[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 15 (Wednesday, January 25, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SOCIAL SECURITY EXEMPTION REDUCED TO SENSE-OF-CONGRESS RESOLUTION
(Mr. KLECZKA asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. KLECZKA. Mr. Speaker, I take the floor this morning to expose a
caper which will be unfolding later today. A couple days ago I and
several of my colleagues went to the Committee on Rules to ask to be
made in order a balanced budget amendment which would exempt Social
Security.
However, the Committee on Rules did not report favorably on that, and
will deny us a very clean vote on exempting Social Security from the
balanced budget amendment. What they did was produce a sense-of-
Congress resolution, House Concurrent Resolution 17, which would exempt
Social Security from any bills coming out of committees.
Know full well, this is the same mechanism, Mr. Speaker, that we
declare National Pickle Week around here, so the Republicans are
treating the trust fund for Social Security as if it were National
Pickle Week. Know full well, it is becoming very clear to me and other
people that the $423 billion surplus that currently is in the trust
fund will be on the table once this balanced budget amendment passes.
I support the balanced budget amendment, but let us not take that
contract we have made with our seniors and destroy it because of this.
The end result, Mr. Speaker, is that once this balanced budget
amendment goes to the States, it will be defeated.
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