[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 83 (Monday, June 27, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1710
 
DEPARTMENTS OF COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND STATE, THE JUDICIARY, AND RELATED 
  AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1995, AND SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS, 
                                  1994

  Mr. MOLLOHAN. Madam Speaker, I move that the House resolve itself 
into the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for the 
further consideration of the bill (H.R. 4603) making appropriations for 
the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and 
related agencies programs for the fiscal year ending September 30, 
1995, and making supplemental appropriations for these departments and 
agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1994, and for other 
purposes.
  The motion was agreed to.

                              {time}  1710


                     in the committee of the whole

  Accordingly, the House resolved itself into the Committee of the 
Whole House of the State of the Union for the further consideration of 
the bill H.R. 4603, with Mr. Brown of California in the chair.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The CHAIRMAN. When the Committee of the Whole rose earlier today, the 
amendment offered by the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Penny] had been 
disposed of, and the bill had been read through page 53, line 9.
  The Clerk will read.
  The Clerk read as follows:


                         salaries and expenses

       For necessary expenses of administering the economic 
     development assistance programs as provided for by law, 
     $32,205,000: Provided, That these funds may be used to 
     monitor projects approved pursuant to title I of the Public 
     Works Employment Act of 1976, as amended, title II of the 
     Trade Act of 1974, as amended, and the Community Emergency 
     Drought Relief Act of 1977.

               General Provisions--Department of Commerce

       Sec. 201. During the current fiscal year, applicable 
     appropriations and funds made available to the Department of 
     Commerce by this Act shall be available for the activities 
     specified in the Act of October 26, 1949 (15 U.S.C. 1514), to 
     the extent and in the manner prescribed by said Act, and, 
     notwithstanding 31 U.S.C. 3324, may be used for advanced 
     payments not otherwise authorized only upon the certification 
     of officials designated by the Secretary that such payments 
     are in the public interest.
       Sec. 202. During the current fiscal year, appropriations 
     made available to the Department of Commerce by this Act for 
     salaries and expenses shall be available for hire of 
     passenger motor vehicles as authorized by 31 U.S.C. 1343 and 
     1344; services as authorized by 5 U.S.C. 3109; and uniforms 
     or allowances therefor, as authorized by law (5 U.S.C. 5901-
     5902).
       Sec. 203. None of the funds made available by this Act may 
     be used to support the hurricane reconnaissance aircraft and 
     activities that are under the control of the United States 
     Air Force or the United States Air Force Reserve.
       Sec. 204. None of the funds provided in this or any 
     previous Act, or hereinafter made available to the Department 
     of Commerce shall be available to reimburse the Unemployment 
     Trust Fund or any other fund or account of the Treasury to 
     pay for any expenses paid before October 1, 1992, as 
     authorized by section 8501 of title 5, United States Code, 
     for services performed after April 20, 1990, by individuals 
     appointed to temporary positions within the Bureau of the 
     Census for purposes relating to the 1990 decennial census of 
     population.
       Sec. 205. Not to exceed 5 percent of any appropriation made 
     available for the current fiscal year for the Department of 
     Commerce in this Act may be transferred between such 
     appropriations, but no such appropriation shall be increased 
     by more than 10 percent by any such transfers: Provided, That 
     any transfer pursuant to this section shall be treated as a 
     reprogramming of funds under section 605 of this Act and 
     shall not be available for obligation or expenditure except 
     in compliance with the procedures set forth in that section.
       Sec. 206. (a) Of the budgetary resources available to the 
     Department of Commerce during fiscal year 1995, $12,355,000 
     are permanently canceled.
       (b) The Secretary of Commerce shall allocate the amount of 
     budgetary resources canceled among the Department's accounts 
     available for procurement and procurement-related expenses. 
     Amounts available for procurement and procurement-related 
     expenses in each such account shall be reduced by the amount 
     allocated to such account.
       (c) For the purpose of this section, the definition of 
     ``procurement'' includes all stages of the process of 
     acquiring property or services, beginning with the process of 
     determining a need for a product or services and ending with 
     contract completion and closeout, as specified in 41 U.S.C. 
     403(2).


                   amendment offered by mr. goodlatte

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Amendment offered by Mr. Goodlatte:
       Page 56, after line 2, insert the following new section:
       Sec. 207. The amount otherwise provided in this title for 
     ``National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--
     Operations, Research, and Facilities'' is hereby reduced by 
     $26,059,999.

