[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 137 (Wednesday, September 6, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8582-H8583]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           AVOIDING THE TRAIN WRECK OF A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Gekas] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, the train wreck about which everyone is 
speaking these days is to occur if the Congress fails to pass the 13 
appropriations bills, or having passed them, if the President of the 
United States vetoes them. Then we will have reached the point where, 
with no budget, the Government shuts down. This is an absolute crime 
against the people of the 

[[Page H 8583]]
United States to allow its Government to shut down.
  What can we do about it? The train wreck requires two trains. All we 
have to do is stop, look, and listen, and take steps to avert the train 
wreck. We have those in place, if only we would utilize them. What are 
they, Mr. Speaker? No. 1, for almost every term since I have been here 
this same train wreck has loomed in the vision and the future of each 
Congress since 1980, I believe. What happens? When September 30 comes 
and no budget has been enacted, then the Congress engages in all kinds 
of legalistic and legislative contortions to keep the Government going 
until the next impasse should occur, with still a deadline that has not 
produced a budget.
  If the President of the United States should veto the appropriation 
bills that the House passes, he will be saying in no uncertain terms: 
``I want these bills to be revisited, and I want more money spent in 
them,'' because the budget appropriation bills that the House 
Republicans have fashioned to present to the President call for lower 
spending, so the President, I suppose, in sending them back and vetoing 
them, says ``I want more spending.''
  Should we allow him to veto those bills with no plan for then 
enacting a full budget to his liking? That is why the train wreck may 
occur. What I have proposed in term after term since I have been here 
is the following: Instant replay. If the Congress and the President 
have failed to enact the budget by September 30 of any given year, 
then, according to my legislation, the next day, October 1, beginning 
the new fiscal year, automatically will go into place by way of instant 
replay the budget of last year.
  What does that do? That frees the spending at the levels of the 
previous year. What else does it do? It prevents for all time, forever, 
the possibility of and the reality of shutting down the Government. Was 
it not awful to have in 1990 the spectacle of our youngsters, all of 
them, gathered in Desert Shield in Saudi Arabia waiting for Desert 
Storm to occur, and while they are waiting there, preparing for battle, 
the U.S. Government, their country's Government, shuts down? That 
actually happened.
  If for no other reason than to have that never happen again, we 
should enact my instant replay legislation, not to mention the 
thousands of Federal workers who have to meet budgetary outlays, pay 
bills, feed their families, and do the necessary things to keep house 
and home and family together. Why should they be used as pawns in an 
unnecessary game being played by the White House and the Congress? I 
ask for support for my legislation.


                          ____________________