[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12150-H12155]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TEMPORARY INCREASE IN THE STATUTORY DEBT LIMIT--VETO MESSAGE FROM THE 
          PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (H. DOC. NO. 104-132)

  The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following veto 
message from the President of the United States:

To the House of Representatives:
  I am returning herewith without my approval H.R. 2586, a bill that 
would provide a temporary increase in the public debt limit while 
adding extraneous measures that have no place on legislation of this 
kind.
  This bill would make it almost inevitable that the Government would 
default for the first time in our history. This is deeply 
irresponsible. A default has never happened before, and it should not 
happen now.
  I have repeatedly urged the Congress to pass promptly legislation 
raising the debt limit for a reasonable period of time to protect the 
Nation's credit-worthiness and avoid default. Republicans in the 
Congress have acknowledged the need to raise the debt limit; the budget 
resolution calls for raising it to $5.5 trillion, and the House and 
Senate voted to raise it to that level in passing their reconciliation 
bills.
  This bill, however, would threaten the Nation with default after 
December 12--the day on which the debt limit increase in the bill would 
expire--for two reasons:
  First, under this bill, on December 13 the debt limit would fall to 
$4.8 trillion, an amount $100 billion below the current level of $4.9 
trillion. The next day, more than $44 billion in Government securities 
mature, and the Federal Government would be unable to borrow the funds 
to redeem them. The owners of those securities would not be paid on 
time.
  Second, the bill would severely limit the cash management options 
that the Treasury may be able to use to avert a default. Specifically, 
it would limit the Secretary's flexibility to manage the investments of 
certain Government funds--flexibility that the Congress first gave to 
President Reagan. Finally, while the bill purports to protect benefit 
recipients, it would make it very likely that after December 12, the 
Federal Government would be unable to make full or timely payments for 
a wide variety of Government obligations, including interest on the 
public debt, Medicare, Medicaid, military pay, certain veterans' 
benefits, and payments to Government contractors.

  As I have said clearly and repeatedly, the Congress should keep the 
debt limit separate from the debate over how to balance the budget. The 
debt limit has nothing to do with reducing the deficit; it has to do 
with meeting the obligations that the Government has already incurred.
  Nevertheless, Republicans in the Congress have resorted to 
extraordinary tactics to try to force their extreme budget and 
priorities into law. In essence, they have said they will not pass 
legislation to let the Government pay its bills unless I accept their 
extreme, misguided priorities.
  This is an unacceptable choice, and I must veto this legislation.
  The Administration also strongly opposes the addition of extraneous 
provisions on this bill. Items like habeas corpus and regulatory reform 
are matters that should be considered and debated separately. 
Extraneous issues of this kind have no place in this bill.
  The Congress should pass a clean bill that I can sign. With that in 
mind, I am sending the Congress a measure to 

[[Page H 12151]]
raise the permanent debt limit to $5.5 trillion as the Congress called 
for in the budget resolution, without any extraneous provisions.
                                                  William J. Clinton.  
  The White House, November 13, 1995.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The objections of the President will be 
spread at large upon the Journal, and the message and bill will be 
printed as a House document.


                privileged motion offered by mr. archer

  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I offer a privileged motion.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Riggs). The Clerk will report the 
motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Archer moves that further consideration of the message 
     and the bill, H.R. 2586, be postponed until December 12, 
     1995.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] is 
recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only I yield 15 
minutes to the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons], and pending that, 
I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, this morning President Clinton vetoed the short-term 
debt limit extension sent to him by Congress. Had he signed our good 
faith effort at compromise, the confusion regarding the Government's 
ability to pay its bills would be at an end. By now, we are aware that 
the President's true reason for vetoing this bill is that he does not 
want to negotiate a balanced budget over 7 years as we do.
  Mr. Speaker, he is taking any action he can to avoid negotiating with 
our leadership on a balanced budget. Let me outline what the President 
said no to when he refused to sign H.R. 2586 into law.
  He said no to extending the debt limit date to December 12, at the 
level requested by his own Treasury Department. This would have allowed 
certainty in the financial markets and payments of bills and benefit 
checks on time without disruption.
  The President also said no to the protections for Social Security and 
other Federal trust funds included in the temporary increase. Most 
Americans watching the debate must be wondering why a President would 
object to protecting their requirement investments. They paid into 
these funds for a specific purpose, to receive benefits when they 
become eligible, but President does not want to protect these trust 
funds because he now needs the investments in these accounts to get 
around the debt ceiling law and resist the call for budget 
negotiations.