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I will be brief. I would like to call 
the attention of the Chair to the fact that this is an amendment 
similar to an amendment offered earlier on which we were not afforded 
the opportunity to have a recorded vote. This amendment reduces the 
NOAA budget by $26 million, including $300,000 for Atlantic bluefin 
tuna research, fishery observer training in the amount of $120,000, and 
$500,000 for the North American Institute for Environmental Renewal. 
None of these programs have been authorized by the appropriate 
authorizing committee. In addition, it provides for reduction in the 
National Weather Service by in excess of $25 million, which is over the 
amount appropriated.
  This is not a specific cut in the National Weather Service. This is 
simply the amount that was authorized by the authorizing committee of 
$453 million. This amendment is offered for the purpose of making it 
clear that the Committee on Appropriations should not violate the rules 
of the House. That committee is authorized under the rules to accept 
the amounts from the authorizing committee, to cut those amounts, or to 
not fund the program, but they are not authorized for increased 
amounts.
  This amendment is supported by the Citizens for a Sound Economy and 
by Citizens Against Government Waste, as well as by the Pork Busters 
Coalition. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this amendment.
  Mr. MOLLOHAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
  Mr. Chairman, this amendment, as the distinguished gentleman who 
sponsors it indicated, has been debated previous to this. We rose in 
opposition to it and pointed out the importance of this money to the 
National Weather Service and its staffing. I think the amendment has 
been fully debated.
  We had an unintended result earlier where the gentleman did not get a 
vote. We certainly want him to have a vote on the amendment. I urge all 
my colleagues to vote no on the Goodlatte amendment.
  Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of 
words.
  Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment, as I did 
earlier. This amendment would cut $25 million from the National Weather 
Service, the modernization program, which we have been fighting for for 
these several years. Congress has invested over $1 billion in that 
modernization, and this amendment would jeopardize the program.
  Mr. Chairman, there is nothing that we spend money for in the Federal 
Government that sometimes is more important than to inform our people 
that there is dangerous weather out there. It saves lives. So I hope 
that we would reject this amendment as being threatening to the 
modernization of the National Weather Service, which we have been into 
now for several years. With all due respects to my good friend who 
offered the amendment, I would hope that we would oppose it.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ROGERS. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I would simply like to correct a 
statement I have been informed I made. The authorization for the 
National Weather Service is $354 million, and this is a $25 million 
reduction to the authorized level.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. FAWELL. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of 
words.
  Mr. Chairman, I do not think we have had any amendments which ask for 
cuts being approved here this afternoon. And no matter what fancy 
language we may have, the authorizing committees have not authorized 
these expenditures. There is always some reason by someone that would 
justify unapproved spending. What can we do, if we cannot take some of 
these very simple little steps here, when we know that the rules have 
been broken, and then the rules are waived. And, as was said last week, 
I think when you come right down to it, as far as our rules are 
concerned, they are a compilation of waivers. Once in a while you have 
a rule which is not waived. The big surprise is when you enforce a rule 
once in a while.
  I think that if we cannot at least in this instance, and if there is 
authorization, then obviously we would approve this, but if we cannot 
in this instance make this little cut, when can we? We know that in 
this century and in the next century we have absolutely no plans to 
balance the budget, none whatsoever, and we go cavalierly along and 
spend another unapproved $26 million, and a billion dollars here and a 
billion dollars there. It is just insane. The people who listen in 
cannot comprehend what we are doing.

                              {time}  1720

  I think this time maybe we can rise to the occasion and for the first 
time today say, ``yes, we think we can make a cut here''. If the 
authorizing committees are not that interested in this, I do not know 
why we should come to the rescue of the appropriation committees when 
they obviously are breaking the rules. It is bad enough that a freshman 
Congressman has to get on his feet and take the burden of passing an 
amendment when he should be able to simply stand up and say, ``Ladies 
and gentlemen, I simply raise a point of order.'' That is what he 
should have been able to do. He has had to go through sheer hell to 
even get to this point, and I think we ought to back him up. One of 
these days, Congress must get serious about the deficits we are 
creating, year by year. Budgets and rules obviously mean very little to 
this body.
  Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the 
gentleman from Alaska [Mr. Young].
  (Mr. YOUNG of Alaska asked and was given permission to revise and 
extend his remarks.)
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Chairman, let us talk about cutting this 
budget and especially NOAA. I do not know how many of my colleagues 
have flown in Alaska and how many of them have to rely on those weather 
stations that are reporting to each pilot that takes off with 
passengers. We do not have highways and stoplights in the majority area 
of Alaska. We have to fly everywhere, and we depend wholly upon that 
weather reporting.
  To cut this amount of money after we already invested a considerable 
amount in it, to delete the staff which is necessary to run the 
equipment they have already appropriated for would be absolutely wrong. 
I just ask all of my colleagues, keep in mind an area as large as all 
the east coast put together, all the east coast put together plus six 
more States without any appropriate weather reporting when they fly.
  This is an impossibility for the pilot. It is an imposition upon the 
passengers. And keep in mind, my predecessor, he is not here today 
because of the fact of flying in bad weather.
  Let us not cut this money today. Let us keep in mind the areas which 
we represent and the challenges to each pilot and the passengers that 
fly in those airplanes.
  The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the amendment offered by the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Goodlatte].
  The question was taken; and the Chairman announced that the noes 
appeared to have it.


