[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 142 (Wednesday, September 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8890-H8891]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        DISCRETIONARY SPENDING REDUCTION AND CONTROL ACT OF 1995

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I wonder how many Americans 
really think that the Members of this body will have the gumption to 
balance the budget 7 years from now. Mr. Speaker, I wonder how many 
Members of this Chamber think that we are really going to make the hard 
cuts that are going to be required that are called upon by the budget 
resolution that we passed earlier this year to balance the budget 7 
years from now.
  I want to talk about the bill that I have just introduced, H.R. 2295, 
that will help assure that we reach that balanced budget by the year 
2002. Mr. Speaker, the vacation is over, it is 

[[Page H 8891]]
time for us to do what we were sent here to do, and that is balance the 
budget. In June we passed a historic piece of budget legislation, House 
Concurrent Resolution 67.
  This budget resolution starts us on a glidepath to a balanced budget 
by the year 2002. If we reach that goal, it will be for the first time 
since 1969. But there is a problem. This glidepath is a resolution and 
it is not a binding law signed by the President. That means in effect, 
it is only a suggestion to future sessions of Congress.
  In 1985, Congress passed Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, tying discretionary 
spending to deficit reduction. Unfortunately, the good intentions of 
that bill did not do much to reduce the deficit.
  In 1990 we had another confrontation. In fact, in the 1990 
confrontation with President George Bush, we increased the debt ceiling 
six times in about a 2-month period to encourage the administration to 
sign on to that particular agreement. That agreement did place caps on 
discretionary spending. Those caps are set to expire in 1998, and those 
caps are too high to allow us to achieve a balanced budget by the year 
2002.
  If we are serious about balancing the budget, let us put into law the 
spending caps of this year's budget resolution. That is what H.R. 2295 
does. H.R. 2295 is my bill and we call it the Discretionary Spending 
Reduction and Control Act of 1995. H.R. 2295 amends the Congressional 
Budget Act of 1974, it amends the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings amendments by 
updating and extending discretionary spending caps and the pay-go 
requirements laid out in this year's budget resolution. It establishes 
into law this year's budget resolution targets for spending. These caps 
required by law will help ensure that we will stay on target toward a 
balanced budget by the year 2002.
  Mr. Speaker, is Congress going to have the willingness to continue to 
cut spending? Let me give you a verbal description of the glidepath to 
a balanced budget. We are asking for a reduction in spending, somewhat 
slight, not very much reduction, in the first year and second year. The 
big cuts in spending and those requirements and pressures on Congress 
will be in the outyears of the fifth, sixth, and seventh year. I mean 
with the complaints and the criticisms and the agony that we have seen 
this Chamber exhort with the slight budget cuts this year, it is going 
to be absolutely tough in those outyears.
  We have to have legislation that keeps us on that glidepath. I ask my 
colleagues to support H.R. 2295 that will put into law this year's 
budget resolution.

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