[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]


                              {time}  1230
 
       SUPPORT VETERANS' HEALTH PROGRAMS IMPROVEMENT ACT OF 1994

  (Mr. MONTGOMERY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MONTGOMERY. Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues today to vote for 
House bill 4013, a suspension bill.
  Madam Speaker, I want to make it very clear to my colleagues that 
this bill does not block reductions in the number of doctors, nurses, 
or technicians in the VA health center. The Secretary of the VA has the 
authority to reduce FTE's anytime he wants to, and we say that in the 
bill. The bill does block the meat ax approach of cutting employees of 
the VA across the board.
  Madam Speaker, the bottom line in this bill is whether we in the 
Congress should decide the size of the Federal work force on an agency-
by-agency basis through the appropriations process, or should we give 
up our role in this area and let it be done by OMB downtown. That is 
wrong.
  We are taking our lead from the Vice President's report on 
``Reinventing Government,'' which said that the size of the Federal 
work force should be determined by the budget process and the 
availability of operating funds, not by FTE ceilings.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to vote for this bill.

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