[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 66 (Tuesday, May 24, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 24, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
      WAIVING CERTAIN POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST H.R. 4453, MILITARY 
                 CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1995

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on 
Rules, I call up House Resolution 433 and ask for its immediate 
consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 433

       Resolved, That during consideration of the bill (H.R. 4453) 
     making appropriations for military construction for the 
     Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 
     30, 1995, and for other purposes, all points of order against 
     provisions in the bill for failure to comply with clause 2 or 
     6 of rule XXI are waived.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Lloyd). The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Hall] is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, for the purposes of general debate 
only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee 
[Mr. Quillen], pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  All time yielded during consideration of this resolution is for the 
purposes of debate only.
  Madam Speaker, House Resolution 433 is an open rule which provides 
for the consideration of H.R. 4453, the military construction 
appropriations bill for fiscal year 1995. Under the rules of the House, 
appropriations bills are privileged measures. Therefore this rule does 
not contain any provision allocating time for general debate. Debate 
time on the bill will be worked out in a unanimous-consent request 
agreed upon by the subcommittee chairman and the ranking minority 
member prior to the consideration of the bill.

  This resolution does waive clauses 2 and 6 of rule XXI against the 
consideration of the bill. Clause 2 of rule XXI prohibits unauthorized 
appropriations and legislation in general appropriations bill. This 
waiver is necessary because the authorizing bill for the legislation 
has not yet been signed into law.
  Clause 6 of rule XXI prohibits the reappropriation of unexpended 
balances of appropriations. This waiver is necessary because of a 
transfer of funds from the homeowners assistance fund to part 2 of the 
base realignment closure account. These waivers were discussed in the 
rules committee and were unopposed by any of its members.
  Madam Speaker, H.R. 4453 appropriates $8.9 billion in fiscal year 
1995 for military construction, family housing, and base closure. This 
amount is $1.2 billion less than last year's appropriations level.
  I would like to commend my colleagues on both sides of the aisle of 
the subcommittee who worked so hard to craft this bill during this time 
of fiscal belt tightening in the appropriations committee.
  Madam Speaker, this bill appropriates approximately $8.25 million for 
two projects at Wright Patterson Air Force Base which is partially 
located in my district. Funds are provided for a special operations 
intelligence facility and for the upgrade of the bases' storm drainage 
system.
  These projects are important to the people who live and work at the 
Wright Patterson Air Force Base and to the community of Dayton, OH. I 
thank my colleagues for including them in this legislation.
  Finally, Madam Speaker, I would like to remind Members that under 
this rule any Member may offer an amendment that is germane to the 
bill. I urge adoption of the rule and adoption of the bill.

                              {time}  1230

  Mr. QUILLEN. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Ohio for 
yielding, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. QUILLEN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. QUILLEN. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this open rule 
providing for the consideration of the military construction 
appropriations bill for fiscal year 1995. As my colleagues from Ohio 
has explained, the rule provides certain waivers, and I am not aware of 
any objections to these waivers.
  As usual, the members of the military construction subcommittee have 
brought forward a fiscally responsible bill which was crafted with a 
cooperative, bipartisan spirit that we all should strive to achieve. 
The bill is $648 million below last year's level and is consistent with 
the recommendations of the defense authorization bill, which has been 
under consideration in the House.
  Despite this reduction in spending, this committee did a great job in 
meeting the construction needs of our military, as well as providing 
for the housing needs of service personnel and meeting the costs 
associated with base closing and realignment.
  Madam Speaker, this rule allows all Members to offer motions to 
strike or to offer germane amendments, and I am pleased to see the 
Rules Committee improving its record of reporting open rules. I urge my 
colleagues to adopt this rule so we can proceed with the prompt 
consideration of this first of 13 appropriations bills.
  Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
[Mr. Walker].
  Mr. WALKER. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. First 
of all, I wanted to congratulate him for coming to the floor with his 
colleagues from the Committee on Rules with an open rule this time. 
That is one of the things that we would like to see more often, and I 
thank him for that.
  The bill that we have before us today is the first of the 
appropriation bills that will arrive on the floor. This one, while it 
is above President Clinton's request, it is below last year's spending, 
and that is in itself a positive sign that we are attempting to bring 
down spending in some areas. But we ought not fool ourselves as we 
approach this appropriations period. The spending levels of the Federal 
Government are still going to be enormously high.
  The idea that the administration is promoting, that somehow the 
deficit problem has been solved, is just plain nonsense. The deficit 
that is predicted for this year and for all the years in the future is 
well above the deficit levels of the first 2 years of the Bush 
administration.
  At that time, Democrats came to the floor on a consistent basis 
telling us about how these massive deficits were being compounded by 
the Bush administration over and above the Reagan administration. The 
deficits we are talking on an annual basis here are significantly 
higher than anything that was done during the Reagan administration and 
what was done in the first two years of the Bush administration. So we 
still do have a deficit problem.
  We have a massive spending problem. That is compounded by the fact 
that 2 years ago the Democrats decided that as a part of their overall 
approach to the economy, they were also going to raise taxes. What you 
now see is unproductive dollars going into the economy at significant 
levels, unproductive dollars coming from government, and at the same 
time you see the productivity of our economy being taxed away by the 
Democrat tax increases of just a few months ago.
  Those two things are the underlying problems for inflation in this 
economy which are causing us major problems. We had the gentleman from 
Oregon come here just a couple of minutes ago and say exactly what I 
predicted the Democrats would say. Democrats say the problem with long-
term interest rates is the Fed, and what we ought to do is get more 
political control of the Federal Reserve.

  You see, the Democrats want political control of everything. They now 
have political control of the Congress, of the administration, and what 
they cannot control is the monetary policy in the Fed. So now they are 
proposing to take their one-party government and extend it into the 
monetary policy of the country, despite the fact that with monetary 
policy we are simply attempting at the present time to deal with the 
underlying inflation that the President promised in his campaign he was 
going to bring back to the economy.
  The President's economic program is based upon inflation. Inflation 
is now beginning to bubble up at levels just below the surface. The Fed 
is attempting to respond to that, and Democrats say first of all, their 
economic program is not at fault, and by the way, if it is, what we 
want to do is take it out of the hide of the Fed by taking political 
control of the Fed.
  Those are prescriptions for economic disaster. We need to have the 
kind of responsibility shown by Congress that will keep the spending 
down. In this first bill that is being brought before us under this 
rule, we do in fact have spending levels lower than last year. That is 
a positive sign. We are not going to have that as we go through the 
appropriations process and ultimately will end up spending at levels 
that increase the deficit markedly.
  We are increasing deficits. We are increasing debt in this society. 
We cannot afford to do both. Middleclass Americans today bear $17,000 
worth of debt for each person based upon the spending that Congress has 
already done in the past. Middleclass America cannot afford the bills 
of the spending of this Congress. This Congress needs to become more 
responsible.
  Mr. QUILLEN. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and 
I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, 
I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question 
on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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