[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 48 (Thursday, April 28, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: April 28, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   URGING MEMBERS TO REJECT H.R. 4013

  (Mr. PENNY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENNY. Madam Speaker, I want to share with my colleagues the 
content of a letter all of us have received from Leon Panetta, the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget. In it he expresses in 
the strongest possible terms the administration's opposition to H.R. 
4013, a bill which would bar the Department of Veterans Affairs from 
reducing employees in the Veterans Health Administration over the next 
5 years.
  According to the letter from the Budget Director, ``This 
legislation,'' if passed, ``would make it impossible for the 
administration to carry out the downsizing of the executive branch 
required under * * * the Federal Workforce Restructuring Act.''
  He asks, quite appropriately, ``If we provide special protection for 
veterans' health care, why should we not provide the same protection to 
law enforcement, the National Institutes of Health, Education, Head 
Start, the Food and Drug Administration, and countless other agencies 
and programs?
  ``If we start exempting one agency from this workforce reduction 
requirement, we would have little hope of maintaining a fair and 
rational process,'' according to Budget Director Panetta. Indeed, the 
administration feels it would then be impossible to meet the goal 
established by the Congress of reducing the Federal work force by 
272,000 personnel over the next 5 years.
  We passed the Workforce Reduction Act by a vote of 391 to 17. By 
rejecting H.R. 4013, today we will stick with our commitment to achieve 
that 10-percent reduction in the next 5 years.

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