                             recorded vote

  Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.
  A recorded vote was ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 128, 
noes 272, not voting 39, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 282]

                               AYES--128

     Allard
     Andrews (NJ)
     Andrews (TX)
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus (AL)
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Ballenger
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bliley
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bunning
     Burton
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Castle
     Coble
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Condit
     Cooper
     Coppersmith
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     DeLay
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Edwards (TX)
     Ehlers
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Gallegly
     Gallo
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Grams
     Grandy
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Harman
     Hastert
     Hoagland
     Hoekstra
     Horn
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Inhofe
     Istook
     Johnson, Sam
     Kasich
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kyl
     Lantos
     Lazio
     Leach
     Levy
     Lewis (KY)
     Linder
     Mann
     Manzullo
     Margolies-Mezvinsky
     McCrery
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McKeon
     Meyers
     Mica
     Michel
     Miller (FL)
     Minge
     Molinari
     Moorhead
     Nussle
     Orton
     Oxley
     Paxon
     Payne (VA)
     Penny
     Petri
     Porter
     Portman
     Poshard
     Ramstad
     Roberts
     Rohrabacher
     Roth
     Royce
     Santorum
     Schaefer
     Sensenbrenner
     Shays
     Shuster
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (TX)
     Solomon
     Stearns
     Stenholm
     Stump
     Sundquist
     Swett
     Talent
     Upton
     Walker
     Weldon
     Wilson
     Zimmer

                               NOES--272

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Applegate
     Bacchus (FL)
     Baesler
     Barca
     Barcia
     Barlow
     Barrett (NE)
     Barrett (WI)
     Bateman
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Bentley
     Bereuter
     Berman
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Blute
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brooks
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant
     Buyer
     Byrne
     Callahan
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Carr
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clinger
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Darden
     de la Garza
     de Lugo (VI)
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Derrick
     Deutsch
     Diaz-Balart
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Dooley
     Durbin
     Edwards (CA)
     Emerson
     Engel
     English
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Everett
     Farr
     Fazio
     Fields (LA)
     Filner
     Fish
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Fowler
     Frank (MA)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gekas
     Gephardt
     Geren
     Gibbons
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gingrich
     Glickman
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Green
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamburg
     Hamilton
     Hayes
     Hefley
     Hefner
     Herger
     Hinchey
     Hobson
     Hochbrueckner
     Holden
     Houghton
     Hoyer
     Huffington
     Hughes
     Hutto
     Inslee
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnston
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kleczka
     Klein
     Klink
     Kolbe
     Kopetski
     Kreidler
     LaFalce
     Lambert
     Lancaster
     LaRocco
     Laughlin
     Lehman
     Levin
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (FL)
     Lewis (GA)
     Lightfoot
     Lipinski
     Livingston
     Lloyd
     Long
     Lowey
     Lucas
     Machtley
     Maloney
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Matsui
     Mazzoli
     McCurdy
     McDade
     McDermott
     McHale
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meek
     Menendez
     Mfume
     Miller (CA)
     Mineta
     Mink
     Moakley
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moran
     Morella
     Murtha
     Myers
     Nadler
     Neal (MA)
     Neal (NC)
     Norton (DC)
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Packard
     Pallone
     Parker
     Pastor
     Payne (NJ)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pickle
     Pomeroy
     Price (NC)
     Quillen
     Rahall
     Ravenel
     Reed
     Regula
     Richardson
     Roemer
     Rogers
     Romero-Barcelo (PR)
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roukema
     Rowland
     Roybal-Allard
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sangmeister
     Sarpalius
     Sawyer
     Saxton
     Schenk
     Schiff
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Sharp
     Shaw
     Shepherd
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Slattery
     Slaughter
     Smith (IA)
     Smith (NJ)
     Snowe
     Spence
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stokes
     Strickland
     Studds
     Stupak
     Swift
     Synar
     Tanner
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Tejeda
     Thomas (CA)
     Thomas (WY)
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torkildsen
     Traficant
     Tucker
     Underwood (GU)
     Unsoeld
     Valentine
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Volkmer
     Vucanovich
     Walsh
     Waters
     Watt
     Waxman
     Wheat
     Whitten
     Williams
     Wise
     Wolf
     Woolsey
     Wyden
     Wynn
     Yates
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)

                             NOT VOTING--39

     Andrews (ME)
     Bevill
     Bishop
     Blackwell
     Brewster
     Brown (FL)
     Chapman
     Deal
     Faleomavaega (AS)
     Fields (TX)
     Fingerhut
     Ford (MI)
     Ford (TN)
     Gutierrez
     Hastings
     Hilliard
     Hoke
     McCandless
     McCloskey
     McCollum
     McMillan
     Meehan
     Murphy
     Owens
     Pombo
     Pryce (OH)
     Quinn
     Rangel
     Reynolds
     Ridge
     Rose
     Rostenkowski
     Rush
     Smith (OR)
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Towns
     Washington
     Zeliff

                              {time}  1744

  The Clerk announced the following pair:
  On this vote:

       Mr. Deal for, with Mr. Rangel against.

  Mr. BUYER and Mr. HOBSON changed their vote from '`aye'' to ``no.''
  Mr. LAZIO, Mr. MANN, and Ms. HARMAN changed their vote from ``no'' to 
``aye.''
  So the amendment was rejected.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

                          ____________________