Pres. Clinton on Friday signed a $15 billion emergency spending bill that will help fund NATO’s air war in Yugoslavia and hurricane-relief efforts in Central America, even though the bill contained several anti-environmental riders that his administration had opposed. He said the pressing need for the funding overrode concerns about the riders, including one that will allow a mining company to open a huge waste dump in eastern Washington in violation of the 1872 Mining Law and another that prevents the government from boosting royalty payments from oil companies drilling on public lands. Clinton said in a written statement, “I want to be clear that were it not for the truly emergency needs to which this bill responds, I would reject these environmental riders.”