  Mr. Speaker, these trust fund protections are essential, because the 
Treasury Department announced today their intentions to raid the civil 
service trust fund and the G Fund and I must say, the G Fund is moneys 
that belong to Federal employees that have been invested for savings. 
He is to do this as a circuit breaker to avoid breaching the debt 
limit.
  In fact, Treasury will have to auction enough securities to raise the 
$102 billion needed later this week to pay off its obligations, and 
those moneys will come from disinvesting the two funds that I 
mentioned.
  But this circuit breaker is really a high-voltage wire that directly 
taps into the retiree trust funds. There is nothing to prevent the 
administration from using these assets, and the assets of Social 
Security, to fund the Government during this debt limit interruption 
caused by the President's veto.
  Current law does not protect the Social Security trust fund, and the 
provisions in our legislation that he vetoed do protect the Social 
Security trust fund. Mr. Speaker, the question is, what will Treasury 
do next week? Make no mistake, the President, by his veto, has put the 
Social Security trust fund at risk. If the President had done the 
responsible thing and signed this bill into law, there would be no 
financial disruptions, no beneficiary would be worried about a raid on 
their benefit trust fund.
  Mr. Speaker, the administration may have vetoed this bill, but the 
steps it takes to get around the legal limits on borrowing will be 
closely watched, by us and by the people of this country. If assets are 
taken from the funds, we will know about it, and only we stand ready to 
protect retiree, and other benefits, unlike this administration.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to the President and to everyone in this Chamber 
again, the time for delay has passed. No more excuses. We must stop 
passing our generation's debt on to our children and to our 
grandchildren. We must face the facts, do the responsible thing, even 
though it is tough, and bring our budget into balance.
  The President must come to the table and negotiate in good faith on a 
plan to balance the budget in 7 years, based on real numbers, not his 
in-house manufactured numbers, without any tax increases.
  Mr. Speaker, there are no preconditions, we say to the President. 
That is our goal and we will not be deterred.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer], for 
yielding me time. I appreciate the time and I am sorry we are not 
taking the full hour on this, but I can understand the reason why the 
Republicans just do not want this debated very much.
  Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] looks real nice 
today. I know the gentleman had to work all weekend and I am sorry 
about that, but all of us Democrats were excluded from those 
conferences. So, all of this delay really cannot be blamed on us, Mr. 
Speaker.
  Mr. Speaker, the real reason we are here today, and under these 
unusual circumstances, is that the Speaker just has not managed the 
Congress in the appropriate way. He has not even managed his Republican 
Party, which he is the leader of, in the appropriate way.
  This debate should have been out of the way way back in July, July of 
this year, some 5 months ago. There is no reason for us taking it up 
today. It should have been done then, had we been functioning as we 
should have functioned.
  But, Mr. Speaker, there was a different agenda and all kind of 
radical ideas had to be explored out there. We never got down to 
business and taking care of what the President has just vetoed.
  Why did he veto it? He vetoed this because it was a blackmail attempt 
upon him to try to make him accept, on behalf of the American public, a 
25-percent increase in Medicare premiums, which would cost every one of 
the 40 million American Medicare recipients $151.20 a year, or about 
$300 for the average Medicare couple. So that is why he did not do 
this.
  Mr. Speaker, this bill had all kinds of other things added on in 
addition to just lifting the debt ceiling and increasing the Medicare 
payments.

