[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 122 (Tuesday, August 23, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 23, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                 EMERGENCY SPENDING CONTROL ACT OF 1994

                                 ______


                               speech of

                          HON. KAREN SHEPHERD

                                of utah

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, August 17, 1994

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4906) to 
     amend the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 
     1974 to limit consideration of nonemergency matters in 
     emergency legislation:

  Ms. SHEPHERD. Mr. Chairman, the Congress must reform procedures for 
enacting emergency spending legislation. When natural disasters strike, 
when Americans watch as their homes are engulfed by flames, or stand on 
their rooftops as flood waters continue to rise, the Federal Government 
must provide immediate assistance. Regrettably, too often emergency or 
supplemental appropriations bills have either added to the deficit or 
been laden with extraneous, nonemergency spending. Though natural 
disasters by definition defy prediction, we can prepare for these 
emergencies and ensure that the only spending we approve goes to those 
in need.
  The Congress should, as part of its annual budget resolution, 
establish an emergency, or rainy day spending account within all 
applicable spending caps. Virtually every State has established such a 
fund and it's time the Federal Government follow suit. This account 
should be used to pay for any crisis designated as an emergency by the 
President, in that fiscal year. Any remaining funds should be returned 
to the Treasury for deficit reduction. This process will ensure that 
any emergency checks are not signed with red ink, adding to the Federal 
deficit.
  In addition, the Congress should enact legislation which prohibits 
the Office of Management and Budget [OMB], and the legislative branch 
from waiving any budget ceiling for emergency spending which contains 
nonemergency funding. When natural disasters are of such a magnitude as 
to exceed the funding in the reserve account, budgetary restrictions 
should not stand in the way of helping fellow Americans in need. This 
should not be an opportunity, however, for other extraneous riders to 
be attached, which have nothing whatsoever to do with the emergency at 
hand. As such, an automatic point of order should be upheld.
  For far too long some have used the common good to hide blatant self 
interest and the legitimate to conceal the questionable. That practice 
must end. The American people deserve no less.

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