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ARMS Email System Page 1 of 10 RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (NOTES MAIL) CREATOR: oliver D. Pangborn ( CN=0liver D. Pangborn/OU=WHO/O=EOP [ WHO ] ) CREATION DATE/TIME:24-NOV-2000 09:59:14.00 SUBJECT: Siewert briefing 11/22 TO: Juan Cardenas ( CN=Juan Cardenas/OU=ONDCP/O=EOP@EOP [ ONDCP ] ) READ: UNKNOWN TEXT: THE WHITE HOUSE office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release November 22, 2000 PRESS BRIEFING BY JAKE SIEWERT The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room 11:25 A.M. EST MR. SIEWERT: Quick announcements, and then we'll go -- we'll try to make this quick, so everyone can go home and enjoy the holiday. The President will be sending a delegation to the inauguration of Vincente Fox in Mexico, headed by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and including Senior white House Representative Maria Echaveste, the Deputy chief of Staff. He will not, himself, be attending that, although be sending the highest level delegation possible. And the President this morning signed the District of columbia appropriations bill for fiscal year 2001. He was pleased that we were able to work out a good-faith compromise on this, under the leadership of Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton. That bill will provide roughly $446 million in federal funds that are central for District courts, correction facilities and the rest. It also provides $17 million to fully fund the D.C. college Access Act. That's something the President has championed that provides tuition assistance for District residents, a bill that the President signed into law last year. It also fully funds the New York Avenue Metro Station, and provides a strong start for brownfields work in Anacostia, and economic development there. The entire bill builds on the economic development program that the President has championed in the District, which includes the tax legislation he signed in 1997 that provides tax relief for D.C. residents and businesses, and some projects that were also provided for last year to revitalize the Nation's Capital. There were some riders in the bill that we didn't like, as there have been other years. But in general, this was a bill that needed to be signed and does a lot of good for the District. And that is all I have. He is signing about 2 dozen other bills. If you need details on those, check with Nanda or Sarah. Most of them are relatively small measures, although there is one that he is having a ceremony on now, called the Health Care Fairness Act, a small private ceremony. Q Jake, what does the President think of Secretary Baker's statements last night that no one should be surprised if the Florida httn://172 28 127308082/ARMS/servlet/getEmailArchive2URL_PATH=/nlcp-1/Arms400/wh