[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 154 (Friday, September 29, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9718-H9719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CONGRESS SHOULD STAY AND FINISH ITS WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Everett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is recognized for 
5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I was sorry that two people back did not 
yield, because I wanted to ask a few questions. I think it is very 
interesting that some folks are so exercised about the Boy Scouts and 
the Girl Scouts and senior citizens and other people, and called them 
paid lobbyists and all of this. Yet, when I offered an amendment to try 
and do the same thing vis-a-vis defense contractor lobbyists and others 
who were getting 100 percent of their money from the Federal 
Government, the same folks voted against that. Somehow the Boy Scouts 
you have to watch every minute, but the defense lobbyists, hey, they 
are cool, they are our guys. If you think the Boy Scouts and senior 
citizens have PAC's, you should see what the defense contractors have. 
You think that the Girl Scouts have clout, you should see what defense 
contractors have.
  In fact, we just saw today a bill rolled out of here $7 billion over 
the President's budget, loaded with all sorts of hardware they wanted 
and golden parachutes and every other such thing. It seems to me if we 
are going to be really sincere about this, we ought to treat everybody 
the same, and especially those who are doing it for profit.

[[Page H 9719]]

  One of the big differences between the seniors and the Boy Scouts and 
the Girl Scouts and everything else, if I may point that out, versus 
defense contractors, is defense contractors do it for profit. Defense 
contractors make money on this. The others are doing it because they 
are good citizens volunteering, and think they have something to add.
  That is not why I really came. I just saw that while I was waiting my 
turn. What I really wanted to talk about is the fact that here we are, 
it is fiscal New Year's Eve. Fiscal New Year's Eve comes the same time 
every single year. Guess what? Of the 13 funding bills that we should 
have reported and should have done by now, and a year ago all 13 were 
done and President Clinton had signed them, we are still in this very 
queasy, queasy, queasy position of what is going to happen. Yet, we are 
all going to take off and go out of here. I think that is ridiculous. 
We ought to stay here, get our work done.
  I think it is ironic that the only spending bill, the very first 
spending bill we got through, and we got through in both bodies first, 
was our own pay and our staff's pay. That looks a little piggy to me.
  Today we just voted down two spending bills because there was no 
consensus. Now we are going to go out for 10 days and come back, and we 
still have 11 bills hanging out there. We also have the debt ceiling 
looking at us. All of this is going to come to a smashing crash in 
November.
  My guess is what is going to happen is that there will be so much 
confusion when people come back, and it will be so action-packed and 
everything will be so jammed in, that the hope is that no one asks 
about details, we will all get stampeded like buffalos, we will be 
terrified if we do not go along, they will shut the Government down, it 
will be high drama, maybe we should have Academy Awards for who can 
give the best scene, but it is really frightening.
  If we look just at Medicare, we have not had the Medicare markup. It 
was supposed to be this week. They are saying Democrats are trying to 
scare them. I think it is scary when they will not show you, A, a bill, 
and B, they will not have the markup so people can go home and talk 
about it. We just had a hearing out on the lawn where we asked the 
trustees, ``Have you been asked in front of Committee on Ways and Means 
to testify on their bill? Have you seen the new bill on Medicare?'' No, 
they have not seen it, and no, they have not been asked to testify.

  We heard everybody saying, ``We have to do this, we have to do this 
because the trustees say we have to do this.'' Is it not interesting 
they did not ask the trustees if this is the right thing to do? They 
accuse us of playing politics, but my goodness, the trustees are the 
nonpolitical ones. You would think if you really want to be 
nonpolitical about this, take it to the trustees. Yet they have not 
heard the first thing.
  My guess is when we get back, they are going to cram that thing out 
of there. They will say, ``There is no more time.'' Of course, they 
just came back from 10 days off. ``There is no time, we can have no 
more hearings, we do not need to hear from the trustees,'' and we will 
shove it all into this huge, big snowball that they are going to call 
reconciliation.
  One of the good things that is happening is the O.J. Simpson trial is 
cranking down. Maybe the news people will start tuning in and finding 
what is happening here. But I think the average American is not going 
to be happy to know we ended the fiscal year without having our work 
done, with 11 bills not having passed this House, with a continuing 
resolution hanging out there, with no information about the details in 
Medicare. I do not think that is anything to go home and be proud of. I 
am not, and I am really sorry we do not stay and do our work.

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