                              {time}  1715

  It had all kind of bells and whistles. Every radical idea the 
Republicans could jam on it that they knew could not stand on their 
own, but they could kind of try to hijack it through the Congress and 
get the President to sign it, because he wanted to shut the Government 
down.
  Now, the President has other constitutional powers. I am glad that 
the Secretary of the Treasury is going to take some of the money. I 
have put 8.5 percent of my pay into the Federal retirement program for 
33 years. I am proud the President is going to use some of that to keep 
this Government going. The law requires us to put all the money back so 
the Federal retirees are not going to lose a penny.
  I have got all my savings, practically, in the G fund bonds that are 
going to have to be used tomorrow. But the law requires that that money 
has to be paid back, and I am not going to lose anything because I am 
using my money and other retirees money to pay for the Government 
operations. The Republicans just simply refuse to pay. They have 
incurred the bills. They have written the checks. But they want the 
checks to bounce. That is not fair. That is not American. That is not 
sound business. Standard & Poor's is already warning us today, today 
our credit rating has suffered. The Europeans have warned us today that 
our credit rating has suffered. Why? Because the Republicans 
cavalierly, cavalierly try to blackmail the President into signing 
something that no decent President would sign. That is what this is 
about.
  Now, tonight at 8 p.m. we are going to have the first meeting of the 
budget bill conferees. The budget bill should 

[[Page H 12152]]
have been adopted in July. Here it is November 13 and the budget bill 
conferees have not even met. But they got it all rigged up. The 
Republican leaders have decided we are going to meet in a pro forma 
session over in the Senate and they are going to jam it through. They 
have got the votes. They can do anything they want to around here. But 
they cannot even do that, they are fighting amongst themselves so much.
  So we will send this ill-fated, ill-designed, radical budget 
conference down to the President, and he is going to veto that. And 
they will come back here whimpering and whining and complaining that he 
will not deal with us; he will not deal with us.
  If they would get their work done and get their legislation down 
there for him to consider, then there is plenty of time for reasonable 
people to sit down and to try to work things out.

  But we are running 6 months, 5 months behind time because of 
mismanagement, Mr. Speaker, on the House, on your part, Mr. Speaker. 
You are the manager of this House. You schedule the floor operations. 
You know when we are supposed to have things done, and you just have 
not done your job. The American people are not going to suffer for it 
because the President is going to save them from it by invading those 
trust funds. And all the money will be put back in the trust funds.
  Thank goodness the President has that authority, but the Republicans, 
as you know, Mr. Speaker, tried to take that away from him, too, in the 
bill that they just vetoed.
  Now, the motion here is to put off this veto until December 12. Why 
not vote on it right now? We are all in Washington. We are right here. 
We could vote on it tonight. We could vote on it in 5 minutes. But I do 
not have the authority to call it up. Only you, Mr. Speaker, have the 
authority to call it up and to schedule it and let it come to the 
floor.
  Why are the American people faced with another delay, just another 
Washington delay? Republican politics. That is all it is, to cover the 
mismanagement that the Republicans have inflicted upon this Government 
and upon this Congress.
  Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Riggs). The gentleman from Florida [Mr. 
Gibbons] has consumed 6 minutes and has 9 minutes remaining.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Virginia [Mr. Payne].
  Mr. PAYNE of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to 
this motion. Last week we offered this House an opportunity, not once 
but on two different occasions, to give Congress and the administration 
a 30-day breathing space to resolve our budget differences, without 
risking the credit record it has taken our country 200 years to build. 
Our motion would have accomplished this goal in the same manner we have 
raised the debt limit in the past for both Democratic and Republican 
Presidents. That is, for short periods of time, without partisan riders 
and without putting this country in danger of default. A clear bill.
  We have before us today an acknowledgement by the Republican 
leadership of this House that a 30-day period is exactly what this 
Congress needs, to give us time to work in a bipartisan way to develop 
a plan that will balance the Federal budget. However, rather than 
giving ourselves this breathing space in a responsible manner, by 
sending to the President a clean, temporary increase in the debt limit, 
the Republican leadership has decided to press political brinksmanship 
to its limit.

