[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 170 (Tuesday, October 31, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S16358]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE RECONCILIATION BILL

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I heard a great deal of blather this morning 
about tricking and treating, about that great reconciliation bill that 
was passed last Friday--it may have been a little after midnight--and 
that that was a great treat for the American people.
  Mr. President, here it is on my desk. The white papers represent the 
Senate amendment; the 1,862 pages just in the white. The two blue 
volumes, 1,839 pages, represent the House reconciliation bill.
  These 1,839 pages that represent the House reconciliation bill were 
given 6 hours--all of 6 hours--of debate in the other body. Think of 
it, 6 hours! And the 1,862 pages in the Senate amendment were given 20 
hours, plus 1 additional hour, I believe, on the Roth amendment, and a 
minute equally divided on each of various and sundry other amendments. 
So there you have it, 1,862 pages, a little over 20 hours, parts of 4 
days in the Senate!
  Now, who under God's vast Heaven knows what is in this bill? Not one 
Senator, not one Senator out of the 100 Senators, knew when he cast his 
vote for or against that monstrosity, not one knew what he was voting 
on! No single committee held hearings on all of this. Different 
committees held different hearings on parts of it. But no committee 
person, no committee chairman, no Member of the Senate, no staff person 
knew everything that Senators were voting on, and most Senators knew 
very little about it. We simply rubberstamped the package that was sent 
to the Senate by the Senate Budget Committee, and not all of the 
members of that committee knew what they were sending to the Senate. Is 
that legislating? Is that trick or treating?
  Mr. President, those who wish to proclaim to the high heavens that 
this is a great masterpiece will come to find that ``Confusion now hath 
made his masterpiece,'' and the worm will turn! The American people are 
going to find out in due time about the Senate's handiwork and the 
handiwork of the other body--what we passed for a law.
  We might as well have been blindfolded. We might as well have had our 
ears plugged. When a pile of paper like that is acted upon in the 
course of 42 hours--including time consumed by roll calls--under the 
restrictions that govern the actions of the Senate on a reconciliation 
bill, how can one say that the Senate has not perpetrated a gigantic 
fraud upon the American people? The people send us here to know what we 
are doing, to know what we are voting on, and we did not. We did not. 
And God knows that in the heart of every Senator, that Senator has to 
admit that he did not know what was in that bill. He knew a little here 
and a little there, but he did not know most of what is in that bill.
  So there you have it. That is the colossal trick or treat of the 
century! Right there it is. Halloween came last Friday. It is over! The 
kids may go around tonight and pick up a little candy and chewing gum, 
here and there, but the American people got theirs last Friday night!
  Now the two bodies, the conferees of the two bodies have to meet and 
go over all of this mass of wood pulp and try to make sense out of it 
and then bring back what will result from the conference, the 
resolution of the differences between the two bodies. And who knows 
what differences there are? We will have that conference report up 
before the Senate one day.
  There is no legal requirement, there is no constitutional requirement 
that I know of that says the Senate has to pass a reconciliation bill. 
Show me! I do not know of any. There is no doubt that there would be 
some serious budgetary consequences that would flow from not having a 
reconciliation bill but we do not have to have one. All we have to do 
is pass the appropriations bills, raise the debt limit and go home.
  Think of it! If we continue to go down that road, all we will need to 
do is show up for a week, 10 days perhaps, during a whole year. Except 
for the Byrd rule, if the Senate so instructs the committees, all the 
committees could just send to the Budget Committee--it is not the 
Budget Committee's fault--all the other committees could just send to 
the Budget Committee whatever their pleasures might be, and the Budget 
Committee would be forced to put all those into one massive bill, and 
we could just pass that one bill and pass one omnibus appropriations 
bill and go home. Hot ziggedy dog, go home!
  Just spend just a few days here, we have a few votes, go home! Just 
pass one bill! Just rubber stamp whatever the Budget Committee is 
forced to send to the Senate floor. Rubber stamp it! That would be 
another trick or treat for the American people.
  Well, Mr. President, it seems to me it is preposterous to even claim 
that we are legislating with any knowledge or wisdom of what we are 
doing when we last week passed a bill like that. It was a joke we 
played on the American people--and a bad one.
  Mr. President, I thank the Chair, and I thank all Senators, and I 
yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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