
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 21, 1995                   TAG: 9506220025
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                 LENGTH: Short

BUREAU OF MINES MAY GET THE AX

The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to shut down the Bureau of Mines, a 1,900-employee agency that conducts mine health and safety research and gathers statistical information on minerals production. The agency would have 90 days to shut down after the start of the new fiscal year.

The bureau's termination was among several controversial actions proposed by the panel, including the end of the 14-year-old moratorium on oil and gas drilling off many of the nation's coastlines.

Within a few hours of the offshore-drilling vote, the White House issued a written statement in which Clinton stopped barely short of an explicit veto threat:

``This action is a mistake, and I will have no part of it. I will not allow oil and gas drilling off our nation's most sensitive coastlines on my watch. America's coastlines are simply too important to our economy and our way of life.''

- Associated Press

by CNB