[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 109 (Tuesday, August 9, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                           A-TO-Z LEGISLATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Poshard). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Kingston] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to speak about the A-to-Z 
legislation. A lot of people have misconceptions about A-to-Z and the 
related debate to it. I thought it was important as we discuss crime, 
as we discuss GATT, as we discuss health care, not to let A-to-Z get 
caught and fall through the cracks.
  The discharge petition for the A-to-Z spending cuts bill has 209 
signatures, and I have started to get some letters about it from people 
back home who are saying, ``Don't support A-to-Z because it will put my 
COLA's at risk.'' In truth, what the A-to-Z does, I think, in the long 
term is gives the Congress an opportunity to preserve COLA's or other 
spending that may be affected or may be worthwhile. What the A-to-Z 
spending bill does is simply allows Congress to lay on the table 
particular ideas and areas that we could cut the budget on and give 
specifics.
  As a newcomer to Congress, one of the things I have been amazed at 
and a little frustrated with is if you have a $10-billion bill and you 
cut a $1-billion item out of it after 2 or 3 hours of debate on the 
floor of the House, the bill does not reduce to a $9-billion bill, it 
just stays at $10 billion, and that $1 billion becomes unearmarked and 
then it gets in conference committee and it can be split any way that 
they want to. I do not think that is what the American people have in 
mind when they say cut spending and cut this particular item.
  The other thing that frustrates me is that when we in Washington--and 
this is not unique to Congress, this seems to be everybody inside the 
beltway of this town--when we talk about cuts, we are not talking about 
cuts, we are talking about a decrease in the projected increase.
  Going back to the $10-billion legislation again, what happens if we 
say, ``Yes, but we cut it a billion dollars,'' what we really mean is 
we thought we were going to spend $11 billion but instead we spent $10 
billion and that is a cut, even though last year the total bill was 
$8.5 billion.
  You know, when we cut our budgets back home, when my wife and I sit 
down and decide what we are going to cut and I say, ``Well, Libby, you 
need to quit going to the gas station, quit eating out so much, maybe 
instead of spending $30 this month at fast-food, maybe you can spend 
$28.'' And then she says, ``No, I think most of the cutting ought come 
from your side of the pocketbook in the family and you need to quit 
going on so many fishing trips,'' and so forth. That is what a cut is 
in the real world, spending less money this year than you did last 
year. But not in Washington; it only means you are not going to spend 
as much as you might spend, a decrease in the projected increase.

  I think what the A-to-Z bill would do for Members like me and many 
other Members is give us an opportunity to vote on some of the things 
that we see as fat. For example, I think the franking privilege is 
somewhat abused. I have a lot of franked pieces of mail that have gone 
out suspiciously close to election time that look like a doggone ad 
campaign brochure. Well, that might be great for some Representatives, 
but to me it is something we ought to cut out. I think we ought to put 
it on the table to cut down.
  IRS could crack down on rent subsidies. That is something we could 
lay on the table. The helium reserve plant, we have been debating that 
since probably the beginning of the Congress. Our country is 218 years 
old, and I think as soon as helium was invented, we have been debating 
cutting back on it. But we seem to spend about $700 million a year on 
the helium reserve plant.
  Let us put that on the table and vote for it.
  Money spent on illegal aliens, these are things that would all come 
to light and come to the floor for a full debate if A-to-Z passes. The 
idea behind it is not that these programs are bad, it is just that we 
have 435 Members of Congress, and some of us feel some things are waste 
and others might see it as they're being good. Of course, the standard 
joke is my economic development is the next guy's pork.
  Well, A-to-Z would sort of let us have a good debate on that. I hope 
that as this Congress goes through health care at this breakneck speed 
we are traveling on now, that we do not forget we have a significant 
piece of legislation that is still in need of signatures on the 
discharge petition and still needs to come to the House floor for a 
vote.

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