  The pending motion would delay action on the President's veto for 30 
days, but without increasing the debt limit in the meantime. What this 
means for the country is that it would force the Treasury Department to 
begin fiscally untried maneuvering in order to keep this country from 
defaulting on its debt. I simply believe forcing our Treasury 
Department to conduct the business of the Federal Government in this 
manner is irresponsible on the part of this Congress.
  Although I know some believe there is no harm in setting up this 
showdown, we have already seen some of the potential fallout. Both 
Standard & Poor's and Moody's, two of the world's leading credit-rating 
agencies, have issued warnings that our Government's triple-A credit 
rating is at risk, and that the faith of investors has already been 
diminished by the threat of default. IBCA, the European credit rating 
agency, has placed the United States on rating watch for a possible 
downgrade of its triple-A foreign and local currency long-term credit 
ratings.
  If these down-gradings were to go into effect, the impact would place 
a huge additional burden on our taxpayers, and would last well beyond 
the current controversy.
  I urge my colleagues to set aside partisan differences and do the 
right thing for the American people. Let's defeat this motion and give 
ourselves the 30-day window the responsible way, by providing for a 
temporary increase in the debt limit that is free of partisan 
distractions and get to work on the balanced budget. A balanced budget 
without raising taxes is a goal that has bipartisan backing. Let us get 
on with the business of reaching that goal in a bipartisan manner, and 
put our fiscal house in order for ourselves and for future generations.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, 
simply to respond to my friend from Virginia. He should know that 
defeating this motion does nothing to accomplish what he is talking 
about. This motion is strictly designed to determine what the House 
does with the veto and is not relative to any possible new plan. The 
President has already shut the door on the plan that we believe is 
responsible.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania 
[Mr. English].
  Mr. ENGLISH of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise with great regret. 
On Saturday Congress sent the President a bill that would have extended 
the statutory debt limit, while at the same time protecting the trust 
funds such as Social Security, Civil Service and Medicare, from being 
disinvested during a so-called debt limit crisis. Unfortunately, the 
President decided to veto the bill. Why? Because it would have 
prevented the Secretary of the Treasury from gaming the trust funds 
during a debt limit crisis, from raiding Social Security, from tapping 
the pension funds of Federal retirees.
  Mr. Speaker, I am extremely disappointed in the President's decision 
to veto the debt limit extension bill. It sends a terrible message, the 
wrong message to all of those on Social Security.
  The President's veto tells the 43 million Americans who get Social 
Security and the 140 million workers who pay into it that it is okay to 
use the $483 billion in assets from that trust fund as a pawn on the 
President's political chessboard. It is okay to play games with the $30 
billion payroll taxes that workers pay in each month and that retirees 
rely on to finance their benefit checks.
  The President's veto is an open declaration that he plans to have the 
Secretary of the Treasury tap trust fund assets to circumvent the debt 
limit. This assault on the public's confidence in these trust funds is 
fair game.
  Mr. Speaker, as a result of what has happened in 1985, the Social 
Security trust funds lost $382 million in interest, and long-term bonds 
were cashed in early. Congress later passed legislation to restore the 
lost interest and reconstruct the bond portfolio, but no legislation 
could ever restore the public confidence that was lost.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire about the time?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida [Mr. Gibbons] has 
6 minutes remaining, and the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] has 8 
minutes remaining.
  Let the Chair clarify that that is of the original, the original time 
yielded by the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer].
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes and 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Collins].
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I regret that the President has vetoed a measure that we 
felt like would extend the borrowing power of the Treasury for a short 
period of time in order for us to get through this budget 
reconciliation process. The reason I regret that he has vetoed it is 
because of the protection in the proposal 

