[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]
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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.
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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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