[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 135 (Friday, September 23, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


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

 
                       GOP CONTRACT WITH AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Horn] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, next Tuesday, over 300 Republican Members of 
Congress and candidates for the House will come together on the Capitol 
steps to lay out a contract, a contract with the American people. Its 
premise is simple: Should the American people give the Republican Party 
a majority in the House of Representatives, we will guarantee by 
contract that within the first 100 days, January through March, 1995, 
certain bills will come to the House floor for an up or down vote.
  With other Republicans, I will sign my name on that contract, for all 
to see. Its terms are nonnegotiable. The commitments made will happen, 
if we are a majority. The bills that we commit to bring to the floor 
for a vote will demonstrate what this party stands for.
  We represent a commitment for reform, a commitment to change, a 
commitment to action. On opening day we will start with changing the 
rules, and, among other things, we will abolish proxies in committees. 
If one is to register one's vote in committee, one will have to show up 
in person, listen to the discussion line by line on the bill, and cast 
his or her vote as the matter comes up.
  Right now a chair and his Republican counterpart can hold batches of 
proxies of absent Members and direct them in any direction they want, 
unless they have been instructed. We want people to be active 
participants in committees.
  We will also work to adopt the rule we adopted in the Republican 
Conference at the beginning of the 103d Congress, and that is to rotate 
the principal party member, the chairman or ranking member for the 
minority, every 6 years. That will be the beginning of bringing some 
democracy to this House.
  Besides that commitment of action on opening day, what we will do in 
the first 100 days is bring up some long-buried items, or some long-
weakened and softened items when they come before us. That is term 
limits, the balanced budget, the line-item veto, welfare reform, and a 
number of other matters that have been buried in committee by the 
Democratic Party for a number of years.
  For example, our colleague, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. 
McCollum], introduced a term limits constitutional amendment in 1981 
when he was first sworn into this body. It has been buried in the 
Committee on the Judiciary since 1981. For a dozen years, it was not 
even given the benefit of a hearing on the merits or demerits. When it 
finally was given a hearing, in the fall of 1993, guess what? Only 
those opposed were allowed to testify.
  Mr. Speaker, this House has to hear from parties on both sides of the 
issue. This House has to bring before the House what the American 
people expect them to bring before the House, which are those issues of 
burning concern to our citizens, be they Democrats, Republicans, 
libertarians, peace or freedom, independent. The people want action out 
of this body, and we represent that commitment to action.
  Unfortunately, the majority party, including the White House media 
machine, has started a sniping campaign of this idea, that one 
political party will sign on the dotted line to make a contract with 
America to get before this body, without a lot of shenanigans of the 
Committee on Rules, the measures that count and that the people want 
decided one way or the other.
  The question is, why are they sniping at this? What can possibly be 
wrong with writing a contract with the American people? Some might not 
like every item on the contract agenda. Fine. Let us vote. Let us vote 
``yea'' or ``nay''. As always, we will debate.
  We will not be closed down hopefully by the Committee on Rules in a 
majority Republican Conference, as we have been in recent years in this 
body, limited in the amendments we can bring before it, 100 percent 
closed rules between January and May 1993, which meant you could not 
freely amend the bills on this floor. The average was, I believe, 79 
percent last year. Closed rules, that denies democracy.
  But the days of gridlock and the days of buried proposals and the 
days and months and years of false promises by the current majority 
will be over. We will see votes on the House floor. Remember, it is a 
contract with America.

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