[[Page H 12153]]
that we sent to him pertaining to the trust funds.
  I do not know how many hall meetings that I have held over the last 
2\1/2\ to 3 years in Georgia in the 3d District and how many people in 
groups that I have spoken to during that same period of time that when 
I open it up for questions I always have people say and ask me, Mac, is 
there really a Social Security trust fund or is it just a drawer filled 
with IOU's? I regret to tell them that really it is both.
  There is a Social Security trust fund. It is kind of a bookkeeping 
procedure where we track the amount of money that comes in through the 
Treasury for Social Security. But the fact of the matter is that all of 
those funds have been loaned to the Treasury. In fact today it is close 
to 2,500 billion dollars' worth of moneys that is owed by the Treasury 
to that trust fund.
  As I spoke just last week and did some research on the other funds, 
out of the $4.9 trillion of debt that we have created for the 
taxpayers, $1.250 trillion of it is actually owed to trust funds, 
almost $500 billion to Social Security, over $300 billion to the Civil 
Service, $112 billion to VA, 129 billion to the Medicare part A. It 
just goes on and on.
  It is time that we stopped that. It is time that we put those funds 
aside as we have told people we are going to do. They have invested 
into those trust funds. They are waiting to use them in the latter days 
of their lives, looking forward to retirement. It is just not right to 
continue borrowing against those funds as we are doing it.
  I have no problem with the Treasury actually borrowing funds, but I 
want it to be arm's length as it would be any other investor who would 
take their funds and make an arm's length purchase of T bills. But to 
just say, we are going to ignore protection of those trust funds, we 
are just going to use them no matter what the Congress wants done, no 
matter what the people want done, we are just going to use them at our 
will. I think that is absolutely wrong. I regret that the President has 
chosen this route and hopefully that we will be able to come to some 
consideration and agreement on the reconciliation bill soon.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Stenholm].
  (Mr. STENHOLM asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks.)
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, again, I have to come and say I do not 
understand why we are here. The people are very confused as evidenced 
by the telephone calls coming to my district.
  I hear very rational speeches as my good friend from Georgia just 
made and which I sit and say, I agree with him. That is part of the 
problem. One of the things the people are saying to us today is no more 
business as usual. This amendment, this vote today is the best example 
of business as usual as I have seen in a long time. It does the very 
things we all decry, at least what I am hearing today.
  If I could just in 1 minute try to make it clear to everyone who is 
wondering what are we doing.

                              {time}  1730

  No. 1, we should not be putting the good faith and credit of the 
United States at risk, playing political games, no matter what our end 
goals are.
  No. 2, we keep hearing, ``Balanced budget, balanced budget. That's 
why we're doing it.'' There are over 300 Members of this body from both 
sides of the aisle that have already agreed with our vote and intend 
to, with our actions, show that that will be done in a time certain. Is 
it too much to ask of the majority to let that work, to send a clean 
debt ceiling to the President and then send the budget that we are 
talking about that has not even been completed, that is going to be 
conferenced for the first time tonight? Is it too much to ask of the 
majority, and all of us, in a bipartisan way to send a clean debt 
ceiling, to not muck around with the debt, the good faith and credit of 
the United States? Send him a clean one? Get on with doing the people's 
business? Have the House and Senate act, have the President veto, and 
then let us get on with the necessary compromising that is going to be 
necessary in order for us to accomplish what I believe an overwhelming 
majority of the House wants us to do?
  No more business as usual. Let us defeat this resolution, and let us 
get on with doing the House's work as we were elected to do.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to 
engage the gentleman from Texas in a colloquy, if he would return to 
the microphone.
  The gentleman has said this motion is business as usual. Could the 
gentleman tell me what this motion is?
  Mr. STENHOLM. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. ARCHER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. STENHOLM. As I understand the motion before us, it is that we do 
nothing until December 12. In the meantime the gentleman and, I 
believe----
  Mr. ARCHER. Do nothing on what?
  Mr. STENHOLM. On the debt ceiling.
  Mr. ARCHER. No, that is not the motion. That is not the motion. The 
gentleman obviously does not understand what he spoke to. This motion 
simply postpones the vote on an override of the debt ceiling. It should 
be clear to the gentleman that this will not be overridden, and so this 
motion is not business as usual. It is a simple procedural motion to 
postpone this vote until December 12.
  Mr. STENHOLM. Would the gentleman allow me to respond?
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from 
Louisiana [Mr. McCrery].
  Mr. McCRERY. Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman from Texas that what 
we are seeing with the administration is exactly business as usual, and 
I know that the gentleman is very concerned about balancing budget of 
this country. He has been a leader in that effort, and he should be 
concerned that the administration will use tricks, just as the ones 
that have stated in their veto message, to postpone for yet another 
year many budget reforms that we need to put in place now, not after 
the next Presidential election, now.
  So that, sir, is why we insist on these measures.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, if it is now, why do we not vote now on the 
veto? Why delay?
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Connecticut [Mrs. KENNELLY].
  Mrs. KENNELLY. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer] is 
absolutely right. This is an effort to postpone the voted to override 
the veto until the 12th of the month, and it is obvious why that is, 
because neither body has the votes to override a veto at this time. So 
it seems to me very clear that we should be spending our time now 
making an effort to pass a clean, short-term debt ceiling and spend the 
time looking for the 218 votes to do just that.
  Mr. Speaker, I say to you that while you might not be able to pass a 
debt ceiling on your side because there are those Members that want to 
have riders and want to have congressional conditions, then there also 
might be people on our side of the aisle that just are not ready to 
vote for the debt ceiling. However, I am convinced there are 218 
Members ready to vote for a clean debt ceiling, and the President has 
said he would sign one so when it is all said and done the debt ceiling 
will be increased. I think it could be increased tomorrow and we should 
not force the economy or the average American to watch this that is 
going on now which they all say it is all their fault and they do not 
understand what is going on.
  Let us be clear. Raising the debt ceiling has nothing to do with the 
current level of spending or the reason why the Government would close 
down tomorrow. It has to do with financing prior obligations, debts 
owed, debts that should be paid. There is no doubt that the debt 
ceiling will be raised in the long run. We could do it in the short 
run.
  So, that is exactly what we should be doing, looking for the votes to 
pass a clean debt ceiling that the President will sign.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
California [Mr. Cunningham].
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I have the utmost respect for the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Stenholm], and I know he has worked with the 
gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Kasich] and worked hard for balanced budget 
amendments, and he asked what is the problem, and he said that there is 
a 

