[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8546]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                  PRIORITIZING APPROPRIATION MEASURES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to really question what 
we are doing today by bringing up legislative appropriations.
  Mr. Speaker, when I was home this weekend, people were going crazy 
saying, what do you mean there is going to be a train wreck? There is 
going to be a huge train wreck and all sorts of people who are Federal 
employees may be asked to be furloughed forever, who knows for how 
long; to go without pay, and benefits could be cut off. We are going to 
look so silly, because never has Congress, in the entire history I 
remember, been so late in dealing with the 13 funding bills that are 
absolutely essential. Here we are, it is September, the money runs out 
September 30, and not one bill has been passed.
  Mr. Speaker, the shocker is, guess who is not going to be hurt by 
this train wreck? Us. This is the imperial Congress in spades, and this 
is wrong. Because the only bill of those 13 bills ready for action 
today and ready to move to the President's desk is the legislative 
appropriations.
  Think how that looks to the American people, that while we could not 
get around to doing the other 12 bills, and while we are later doing 
these bills than any other Congress in history, and that this country 
may look very, very silly as we go through all of these throes of 
shutting down Government and all of the costly additions that we know 
that costs. I had the Government Accounting Office do a study on how 
much that cost the last time we did it, and we did it just for a few 
days. Well, it ended up costing almost a half a billion dollars. For a 
country with the kind of debt we have, that is a stupid way to spend 
money.
  So here we are, Mr. Speaker, a Congress who has not gotten its work 
done on time, who has not done any of the 13 bills, but today, we are 
going to take up our pay, our staff's pay, and the pay of the other 
body, because heaven forbid, we would not want to be hurt by this train 
wreck that is coming. This is the way we untie ourselves from the rail.
  Now, the prior gentleman gave a very good speech down in the well 
talking about the gift ban. That is another reason that I think that we 
are taking this up with such haste today, because we do not want to 
deal with the issues around the gift ban. We have dealt with them 
before, we know what they are, this House has passed them before. But 
if we can hurry this thing through as the very first thing that is done 
in this body, just as people are getting off planes and coming back, 
they will not realize that they have just exempted themselves from the 
act that is going to fall on folks, and that we do not have to deal 
with the ugly issues because people are not informed and will not know 
to vote no on the previous question and so forth.
  Mr. Speaker, the people in my district came to the rally yesterday 
because I introduced a bill saying, I want to change the rules of the 
House so that we never pass the funding for the House and the Senate 
until we have passed the funding for every other branch of Government. 
This running up and saying, exempt us, keep us out of the way, is 
wrong, and we ought to change that rule.
  Now, I know that putting this resolution in today is not going to 
work, because you already have it on the schedule and here it is, boom, 
boom, gone, over. But we really have to say that in an era where the 
people were promised reform, this was going to be a
 different Congress and so forth, we look like the most imperial of the 
imperial Congresses.

  In my district there are many, many people who work for the Federal 
Government, and I think after the Oklahoma bombing, many Americans 
realize, these people look just like their neighbors. We should stop 
calling them bureaucrats and curl our lip as we do it. These are 
families that live in our communities that are trying to make ends 
meet. As I introduced this at a rally, they all said yes. They could 
not believe that we would have the audacity to take ourselves out of 
this train wreck and to do it as the first order of business when we 
came back.
  They also went on to ask all sorts of questions which I could not 
answer, were they going to be impacted, what about their children in 
school, what about their mortgage payment, how long were they going to 
be furloughed, would they get back pay? And to all of those questions I 
had to say, ``You know, I do not know, because Congress has not 
finished its work on any of the 13 bills. But the good news is, today 
we will have finished work on our pay.''
  That did not go over well. They like my new rule. I cannot get it 
passed at this late date. I just cannot believe the brazenness of our 
doing this first, taking care of ourselves first. I hope every Member 
of this body thinks about how this is going to look, if we rush in here 
after the break, and the first thing we make sure of is that we take 
care of ourselves, and then we go on to let everybody else dangle out 
there in all of this anxiety of which agencies will be chopped, which 
ones will not, who will be on furlough, when will people be called 
back.
  Think of what we would say if another country's parliament did this. 
Think of what we would say if we watched France or Germany shut down 
because they could not act. Well, that is what they are going to say 
about us.
  I certainly hope we do not do this today. I urge Members to get on 
the resolution. But, better yet, vote ``no'' today, and let us get on 
with dealing with the rest of the business before we put ourselves 
first. That is not reform, that is the same old business, only even 
worse. I have never seen that happen before.
  Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a resolution that requires 
Congress to consider and pass all other appropriations before voting on 
the legislative branch appropriations.
  This year Congress has not finished any of the 13 appropriations 
bills. Never has Congress been this derelict. My bill is needed to 
force Congress to act responsibly rather than playing politics by 
threatening to shut down the Government. It will prevent what has been 
called the train wreck.
  If Congress isn't tied to the tracks, then they are much freer to 
play fast and loose with everyone else's lives.
  It is outrageous that the first appropriations bill to pass is 
funding for Congress. The message this sends to every household in 
America is that we will take care of ourselves but everyone else is 
nonessential.
  The imperial Congress is alive and well. If you thought the 
Republicans were reformers, you're wrong. This shouldn't surprise most 
Americans. It is always the little guy who gets the raw end of the deal 
when Congress plays politics.
  Shutting down the Federal Government wastes money. In 1991 the 
General Accounting Office estimated that as much as $607.3 million was 
wasted during the 3-day 1990 Columbus Day shutdown. In my district a 
shutdown will cost $10 to $15 million a day.
  The rest of the world will laugh. Imagine what Americans would say if 
another country shut down their government because their parliament 
failed to pass funding bills.
  Oklahoma City showed us our neighbors are Federal workers trying to 
do the best job possible. Playing politics with their lives while 
exempting Congress and their staff from any pain is the most 
demoralizing act imaginable.
  Stop the book tours and get to work on the huge backlog of 
appropriations bills. And don't pay yourselves until you do. That's 
what my bill proposes. Please back it.


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