[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S16977-S16979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FISCAL YEAR 1996 CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS

  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I ask that the Chair lay before the 
Senate a message from the House of Representatives on House Joint 
Resolution 115, a joint resolution making further continuing 
appropriations for the fiscal year 1996, and for other purposes.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the House of Representatives:

       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendments of the 
     Senate numbered 1 and 2 to the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 
     115) entitled ``Joint resolution making further continuing 
     appropriations for the fiscal year 1996, and for other 
     purposes.''.
       Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 
     Senate numbered 3 to the aforesaid joint resolution with the 
     following amendment:
       Delete the matter proposed by said amendment, and beginning 
     on page 15, line 1 of the House engrossed joint resolution 
     (H.J. Res. 115), strike all down to and including line 7, on 
     page 36, and redesignate title IV as title III, and renumber 
     sections accordingly.

  Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I move that the Senate concur in the 
House amendment to the Senate amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the motion.
  So the motion was agreed to.
  Mr. HATFIELD. I move to reconsider the vote, and I move to lay that 
motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, on behalf of the Democratic side here, we 
did not object to proceeding to the continuing resolution. It is 
important we move this process forward.
  Mr. HATFIELD. This procedure has been cleared with----
  Mr. DODD. And I understand that, but I wanted to make note that we 
disagree with the continuing resolution, Mr. President; and I ask 
unanimous consent that the vote that occurred last Thursday be printed 
in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 567 Leg.]

                                YEAS--50

     Abraham
     Ashcroft
     Bennett
     Bond
     Brown
     Burns
     Campbell
     Chafee
     Coats
     Cochran
     Coverdell
     Craig
     D'Amato
     DeWine
     Dole
     Domenici
     Faircloth
     Frist
     Gorton
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hatch
     Hatfield
     Helms
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Kassebaum
     Kempthorne
     Kyl
     Lott
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Pressler
     Roth
     Santorum
     Shelby
     Simpson
     Smith
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Warner

                                NAYS--46

     Baucus
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Boxer
     Breaux
     Bryan
     Bumpers
     Byrd
     Cohen
     Conrad
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Dorgan
     Exon
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Ford
     Glenn
     Graham
     Harkin
     Heflin
     Hollings
     Inouye
     Johnston
     Kennedy
     Kerrey
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mikulski
     Moseley-Braun
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Nunn
     Pell
     Pryor
     Reid
     Robb
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Simon
     Snowe
     Wellstone

                             NOT VOTING--3

     Akaka
     Bradley
     Lugar
  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, the Democrats on this side still have 
objection to this proposal, but nonetheless we feel the process is 
worthwhile.
  Mr. DOLE. If I may proceed for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DODD. Absolutely.
  Mr. DOLE. First, let me state that the Senate will remain in session 
until midnight tonight in the hopes we can get this to the President 
very quickly and that if he should veto the continuing resolution, 
which I hope he will not, there still might be time for the President 
and the leadership to work out some agreement that would prevent a 
shutdown of the Federal Government.
  I am not an advocate of shutting down the Federal Government. I think 
there ought to be some way to come together. I think the American 
people expect us to do that.
  This will be on its way to the House within a minute or two and will 
go directly from the House and we will see it is expedited and over to 
the President and hopefully the President will have it a little after 5 
o'clock. That would still give us 7 hours to resolve the difference.
  There has been some discussion today of maybe changing one of the 
provisions on Medicare, just writing in the figure $46.10 which would 
amount to a freeze. That was raised by the distinguished Senator from 
New Mexico in a talk show over the weekend and also by the Senator from 
Oklahoma, Senator Nickles, and discussed by the Senate leadership at 
12:30 today, and then discussed with the Speaker maybe an hour or so 
ago, along with a number of other things we are also looking into--
items of disagreement on the total reconciliation package, and we are 
about to wrap that up.
  Before we concluded our discussion, we understand Mr. McCurry 
resolved the matter for us at the White House, indicating in addition 
to the Medicare provision they had other substantive problems with the 
continuing resolution.
  So it underscores that all this weekend was a smokescreen on 
Medicare, and the truth of the matter is there were other objections--
not just Medicare.
  So they are playing the Medicare scare card all weekend, so we were 
working on maybe a softer version just to freeze at $46.10 and that, 
again, Mr. McCurry indicates was not satisfactory.
  In fact the quote reads, ``Explain what's wrong with the freeze, just 
explain what's wrong with the freeze.''

       Mr. McCurry. Well, because the President prefers current 
     law. Current law is very clear on what premium increases 
     should be.

  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have the entire transcript 
of the White House Press Secretary's remarks printed in the Record.