[[Page H 12154]]
time certain that we had 300 Members vote on a balanced budget. That is 
true. The Senate also passed a balanced budget. The American people 
want a balanced budget, but the President will not sign a balanced 
budget. The President said earlier that he was going to come up with a 
balanced budget in 5 years. Then he produced no budget, and then, after 
pressure, he produced a budget in 10 years to balance it, and it was a 
$200-billion-a-year increase in the deficit.
  The President does not want to balance the budget. Why? I say to my 
colleagues, ``You want a clean debt ceiling, you want a clean CR. This 
Member is ready to give you one. Have the President sign a balanced 
budget in 7 years, and you get a clean one. I mean that's not too much 
to ask. You said you want a balanced budget, the Senate does, the 
American people. The only person that doesn't want it is the President, 
and that's what we're asking for.''
  The Republicans basically work with small business and big business. 
The Democrats basically work with people in the flow of Federal 
dollars, and that is about a pretty evil place here, Mr. Speaker, 
because what happens, it is about the ability to get reelected, the 
ability to spend money. The ability to spend money means the ability to 
increase taxes, which means the ability to get reelected because that 
flow of money goes downhill, and that has led up to $5 trillion debt, 
and, if we take a look, every single appropriations bill, the gentleman 
that is speaking now and almost every speaker on that side wants to 
increase the amount of appropriations except for one area the liberals 
in one area will cut every single time, and that is in national 
security at a time where increase in Somalia, and Haiti, and Bosnia 
have put us in a $2 billion below the Bottom-up Review.
  Yes, balance the budget, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman 
from Georgia [Mr. Lewis].
  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is time to put your House in 
order, because, quite frankly, your House is a mess. You need to clean 
it up.
  Republicans control the House. They control the Senate. Republicans 
make the rules. But what Republicans cannot seem to make--is policy. 
They cannot govern. They cannot lead.
  We do not have a problem because Republicans cannot agree with 
Democrats. We do not have a problem because Congress cannot agree with 
the President. We have a problem because Republicans cannot agree among 
themselves. We have a problem because Republican leaders cannot lead.
  So now we have this resolution--to do nothing. It is a do-nothing 
proposal. Mr. Speaker, this is not even leadership by default. It is a 
default of leadership.
  The President has set his priorities. The message is clear. Send him 
a clean bill, and he will sign it. But he will not be blackmailed. The 
President will not give in to your extreme proposals.
  We Democrats have set our priorities. All Democrats agree--do not cut 
education. Do not attack Medicare. Do not destroy the environment. Do 
not cut taxes for the rich--and raise taxes on millions of working 
families.
  Because the Republicans cannot lead, this President will. Thank you, 
Mr. President, for leading. Thank you for saying no to the Republicans' 
mean-spirited, extreme proposal. Thank you for standing up for our 
working families, our parents, our children, and our grandchildren. 
Thank you for doing what the Republicans will not do. Thank you for 
leading. Thank you for doing what is right, what is fair, and what is 
just.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from 
Illinois [Mr. Crane], a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, the 
chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade.
  Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished chairman for 
yielding this time to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important for everybody to understand 
something, and it goes back to Government 101. It is basics. This body 
originates policy. Congress exclusively has the responsibility to make 
policy. The function at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue is to 
administer our policies, and the fact is further, if we go back to the 
election in 1992, this gentleman got elected at the other end of 
Pennsylvania Avenue with only 29 percent of the electorate. A majority 
of the American people in the most recent election said this is what we 
want, and we will provide it.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of our time to the 
gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro].
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Riggs). The gentlewoman from Connecticut 
[Ms. DeLauro] is recognized for 1 minute.
  Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I stand in opposition to this motion, and I 
ask the Republican leadership in this House to stop playing games with 
our country's financial future and send the President a clean bill that 
he can sign.
  Since April, Speaker Gingrich has been threatening to throw our 
Government into default if he did not get his way on the budget, 
despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the American public 
is opposed to the Republican budget that cuts Medicare, cuts education, 
and cuts the environment. Take a look at what Speaker Gingrich was 
saying in April: The President, and I quote:

