax Administration (CIAT) 2000 Conference.

EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT COMPLIANCE INITIATIVE

For funding essential earned income tax credit compliance and error reduction initiatives pursuant to section 5702 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (Public Law 105-33), $144,000,000, of which not to exceed $10,000,000 may be used to reimburse the Social Security Administration for the costs of implementing section 1090 of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS

For necessary expenses of the Internal Revenue Service for information systems and telecommunications support, including developmental information systems and operational information systems; the hire of passenger motor vehicles (31 U.S.C. 1343(b)); and services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109, at such rates as may be determined by the Commissioner, $1,455,401,000 which shall remain available until September 30, 2001.

ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS--INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE

SEC. 101. Not to exceed 5 percent of any appropriation made available in this Act to the Internal Revenue Service may be transferred to any other Internal Revenue Service appropriation upon the .......

snip

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2490:

-- LOON (blooney10@aol.com), October 04, 1999.

The Y2K stuff is "old hat."

What about the end of the statement re the INS case and Section 622? What are these about? If there are any attorneys out there, can you help? Clinton is always looking to expand his and the Govt's powers and I'm wondering if these 2 citations are ominous or innocuous.

-- mike (maples@voy.net), October 04, 1999.