[[Page S 16978]]

  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

 Regular Briefing by Michael McCurry, 2:23 P.M., EST, Monday, November 
                                13, 1995

       Mr. McCurry. Let me--good afternoon, everyone. Let me start 
     with an announcement concerning the president's very 
     important trip to Japan for the meeting of the Asian Pacific 
     Economic Cooperation Forum leaders summit and very important 
     state visit, bilateral visit with the Japanese government.
       First, as is obvious, the president has to tighten his 
     schedule in order to take the very important work that he 
     needs to do on this trip and fit it in to what will amount to 
     a weekend trip to Japan. (Laughter.) The president will 
     depart 11:00 Friday evening from Andrews Air Force Base, and 
     will return Tuesday morning at approximately 2:00 a.m. to 
     Andrews Air Force Base.
       Question. Was that a.m. or p.m.?
       Mr. McCurry. A.M. Tuesday morning. He will--he leaves at 
     11:00 p.m. Friday, and he will be returning at 2:00 in the 
     morning Tuesday morning; so in other words, very late Monday 
     night.
       That will allow him to participate fully in the APEC 
     leaders meeting that will occur on Sunday. It will also allow 
     him to accept the gracious invitation of the emperor and 
     empress for a state visit to Japan, and to conduct important 
     bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Murayama. The United 
     States appreciate the courtesy of the emperor and empress in 
     allowing this schedule adjustment to occur. Obviously, we 
     also appreciate the cooperation of the Japanese government 
     and the Japanese people as we make these necessary 
     adjustments to the president's schedule. The president is 
     confident that this schedule will allow him to do the very 
     important work of advancing U.S. economic interests as we 
     participate in these important discussions with the other 
     Asian economies, and as we deal at a very important point 
     with the very important bilateral relationship we have with 
     the government of Japan.
       Yeah, Mike?
       Question. Is that locked in now, or if you get a deal can 
     you expand it back out?
       Mr. McCurry. Say again?
       Question. Can you expand it again if you get a deal, or is 
     this locked in?
       Mr. McCurry. This is--we are making all the adjustments 
     necessary to follow this schedule, so this will be the 
     schedule.
       Question. You mean even if you get a deal it will be the 
     schedule?
       Mr. McCurry. There's nothing to indicate that that's going 
     to happen in a time that would allow us to open the trip back 
     up accordion style.
       Question. Let's suppose that you don't get a deal----
       Mr. McCurry. I'm not going to do ``supposes.'' This is the 
     schedule. We're announcing the schedule as it's now 
     announced.
       Yes?
       Question. How long will the state visit be then?
       Mr. McCurry. It will be one day. It will be--the president 
     will fly from Osaka down to Tokyo on Sunday night. He will 
     have sessions beginning at 9:00 in the morning Monday, he 
     will conclude with a state dinner at the Imperial Palace 
     at conclusion of the state dinner.
       Question. In his talk to the DLC, the president said 
     something like he hopes to be able to make this trip to 
     Ireland. Did he use that language because that trip could 
     also be in some danger because of the (threat ?) of a 
     government shutdown?
       Mr. McCurry. Well, the president still is keeping to his 
     planned schedule. It's impossible for us now to predict what 
     will happen between now and the end of this month in this 
     rather fluid situation
       Question. Is Mrs. Clinton going?
       Mr. McCurry. Mrs. Clinton does plan--does plan to attend, 
     yes.
       Question. Since you're talking about scheduling, if the CR 
     comes down here--it now looks like they're going to vote 
     about 5:30, what time do you think the president would take 
     action?
       Mr. McCurry. He will exercise his veto as soon as he 
     receives the measure from the Hill. As you know, final 
     passage in Congress has very little to do with what time 
     Congress actually sends the measure of the White House. We 
     had final passage on the debt ceiling measure Friday that did 
     not arrive here until Sunday. So it's impossible for us to 
     predict to you now what time that measure will arrive from 
     the Congress.
       Question. Will he do it in a public way?
       Mr. McCurry. I'm not aware that--you've got more 
     information than I do! I'm not aware that the Senate has now 
     dropped the Medicare premium increase. I've heard one or two 
     members suggest that, but we don't have anything 
     authoritative from the Republican leadership indicating that 
     they're now dropping the Medicare premium increase from the 
     continuing resolution.
       Question. What do you have from Domenici?
       Mr. McCurry. We have what we've seen him say on CNN. (Cross 
     talk.)
       Question. (Off mike)--saying he hasn't talked to Panetta?
       Mr. McCurry. His conversations with Mr. Panetta, the idea 
     that he discussed is very much the same one that he's 
     discussed publicly now on television.
       Question. Well what's your reaction?
       Question. So what's your reaction to it?
       Question. What's your reaction?
       Mr. McCurry. Well, it's an interesting idea, but it's got 
     nothing to do with resolving the current crisis. The 
     president, as he's made clear, needs for them to drop the 
     Medicare premium increase from the continuing resolution so 
     that we can then get down to a serious discussion about what 
     will be in a continuing resolution that's appropriate and 
     acceptable to the president.
       Question. In other words----
       Question. So you're saying a freeze is not good enough?
       Mr. McCurry. A freeze has to--a willingness on the part of 
     Congress to drop the Medicare premium increase can open the 
     way to further discussions. That's the most you can say at 
     this point because the president has substantive objections 
     to other aspects of the continuing, especially the level of 
     funding.
       Question. Explain what's wrong with the freeze, just 
     explain what's wrong with a freeze.
       Mr. McCurry. Well, because the president prefers current 
     law. Current law is very clear on what premium increases 
     should be.
       Question. Mike, following up, when you say the objection to 
     other aspects of the CR is the funding levels, assuming the 
     Senate even takes up Mr. Domenici's proposal, which isn't at 
     all clear that it's been embraced by Senator Dole or the 
     leadership, and they send him down a bill with the 46-10 
     frozen in there, whatever, are you saying he could still veto 
     because of the 60 percent funding levels? Is that still----
       Mr. McCurry. The president--look, nothing has changed from 
     the viewpoint of the White House. The president is willing to 
     sit down with the bipartisan leadership of Congress to 
     discuss how we are going to avert this crisis, a shutdown in 
     our government, and the only condition he attaches to that is 
     some measure of good faith on the part of the leadership by 
     dropping the proposed Medicare premium increase that is in 
     the current version of the continuing resolution. If they 
     drop that, there is a basis upon which to have discussions 
     about how we move forward from here, even though the 
     president still has substantive objections to the continuing 
     resolution now pending in the Senate.
       (Cross talk.)
       Mr. McCurry. Well, if there's no action by the Congress, or 
     if there's no action on a measure that the president signs, 
     then the there's proceeds.
       Question. Mike, suppose they sent him the thing with the 
     Medicare premium dropped, would he sign that? A CR with the 
     Medicare premium dropped, would he sign that?
       Mr. McCurry. The president's made it clear he would sign a 
     clean extension, clean continuing resolution, one that 
     follows----
       Question. That doesn't answer the question.
       Mr. McCurry.--the formula that was developed in September. 
     Well, I can tell you what the president has said he will 
     sign, I can't speculate for you what the president will do on 
     something hypothetical that we don't have any indication at 
     all is the viewpoint of Congress. Is Congress going to pass 
     any of these things that you're suggesting and send it to the 
     president tonight? That's a different question. There's no 
     indication that's going to happen at this point.