       will veto a number of things and we'll then put them all on 
     the debt ceiling, and then he'll decide how big a crisis he 
     wants.

  Then in September Speaker Gingrich was at it again, continuing his 
threats, and he said:

       I don't care what the price is. I don't care if we have no 
     executive offices and no bonds for 30 days, not at this time.

  ``I don't care what the price is.'' That says it all; does not it? It 
is the casual irresponsibility of this Speaker of the House of 
Representatives that tonight puts our country on the brink of default 
for the first time in this Nation's history.
  Send the President a clean debt limit bill.
  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of our time to the 
gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith].
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Smith] is 
recognized for 1\1/2\ minutes.
  Mr. SMITH of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, let us be clear what the 
President is doing. The President is planning on simply making a ledger 
entry that some portion of the $1.4 trillion in Treasury IOU's held in 
the Federal trust funds is now simply a fictitious cash interest entry 
instead of a fictitious borrowing entry. This allows Treasury to 
increase borrowing from the public by the same amount as the 
disinvestment or underinvestment. Wednesday, Treasury will be about $20 
billion over the debt limit if it goes through with its announced 
auctions. This overage is going to increase to about $50 billion in 
early December. Clearly the President will underinvest the G fund and 
disinvest part of the civil service retirement fund in order to obtain 
additional borrowing authority.
  Here is the point. In taking such action, the President is increasing 
the public debt of this country without the authority of Congress. The 
President has discovered a way to make his own legislation, to snub his 
nose at Congress and drive this country deeper into debt. Now there is 
approximately $20 billion in the so-called G fund, approximately $350 
billion in the civil service retirement fund, $440 billion in the 
Social Security trust fund. Using these three funds alone, the 
President could increase our marketable debt a trillion dollars or 
more. This makes a mockery of the people's ability to limit the amount 
of debt that this Government should issue. We should be looking at a 
new debt ceiling. Try to urge the President to come to the table and 
get on with the business of Government.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise to commend the President for vetoing 
the debt limit extension legislation and the continuing resolution. 
Clearly, the Congress should pass a fair and clean continuing 
resolution and debt limit extension free of extreme conditions.
  The continuing resolution is necessary because the majority has spent 
much of this year working on their contract rather than passing the 
Nation's annual spending bills. Most of these bills are hopelessly tied 
up by legislative riders representing extreme views. Where is the 
moderation? Thankfully, the President is not willing to be blackmailed 
into accepting the misguided Republican budget priorities.
  In particular, why should continuing funding for the Government be 
tied up over an attempt to impose an $11 a month premium increase on 
every single Medicare beneficiary? 

