[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 23 (Monday, March 7, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1220
 
                ANNUAL RUSH TO THE BUDGET CONSIDERATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pastor). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, and because there is no designee of the 
majority leader, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Solomon] is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, I want to welcome you to 
our annual rush to budget. You would not know that the congressional 
budget is one of the most important decisions that we are called upon 
to make around here, given the haste with which it is rushed through 
the House. The Budget Committee rushed through its markup last Thursday 
after barely a week's notice. This is the entire Federal budget for the 
coming year.
  That same day, the Committee on Rules notified Members to submit 
their amendments by noontime. That was my good friend, the gentleman 
from Massachusetts [Mr. Moakley] on whose committee I serve as the 
ranking Republican.
  In his letter to the membership last week, he said that the text of 
the budget would be available on Friday, March 4, at the Budget 
Committee's office in House Annex No. 1, the O'Neill House Office 
Building, Room 214.
  Mr. Speaker, I went there at noontime on Friday because I have a 
substitute budget myself, along with 25 other colleagues, which will 
present to this body a balanced budget for the first time in over 40 
years.
  Mr. Speaker, the budget text was not available.
  I went back there at 5 on Friday, and it still was not available. I 
decided not to go home this weekend up to Adirondacks, where I live, 
and decided to stay here and see if I could get my hands on a copy of 
that budget. It was not available all weekend long. Ladies and 
gentlemen, it is not available to you right now as of 12:25 on this 
Monday, March 7.
  Now here we are, we are going to be expected to take up this budget 
on this floor with general debate on Wednesday.
  He also assured Members, Mr. Moakley did in this letter, that the 
Budget Committee text would be available to Members in the committee 
offices today. It is not there. Unfortunately, that text was not 
available at noon today, it was not available last Friday, and yet that 
noon deadline of Tuesday is still on.
  Mr. Speaker, under the Budget Act, we are not even supposed to take 
up the budget resolution until the 5th day of the availability of the 
report. But the leadership has scheduled action for this Thursday, only 
the second day, at best, on which the report will be available.
  Mr. Speaker, I would appeal to the Democrat leadership to take up our 
budget responsibilities under the Constitution a little more seriously 
and give Members of this body time to obtain the document, digest it, 
to formulate and submit amendments to it. Let us restore a little 
deliberative democracy around here.
  Again, let me just repeat because Members are going to come on this 
floor on Wednesday and they are going to be outraged because they will 
have no idea what is in this massive document that takes $1.5 trillion 
of taxpayers' money and spends it without any kind of legitimate debate 
and ability to look at it in advance.
  Let me repeat that: Under the Budget Act, which is not only House 
rules but it is the law of the land, we are supposed to take up the 
budget resolution only after each Member has had an opportunity to have 
it in his office 5 days before that debate takes place. Now I am just 
informed today that there may be a Committee on Rules meeting tomorrow 
to consider general debate on Wednesday. Now, of course, the excuse is 
that we do not want to be here on Friday. And that means that the 
Committee on Rules is going to put out a rule, we are going to then 
come to this floor on Wednesday and have 9 hours of general debate on 
this budget which no Member has even had a chance to look through. Then 
we are going to have the votes on any substitutes, like my 
balanced budget substitute, on Thursday.

  Mr. Speaker, that just is not right. Let me just for 1 minute talk 
about the plight of this country and the deficits that we have today. 
You know we are drowning in a sea of red ink and it is true because 
this body just does not seem to have the guts, the courage to vote for 
a balanced budget. We are going to have that opportunity on Thursday 
because a number of us from all sides, moderates to conservatives, in 
both parties, have spent almost 6 months trying to put together a 
budget that would once and for all be balanced and not increase these 
huge deficits that are just bankrupting this Nation and ruining the 
economy of our country.
  This budget is going to do so without touching the Social Security 
trust funds, which are not the Government's money in the first place. 
You know, when Franklin Roosevelt set up the Social Security 
supplemental retirement income trust fund back in the early thirties, 
it was simply a forced savings account so that American citizens would 
be forced to put away a little bit every single working day of their 
lives so they would not become wards of the State when they did reach 
retirement age; they would have supplemental income, not a retirement 
income but some supplemental income to help them through those 
retirement years.
  That money, again, is not the Government's money; it is supposed to 
be put in a trust fund all these years and then paid back to the 
recipients.
  The other area that we do not touch is earned benefits for veterans 
of the Armed Forces of the United States.
  Ladies and gentlemen, as you know, for the last 12, 15 years we have 
been depending on an all-voluntary military. In doing so, we make 
certain commitments to those veterans. We not only make the peacetime 
Montgomery GI bill available to them but we guarantee them certain 
salaries, such as benefits, such as housing allowances, including 
medical benefits for later on in life; those are earned benefits and 
they are contractual obligations and they should not be touched in any 
kind of budget belt-tightening as well. There is nothing wrong with 
limiting the number of employees in the Social Security Administration.

                              {time}  1230

  There is nothing wrong with limiting the number of employees in the 
Veterans' Administration, and all across the board, throughout all of 
the various departments of Government, but we balance this budget 
without touching those two critical areas, and I just hope that Members 
are going to have the opportunity to be able to read my budget 
substitute, which cannot be available until we have actually seen the 
text of the Committee on the Budget, of their bill. Hopefully, we are 
going to have that available to us later today so that we can put the 
final touches on our substitute balanced budget, and again we will make 
that available to the Members as soon as possible.

                                         House of Representatives,


                                           Committee on Rules,

                                    Washington, DC, March 3, 1994.


notice of possible restrictions on amendments to the budget resolution 
                              for fy 1995

       Dear Colleague: I am writing to inform you of the Rules 
     Committee's plans with regard to the budget resolution for 
     fiscal year 1995. The Budget Committee hopes to complete its 
     markup of the resolution this evening, March 3, 1994 and will 
     most likely file its report early next week. Text will be 
     available on Friday, March 4, at the Budget Committee's 
     offices in House Annex 1, the O'Neill House Office Building, 
     Room 214.
       The Rules Committee will meet next week on the budget 
     resolution. In order to assure timely and fair consideration, 
     the committee is considering a rule that may structure the 
     offering of amendments. As in the past, the Committee looks 
     more favorably on amendments in the nature of a substitute 
     than on cut-and-bite amendments which raise issues that must 
     be decided again in the authorization and appropriations 
     process. Any Member who is contemplating an amendment to the 
     budget resolution should submit 55 copies and a brief 
     explanation by 12 noon, Tuesday, March 8, 1994. The Committee 
     on Rules is located in Room H-312 in the Capitol. It may 
     prove helpful to consult with CBO while drafting your 
     amendments.
       Please contact David Pomerantz of the Rules Committee staff 
     if you have any questions regarding this procedure. We 
     appreciate the cooperation of all Members in this effort to 
     be fair and orderly in granting a rule on the budget 
     resolution.
           Sincerely,
                                              John Joseph Moakley,
                                                         Chairman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Iowa [Mr. Leach].

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