  Mr. DOLE. Even though the President still has some objections to the 
continuing resolution now pending in the Senate, the point is a number 
of cases here that a freeze was not acceptable, and that they had other 
objections--which they have a right to have--so I am not certain what 
the offer to meet with the leadership really amounted to.
  We have been saying all weekend, people should understand we are 
talking about part B Medicare; part B Medicare, where all the money 
that is not paid by the beneficiary is paid out of general revenues, 
paid by taxes by people that work at McDonald's, people that work right 
here on the Senate floor.
  You are asked to pay 68\1/2\ percent of some millionaires' part B 
premium or someone making $100,000 a year. It does not make a great 
deal of sense to me.
  All we were talking about, we were just keeping the 31.5 percent in 
place long enough until we negotiate some agreement, hopefully, with 
the President of the United States on an overall balanced budget over 
the next 7 years.
  So, we made our case. The President has made his case. I think they 
have overstated the case. And today they admit that it is not just 
Medicare; even the freeze would not be satisfactory, because they have 
other objections, other objections in the continuing resolution.
  So, it seems to me we have no other choice. We passed the resolution. 
I thank my colleagues on the other side for clearing the resolution, 
and we hope that as we speak it is on the way to the House and will 
soon be on the way to the White House. If the President should deem it 
necessary to veto it, that then he would be willing to sit down with 
us. We are the leaders, and we would be happy to try to work it out 
before midnight to avoid a shutdown. 

[[Page S 16979]]

  As I have said earlier, the Senate will be in session and the House 
will be in session until midnight. We are prepared to act up until 
midnight or after, if necessary, to prevent a shutdown of the Federal 
Government.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Chair now, under a unanimous-consent 
agreement, recognizes the Senator from Connecticut.

                          ____________________