[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 147 (Wednesday, September 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9252-H9253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


              WE CANNOT ALLOW THE GOVERNMENT TO SHUT DOWN

  (Mr. GEKAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, for several terms now I have introduced 
legislation which cannot pass the Congress of the United States, cannot 
be enacted into law, because it makes good sense. I have introduced 
legislation that would avoid the train wreck to which the gentlewoman 
from Maryland [Mrs. Morella] has just referred. What it does is if, on 
September 30, the Congress of the United States and the President have 
failed to enact a budget, then automatically into play comes instant 
replay of last year's budget beginning on October 1.

[[Page H 9253]]

  This prevents for all time the specter of a Government shutdown. At 
the same time it permits the President and the Congress, if there is 
disagreement as to the extent of the budget, to continue to work to 
create a new budget. In the meantime, science goes on, research goes 
on, the Federal workers stay in place, no havoc is wreaked in the 
bureaucracy of Washington, although some people would say that might be 
a good thing. But the point is that we cannot allow the Government to 
shut down.

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