Clinton to Sign Bill Cutting Jobs at Two Air Bases
WASHINGTON — President Clinton will sign a $268-billion defense bill, effectively abandoning a promise to save jobs at bases being closed in Sacramento and San Antonio, congressional and administration officials said Friday.
White House officials sent word to Capitol Hill that Clinton had decided to sign the defense measure instead of following through with an earlier veto threat, congressional staffers said.
Clinton is to fly into one of the affected facilities, Sacramento’s McClellan Air Force Base, and is expected to announce his decision in that city today.
With the 1996 election approaching, Clinton proposed to save thousands of jobs at McClellan and at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio by turning them over to the private sector.
The president, meanwhile, signed a $13.8-billion measure funding the Interior Department and the National Endowment for the Arts on Friday but said he will use his line-item veto power to kill a $10-million transfer of mineral rights from the federal government to the state of Montana.
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