[[Page H 12155]]

  The Republican continuing resolution also cuts education programs 19 
percent below the President's request. Funding for education reform is 
cut by 40 percent. Funding for safe and drug-free schools is cut by 40 
percent. Funding for bilingual education is cut by 51 percent. Funding 
for research on special education is cut by 25 percent. These proposals 
are extreme.
  In my view, rather than a highly partisan and ideological continuing 
resolution, a bipartisan approach would better serve the American 
people.
  Mr. Speaker, let us vote on a clear and fair continuing resolution. 
Stop the blackmail.

                              {time}  1845

  Mr. ARCHER. Mr. Speaker, I move the previous question on the motion.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Archer].
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. GIBBONS. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a 
quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not 
present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 223, 
nays 184, not voting 25, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 788]

                               YEAS--223

     Allard
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Ballenger
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Boehlert
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clinger
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Cooley
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Deal
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Fields (TX)
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (CT)
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Funderburk
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Greenwood
     Gunderson
     Gutknecht
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hobson
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Horn
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Klug
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Laughlin
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (CA)
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Longley
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     Martini
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McInnis
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Meyers
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Molinari
     Moorhead
     Morella
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Oxley
     Packard
     Parker
     Paxon
     Petri
     Pombo
     Porter
     Portman
     Pryce
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Ramstad
     Regula
     Riggs
     Roberts
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roth
     Roukema
     Royce
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shays
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stockman
     Stump
     Talent
     Tate
     Taylor (NC)
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Torkildsen
     Upton
     Vucanovich
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zimmer

                               NAYS--184

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barcia
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Bevill
     Bishop
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brewster
     Browder
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brown (OH)
     Bryant (TX)
     Cardin
     Chapman
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Costello
     Coyne
     Cramer
     Danner
     Davis
     de la Garza
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Doyle
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Filner
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Forbes
     Ford
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Geren
     Gibbons
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Green
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hall (TX)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hayes
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Holden
     Hoyer
     Jackson-Lee
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnston
     Kanjorski
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kildee
     Kleczka
     Klink
     LaFalce
     Lantos
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lincoln
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Martinez
     Mascara
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McDermott
     McHale
     McNulty
     Meek
     Menendez
     Mfume
     Miller (CA)
     Minge
     Mink
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moran
     Murtha
     Nadler
     Obey
     Olver
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pastor
     Payne (NJ)
     Payne (VA)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Peterson (MN)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Poshard
     Rahall
     Rangel
     Richardson
     Rivers
     Roemer
     Rose
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sawyer
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Skelton
     Slaughter
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stenholm
     Studds
     Stupak
     Tanner
     Taylor (MS)
     Tejeda
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Towns
     Traficant
     Velazquez
     Vento
     Visclosky
     Ward
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Wilson
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wyden
     Wynn

                             NOT VOTING--25

     Blute
     Dornan
     Fields (LA)
     Frank (MA)
     Gallegly
     Kennedy (MA)
     Markey
     McKinney
     Meehan
     Moakley
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Reed
     Scarborough
     Serrano
     Smith (WA)
     Stokes
     Tauzin
     Tucker
     Volkmer
     Waldholtz
     Waxman
     Williams
     Yates
     Zeliff

                              {time}  1803

  The Clerk announced the following pairs:
  On this vote:

       Mrs. Smith of Washington for, with Mr. Moakley against.
       Mr. Dornan for, with Mr. Stokes against.

  Messrs. McHUGH, EWING, and HOKE changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the motion was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________