[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 87 (Friday, July 1, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 1995--CONFERENCE 
                                 REPORT

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will now 
proceed to vote on the conference report accompanying H.R. 4454, which 
the clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       The committee on conference on the disagreeing votes of the 
     two Houses on the amendments of the Senate to the bill (H.R. 
     4454) making appropriations for the legislative branch for 
     the fiscal year ending September 30, 1995, and for other 
     purposes, having met, after full and free conference, have 
     agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective 
     Houses this report, signed by a majority of the conferees.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, the Senate will proceed to 
the consideration of the conference report.
  (The conference report is printed in the House proceedings of the 
Record of June 28, 1994.)
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I am pleased to recommend to the Senate the 
conference report on H.R. 4454, making appropriations for the 
legislative branch for fiscal year 1995, and for other purposes.
  The conference report and joint explanatory statement provide a 
detailed description of the agreements we are recommending. I will take 
only a few moments of the Senate's time to summarize the highlights.
  The conference agreement provides a total of $2,367,421,100 in budget 
authority for the legislative branch in fiscal 1995. This is 
$55,712,500 in budget authority and $4,130,000 in outlays under the 
subcommittee's 602(b) allocation and $142,282,400 less than the 
President's budget request. It is also $1,375,000, less than the amount 
recommended in the bill that was passed by the Senate on June 16, 1994.
  These reductions were achieved notwithstanding the need to provide 
contingency funding for higher pay costs than were assumed in the House 
version of the bill. If the Congress does not approve a 2-percent COLA 
and 1.05-percent locality adjustment for the Washington-Baltimore area, 
the total provided in the bill will be reduced by $10,489,000 under 
section 311.
  The conferees also agreed to the substance of Architect of the 
Capitol Human Resources Act and to modified language amending section 
207 of P.L. 102-392. The language adopted incorporates high volume 
``duplicating'' within the definition of printing for purposes of 
procurement from external sources and includes a class of work 
exemption.
  In closing, let me once again recognize Chairman Fazio, the ranking 
member, Mr. Young, and the other House conferees. Meeting these 
gentlemen in conference is always a pleasurable experience. My thanks 
to them and their capable staff.
  Much of the credit for what we have accomplished in this bill belongs 
to my ranking member, Senator Mack and the other Senate conferees. The 
Senate is particularly fortunate that Senator Mack serves as ranking 
member of this subcommittee. He is committed to the welfare of this 
institution and of the legislative branch in general. His ideas and 
advice are invariably sensible and constructive.
  The Senate delegation on the legislative bill, of course, always 
includes our full committee chairman, Senator Byrd, and his colleague 
and ranking member, Senator Hatfield. Both personify what it means to 
be a Senator. Their guidance and assistance are invaluable.
  Finally, I wish to acknowledge the work of our committee staff: Jerry 
Bonham, the majority clerk on the subcommittee, Jim English, the 
majority staff director for the full committee, Mary Dewald, the chief 
clerk for the full committee, Elizabeth Blevins, staff assistant for 
the full committee, and Keith Kennedy, the minority staff director for 
the full committee who, fortunately, is also assigned to this 
Subcommittee.
  Mr. SASSER. Mr. President, the Senate Budget Committee has examined 
H.R. 4454, the legislative branch appropriations bill and has found 
that the bill is under its 602(b) budget authority allocation by $56 
million and under its 602(b) outlay allocation by $4 million.
  I compliment the distinguished manager of the bill, Senator Reid, and 
the distinguished ranking member of the Legislative Branch 
Subcommittee, Senator Mack, on all of their hard work.
  Mr. President, I have a table prepared by the Budget Committee which 
shows the official scoring of the legislative branch appropriations 
bill and I ask unanimous consent that it be inserted in the Record at 
the appropriate point.
  There being no objection, the table was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

  SENATE BUDGET COMMITTEE SCORING OF H.R. 4454--FISCAL 1995 LEGISLATIVE 
                  BRANCH APPROPRIATION--CONFERENCE BILL                 
                        [In millions of dollars]                        
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                      Budget            
                   Bill summary                     authority   Outlays 
                                                                        
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discretionary totals:                                                   
    New spending in bill..........................      2,367      2,174
    Outlays from prior years appropriations.......  .........        206
    Permanent/advance appropriations..............          0          0
    Supplementals.................................          0       -(*)
                                                   ---------------------
      Subtotal, discretionary spending............      2,367      2,380
Mandatory totals..................................         92         92
                                                   ---------------------
      Bill total..................................      2,459      2,472
Senate 602(b) allocation..........................      2,515      2,476
                                                   ---------------------
      Difference..................................        -56         -4
Discretionary totals above (+) or below (-)                             
    President's request...........................       -142        -77
    House-passed bill.............................        -31         19
    Senate-reported bill..........................         -2          3
    Senate-passed bill............................         -1         -1
      Defense.....................................          0          0
      International Affairs.......................          0  .........
      Domestic Discretionary......................      2,367      2,380
------------------------------------------------------------------------


  Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, the conference report on the 
legislative branch appropriation bill for fiscal year 1995 makes some 
necessary reforms, and I commend Senators Reid and Mack for their 
contributions to that effort. This bill will stop unsolicited mass 
mailings, which I support. It also reduces spending on the Senate 
itself. We will spend almost $6 million less on the Senate next year 
than we did this year. Since fiscal year 1992, spending on the Senate 
has declined by 12 percent in constant dollars.
  Mr. President, overall spending on the legislative branch will 
increase under this legislation after going down slightly over the past 
few years. Mr. President, I applaud the reductions we have made in the 
past, and the reforms included in this bill, but I will vote against 
the conference report because I believe we should cut funding for the 
legislative branch.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The yeas and nays have not been ordered.
  Mr. JEFFORDS. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second.
  There is a sufficient second.
  The yeas and nays are ordered, and the clerk will call the roll
  The assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  The result was announced--yeas 73, nays 27, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 183 Leg.]

                                YEAS--73

     Akaka
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Boren
     Boxer
     Bradley
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Cochran
     Cohen
     D'Amato
     Danforth
     Daschle
     DeConcini
     Dodd
     Dole
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Durenberger
     Exon
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Gorton
     Graham
     Grassley
     Harkin
     Hatfield
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Jeffords
     Johnston
     Kassebaum
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mack
     Mathews
     Mikulski
     Mitchell
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murkowski
     Murray
     Nunn
     Packwood
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Riegle
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Sasser
     Shelby
     Simon
     Simpson
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thurmond
     Wallop
     Wellstone
     Wofford

                                NAYS--27

     Baucus
     Brown
     Coats
     Conrad
     Coverdell
     Craig
     Faircloth
     Feingold
     Gramm
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Heflin
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Kempthorne
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Lott
     Lugar
     McCain
     McConnell
     Metzenbaum
     Nickles
     Pressler
     Roth
     Smith
     Warner
  So the conference report was agreed to.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote by which the 
conference report was agreed to.
  Mr. NUNN. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, today, we approved the budget for fiscal 
year 1995 for the legislative branch of Government. We have 
appropriated $2.4 billion to operate Congress, the General Accounting 
Office, the Government Printing Office, the Library of Congress, the 
Botanic Gardens, the Congressional Budget Office, the Architect of the 
Capitol, and the Office of Technology Assessment. On its face, this 
bill is a 4.1-percent increase over the fiscal year 1994 appropriation, 
but it is important to note the steps that were taken by the Senate to 
continue our efforts to limit spending.
  The fiscal year 1995 appropriation for the Senate is $5.8 million 
less than last year. That is a reduction of 1.3 percent. The Senate is 
the only account within this appropriations bill that has gone down.
  I am especially pleased that we have eliminated funding for 
unsolicited, franked mass mailings. This action alone allowed us to 
reduce our spending by $5 million. Of course, Senators still will be 
able to answer inquires from constituents and provide them with updates 
on matters in which they have expressed concern. But we have ended the 
practice of papering our States with so-called postal patron 
newsletters that too often find their way, unread, into trash bins. 
Perhaps, the House will follow the Senate's lead by taking similar 
steps next year.
  In this bill, the Senate takes an important step toward increasing 
accountability. Every year beginning in 1995, the published report by 
the Secretary of the Senate will contain a statement of each Senator's 
office allotment, expenditures, and year-end balance. Our constituents 
will be able to see for themselves how we use our official funds.
  There are two programs that have received increases that I 
wholeheartedly support. First, the Library Of Congress' National 
Library Service Program for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has 
received an increase of $2.3 million. The National Library Service 
provides recordings of books and magazines on cassettes and discs, as 
well as equipment to play the recordings, to individuals with 
disabilities that impede their access to printed material. This is an 
extremely important and valuable service. The additional funds will be 
used to repair and update the playback equipment.
  Second, $1.5 million was restored in the conference report to permit 
the Government Printing Office to complete its work on providing 
Government information to Federal depository libraries through 
electronic on-line services. The GPO Access System will provide direct, 
on-line access to the Congressional Record and the Federal Register.
  I am pleased that the Senate has continued its efforts to keep 
spending down. I believe that more can and should be done to limit 
spending on the legislative branch and hope that next year, the House 
will follow the Senate's example and make a greater effort to cut 
unnecessary spending on itself.

                          ____________________