[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 74 (Tuesday, June 14, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 14, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  WAIVING CERTAIN POINTS OF ORDER AGAINST H.R. 4506, ENERGY AND WATER 
                  DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1995

  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on 
Rules, I call up House Resolution 449 and ask for its immediate 
consideration.

                              H. Res. 449

       Resolved, That during consideration in the Committee of the 
     Whole House on the state of the Union of the bill (H.R. 4506) 
     making appropriations for energy and water development 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 or rule XXI are 
     waived. The amendment printed in section 2 of this resolution 
     may be offered only by Representative Bevill of Alabama or 
     his designee, may amend portions of the bill not yet read for 
     amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division 
     of the question in the House or in the Committee of the 
     Whole.
       Sec. 2. The amendment that may be offered only by 
     Representative Bevill of Alabama or his designee is as 
     follows:
       Page 21, line 24, strike ``$3,164,369,000'' and insert 
     ``$3,201,369,000''.
       Page 23, line 10, strike ``$1,879,204,000'' and insert 
     ``$1,842,204,000''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. DeLauro). The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Hall] is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield 
the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Goss], 
pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During 
consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose 
of debate only.
  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Madam Speaker, House Resolution 449 is an open rule 
waiving points of order against provisions of the bill, H.R. 4506, the 
Energy and Water Development Appropriations for Fiscal Year 1993. Since 
general appropriations bills are privileged under the rules of the 
House, the rule does not provide for any special guidelines for the 
consideration of the bill. Provisions related to time for general 
debate are not included in the rule. Customarily, Madam Speaker, 
general debate time is limited by a unanimous-consent request by the 
chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee prior to the consideration 
of the bill.
  The rule waives clause 2 of rule XXI against all provisions of H.R. 
4506. Clause 2 of rule XXI prohibits unauthorized appropriations or 
legislative provisions in general appropriations bills. The waiver is 
necessary because the annual authorizing legislation for many of the 
bill's agencies and programs is not in place. In addition, it is 
necessary because of provisions in the bill affecting the Corps of 
Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation's important work affecting their 
ongoing responsibilities for water resources. The rule also waives 
clause 6 of rule XXI prohibiting reappropriations in a general 
appropriation bill against all provisions in the bill. This is 
necessary to allow the transfer of prior year unspent funds.
  Finally, Madam Speaker, this rule provides that the Bevill amendment 
printed in section 2 of the rule may amend portions of the bill not yet 
read for amendment, if offered by Representative Bevill or his 
designee. The Bevill amendment is not subject to a demand for a 
division of the question. This is an amendment which reflects the 
administration's amended budget request for the Department of Energy's 
national security programs and allows the transfer of funds between 
accounts within the Atomic Energy Defense Activities. It will not 
affect the total budget authority or outlays in the bill.
  Madam Speaker, this is a carefully crafted bill which funds many 
activities of the Department of Energy and other agencies which are 
vital to our environment and national security. The bill, along with 
the Bevill amendment, are critically needed for the Energy Department's 
Mound Plant, in Miamisburg, OH, which I have the privilege of 
representing.
  Madam Speaker, under the normal rules of the House, any amendment 
which does not violate any House Rules could be offered to H.R. 4506. 
The rule received unanimous support in the House Rules Committee, and I 
urge my colleagues to adopt it.
  Mr. GOSS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  (Mr. GOSS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks and include extraneous material.)
  Mr. GOSS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased that this rule allows for an 
open rule, an open amendment process whereby any Member can come to the 
Chamber under the normal procedures of the House and present an 
amendment to cut funding levels in this bill. That is a breath of fresh 
air and I congratulate those involved for allowing it to happen.
  As a fiscal conservative myself, deeply concerned about the enormous 
Federal debt and the track record of this House to spend beyond our 
means, I am encouraged that Members will have a chance to debate the 
merits of the individual spending proposals in this $20 billion bill. 
Of course, Members should be reminded that appropriations bills are, in 
fact, privileged, meaning that they do not even need to go through the 
Committee on Rules to come to the floor and be subject to the open 
amendment process. That is always an option open. As the late Chairman 
Natcher believed, the standard operating procedure for appropriations 
bills should be, in fact, to bypass the Committee on Rules and take 
their chances under the normal procedure of the House rules coming to 
this floor. But lately the exception has become the rule as the 
appropriators keep running into little pesky problems on points of 
order which seem to be triggered by repeated violations of the standing 
House rules. If today's energy and water appropriations bill had come 
straight to the floor, for example, in normal fashion, it would have 
been vulnerable to a series of points of order against unauthorized 
projects and legislating on an appropriations bill. If Members turn to 
the actual report that we have from pages 133 to 136 for any Members 
who are interested, they will see under the title changes in 
application of existing law several areas that needed to be protected 
under the points of order. Likewise, we do not speak to the 
unauthorized projects which, of course, are not listed in the report 
specifically that way. That means any Member will have to go through 
the whole bill to figure out those things.
  Madam Speaker, the Committee on Rules has tried to guard against 
that. In this case I feel we have got a good bill and a good rule 
because I do not think there is anything particularly serious in there 
that is going to cause any Member any trouble, but I urge them to look 
if they wish.
  Rather than risk any kind of a floor fight on it, the chairman and 
the ranking member sought and received waivers from the Committee on 
Rules. As I say, this was a relatively straightforward process, it was 
not contentious. There was not a lot of disagreement. I think we have 
got a good product in this case and again I congratulate all those 
involved for doing the best job possible, carrying on the different 
challenges that we all have to get this legislation to the floor in an 
appropriate way.
  Madam Speaker, judging by the frequency with which this type of end 
run problem of having to waive these points of order occurs, it is 
clear that we have a problem in our legislative process that needs to 
be changed. We seem to spend an awful lot of time these days waiving 
rules rather than complying with them and as we come up against one 
example after another on the need for reform, I urge the majority 
leadership, and I really mean this, to allow changes in the committee 
structure and the budget process. Right now we have got a bunch of 
recommendations from the Joint Committee on the Reform of Congress that 
are just sort of laying waiting. I hope they do not become permanent 
shelf items. There is an opportunity to change the way we do business. 
I think it would be a big improvement, and I think that the trend that 
I have outlined that as good as this rule is and as well intentioned 
and as well crafted as it is as my friend the gentleman from Ohio has 
said, we could have a better process and we have some recommendations 
that we at least ought to deliberate about. This is just an opportunity 
to remind us of that.

  In the meantime, Madam Speaker, while we do not oppose this rule, I 
would like my colleagues to know that the minority members of the 
Committee on Rules did seek to improve it and ultimately impose greater 
fiscal discipline by leaving the unauthorized provisions in this bill 
vulnerable to points of order. Not surprisingly, that effort failed. As 
I say, I do not think any real damage was done except perhaps to the 
principle. We can only hope that eventually the majority too will tire 
of the cumbersome and inefficient way of doing business we have with 
the waiving of points of order. Then at last reform may finally come, 
and I think it is time that it did. An awful lot of energy has been put 
into the question of reform and we have not seen anything come out yet 
in the way of result.
  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 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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