[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 118 (Thursday, July 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10330-S10331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE RESCISSIONS BILL

  Mr. BOND. Mr. President, I am encouraged that we could have some 
movement on the rescissions bill. There are many important issues that 
are facing this body right now. I happen to think that regulatory 
reform is extremely important, not only for small businesses, for 
farmers, but for the growth of our American economy.
  But, as we look at these long-range programs, we have a very severe 
short-term problem. I have the distinction of chairing the Veterans 
Administration, HUD, and Independent Agencies Appropriations 
Subcommittee. This so-called rescissions bill is actually an emergency 
and rescissions bill. It is the supplemental emergency bill because the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency is getting very close to running 
out of money. We have had disasters, such as the California earthquakes 
and fires and floods, we have had the bombing in Oklahoma City, we have 
had floods in the Midwest, and the money available for FEMA is about at 
its end. Nobody expects a disaster to occur and the Feds to say, 
``Sorry, we cannot come. We do not have any money.'' But we are about 
at that point.
  That is why this bill, the emergency supplemental and emergency 
rescissions bill, is vitally important. That is No. 1.
  Second, we have had our defense budget drawn down because of police 
actions, responding to needs in various parts of the country. The 
distinguished chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee will 
tell you, if we do not get this bill through, in September we are going 
to have to shut down operations for ships, for airplanes. That means 
that American pilots, who have to maintain their currency, will not be 
getting that currency. It will be dangerous to them.
  These are the needs for the emergency supplemental. But let me tell 
you first hand, as one who worries every day about funding the vitally 
important functions of assisted housing, of medical care for veterans, 
of EPA, NASA, and others, what is going to happen if we do not pass the 
rescissions bill. This is not a question of reprogramming and we are 
going to fine tune things here and there. We have taken a rescission 
hit. We have, in this rescissions bill, given up $8 billion in budget 
authority. That is money appropriated for the current year but which 
will not be spent until future years.
  The reason we had to do that is because HUD, primarily, has been 
spending out of control. And, in HUD, when you appropriate money 1 
year, you get the budget authority out there but it starts spending out 
in future years. So 60 percent of the dollars that will be spent next 
year in the subcommittee that I chair are spent as a result of previous 
years' appropriations. And our limit, what we can spend in that year, 
is determined by the actual outlays.
  We have, in all, over $6 billion of budget authority rescinded in HUD 
under this bill. We have worked with Housing and Urban Development, we 
have worked with our colleagues on the other side, and while nobody 
likes to cut budget authority, they have agreed that this is the least 
harmful.
  Let me tell you what happens if that rescissions bill does not go 
through. If that rescissions bill does not go through, we have another 
billion dollars of outlays in the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development that we cannot control. And that is likely to mean that we 
will not have the money to continue to provide public housing in 
federally assisted housing for all of the 4.8 million families that 
depend upon HUD funding for their housing during the coming fiscal year 
of 1996. We are going to be hard pressed to fund that housing and other 
vitally important programs like CDBG, and HOME, and the work of the 
Veterans Administration and NASA, as it is. I think we can do it if 
this rescissions bill passes.
  If this rescissions bill continues to languish as people try to work 
out reprogramming for the last 2\1/2\ months of this fiscal year, if we 
do not get the rescissions bill, those who hold up the rescissions bill 
will have to go home and explain why some people are going to be thrown 
out, thrown out of federally assisted housing they now occupy.
  The subcommittee on Labor and HHS has $1.3 billion in outlays that 
depend upon this bill. This rescissions bill is vitally important. I 
urge my colleagues to move it.
  Mr. DORGAN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota. 

[[Page S10331]]

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 10 
minutes in morning business.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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