[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 118 (Thursday, July 20, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10403-S10404]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           REGULATORY REFORM

  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I would just like to talk, again, 
about regulatory reform. We have been discussing, on this floor, who 
killed regulatory reform. But the rank and file small business person 
out in America knows one thing for sure. Regulatory reform just died in 
the U.S. Senate and the small business person who has been looking for 
relief so he or she would be able to grow and prosper and create the 
new jobs that keep our economy vital are not going to have that 
opportunity because we have not done the job we said we would do to try 
to get the harassment of Federal regulations off the backs of our small 
business people.
  We have been working on this bill for 10 days. There are hundreds of 
amendments still left on the bill that we failed to get cloture on once 
again. We have had three cloture votes. What is it going to take? We 
have been in rooms meeting, talking about the issues that were raised. 
But the bottom line is, in 10 days of intense negotiations, floor 
debate, working on this bill, we have failed and the small business 
people of our country especially are going to understand that we did 
not get regulatory reform. And when 54 out of 54 Republicans voted for 
it to go forward, I think they are going to figure out who wanted 
regulatory reform.
  We just passed bills that open trade in the world: NAFTA, GATT, so we 
would have the opportunities to compete. But our business people cannot 
compete when they are so saddled with regulations that they have to add 
costs to their product because of the regulations and, therefore, the 
product will not sell in the international marketplace because it is 
priced too high. That is the bottom line. That is why it hurts the 
ability to create jobs in this country, when we have so many 
regulations that our businesses are spending money in lawsuits and 
regulatory compliance and they cannot put the money where it needs to 
be, and that is trying to make their product better, giving jobs to 
people to create the products and being able to sell those products 
anywhere in the world because we can be competitive.
  So, Mr. President, something died here today and I do not think the 
small business people of our country are going to be asking who did it. 
But they are going to know that their regulatory burdens are not going 
to be lifted.
  Mr. President, that is a pretty sad message to have to send to the 
small business people of this country. We cannot let regulatory reform 
die like this, by two votes. It would be unconscionable. So I hope the 
Democrats will get together, and I hope they will say the rhetoric is 
real and say what we can really do to take away the 300 amendments that 
are now pending on the bill. And if they are serious, they can do 
something about it.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.
  Mr. FORD. Mr. President, let me just say, I have been listening to 
all this back and forth. I think it is part of the process. It does not 
bother me too much. But I listened to my constituents. One Senator gets 
up and says it this way. Another Senator gets up and says no, it is 
this way and you are wrong. No, you are wrong.
  Somebody has to be right and somebody has to be wrong. I learned from 
the other side of the aisle how to file amendments. They bring them in 
here 100 at a time, you know? They taught us how to put the amendments 
on. Now we get accused of having a few amendments out. We talk about 
NAFTA. Something happened to NAFTA in the House because they cut off 
the ability to help Mexico by eliminating the funding.
  The Democrats did not do that, Republicans did. There is a scenario 
going here, bouncing back and forth like a ping-pong ball. I think it 
is time everybody understand we do not intend to let this bill die. 
That is No. 1.
  No. 2, we want to continue to talk. I have been here day and night. I 
do not think any of the Senators have had to spend the night here 
recently. Get the cots. The Senator from Texas probably remembers all-
night sessions. You know, it gets to be an interesting occasion. It is 
awfully hard to keep somebody on the floor. It is awfully hard to get 
any kind of rest, but we have been here all night. Recently we have not 
done that. That is the debate of this institution.
  So when you start badmouthing each other around here, I do not think 
it helps anyone. It just hardens the situation. I think we ought to 
continue to talk, continue to work. We want to make as good a bill as 
we possibly can.
  I have never heard in any of the remarks tonight what it does to 
individuals. What does it do to the general public? What does it do to 
the worker? What are these things we are trying to do here now?
  I hear nothing about big business. Big business had a 14-percent 
increase in profits the first quarter and individual hourly wages went 
down. Something is going well out there, if they are making that kind 
of money. Somehow we have to come together and think about the 
individual and working with the companies.
  Mr. President, I had not intended to make any remarks. I do not 
normally make many speeches on the Senate floor. But I just think this 
knocking each other out here, just hardens the situation. It creates 
gridlock, to come out here and get accused of things. We do what we 
think is best. I do not always win. I am having a hard time winning 
anything right now.
 But I understand the procedure. I was here for 6 years when the 
Republicans were in the majority in the Senate before. I went from 
majority to minority. Then all of a sudden we got it back again. We are 
back someplace else.

  So it is the system, and the system is debate. The system is talking. 
The system is communicating. The system is doing the best job you can, 
and you have to have something that you really believe in. And when you 
vote for it, you voted on the best piece of legislation that can be 
proposed to this institution. Sure, we have disagreements. That is what 
it is all about. That is what the committee system is all about. We do 
basically the same thing in committees that we do on the Senate floor. 
We listen to witnesses. We make up our mind. We offer amendments. We 
vote on amendments, and we vote the legislation up or down to send it 
to the Senate floor. That is part of the system. Then we do it 
basically again. It goes through the mill several times before it goes 
to the President for signature.
  This is not a stealth Congress. A stealth Congress is to do it real 
quick and get rid of it before you get someone to jump on you or before 
the phone starts ringing off the hook, before people start sending out 
letters. Stealth Congress is do it quick and get it over with. 

[[Page S10404]]

  Some things are too important to do them quickly and get it over 
with. Some things are too important to individuals in this Chamber. And 
I learned from Majority Leader Mike Mansfield that on the Senate floor 
everybody is equal except the majority leader and the Democratic leader 
in this case. And the Chair recognizes them before anybody else. I 
understand that. That is a precedent. We exercise that. But everybody 
else has an individual right here. So we exercise that. I hope that we 
never lose that and that we start working together rather than try to 
divide, which will not get us together in the future.
  I yield the floor, Mr. President.
  Mr. GRAMM addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.

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