[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 180 (Tuesday, November 14, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12317-H12318]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         BUDGET RECONCILIATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas [Ms. Jackson-Lee] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE. Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to simply take 
a moment and answer some of the many calls and concerns that have been 
expressed by all of our constituents, frankly.
  The gentleman from Florida preceded me and offered a whole litany of 
calls that he may have received and letters that he might have 
received. And I think the American people need to themselves stop for a 
moment, for there is certainly a great deal of ire, if you will, and 
anger about this process. I am not sure if they heard clearly in the 
colloquy that was between the leader of the Democratic Party and the 
majority leader, indicating that this Congress would be in possibly 
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
  Clearly, let me emphasize that many of us voted last Friday to remain 
in session, I for one to continue this process. But if we would look at 
the order of things, in actuality, the Republican majority did not 
follow the stated schedule of the House, and that is to complete the 
appropriations process in September of this year.
  For all of the debate and all of the dismay that is being cast about, 
this dilemma is caused specifically because we do not have the 
appropriation bills before the President of the United States of 
America. So when a constituent writes, please tell the Member do not 
follow Newt Gingrich, everyone followed him and they could not turn 
back, and she is an elderly middle-class lady. No name is given. Newt 
Gingrich and Robert Dole, their proposal is cruel and disgraceful to 
senior citizens, and it is terrible what they are doing to this 
Government. It is criminal. These are not words that their 
Congressperson has put in their mouths. It is what they are perceiving 
and what is happening in this debate that is such a loud and irreverent 
sound.
  It is important then for the facts to be laid upon the table. I voted 
for appropriation bills: transportation, agriculture, the legislative 
appropriation bills, the bills that were put before this Congress have 
been voted for by many of us.
  The problem is that they have not on the Republican leadership gone 
through the Senate and reached the desks of the President of the 
United States. In actuality, some of those areas that are now shut 
down, 800,000 employees across this Nation, including the 18th 
Congressional District, could be operating if those appropriation bills 
that were passed by this House that many of us voted for had gone 
through the process, and now were facing, are before the President for 
his signature. That did not happen.

  That is not the fault of the Democratic minority. That is actually 
the fault of the process of the House of Representatives under the 
leadership of the Republican Party simply not working. What do we have 
now?
  On this day, November 14, 1995, we have a simple proposition for all 
those who are still dismayed about this discourse.
  The simple proposition is to pass a simple continuing resolution. 
Would you realize that now in the heat of debate that the Republicans 
who foisted this upon us last week have now dropped all of these 
provisions. Were they that important? Should we have slid them under 
the table to devastate Medicare, to keep Catholic Charities and the Boy 
Scouts from lobbying the Federal Government? They got Federal funds to 
undermine the environmental protection system that we put in place, to 
undermine the criminal justice system? All of that requires healthy and 
separate debate but not on a continuing resolution. That should be 
clean and simple to keep the doors of this Government open so that the 
Social Security offices are open, the veterans offices are open, the 
IRS offices are open, so that the people can work for the American 
people. Then to lift the debt ceiling so that we can reasonably discuss 
the budget and we can decide whether we want to go toward the 21st 
century by cutting education so drastically, by increasing Medicare 
premiums from $43 to $53.
  I would venture to say, if the American people got a chance to 
participate in that, they have already said it with some of their 
voices, they would argue 

[[Page H 12318]]
that they would not want to see that occur. That should be separate 
from the crisis that we face today because the appropriation bills have 
not been passed.
  But the commitment has been made on the floor of this House. We will 
be here Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because the Members of this House, 
those of us who have voted against this charade, want to make sure 
that, one, we put people to work for the American people. That is the 
key. As this letter said, grow up, I say, act like responsible adults 
we have all mistaken you to be. Doing the right thing can be summed up 
in one simple word, compromise.
  To that constituent, we have willing on the House floor and in 
committee to compromise. We were willing to vote for a clean 
streamlined continuing resolution and to lift the debt ceiling so that 
we can confront the issues of budgeting and balancing that budget in a 
fair and bipartisan manner.

                              {time}  1930

  To my Republican colleagues the real question is:
  Are you prepared to do that, to answer the American people, and be 
able to handle this in a manner that serves us well as we move into the 
21st century?
  I will be here to work; will my colleagues be here to work?
  Mr. Speaker, I must rise today to express my profound disagreement 
with the legislative process surrounding two bills: The consideration 
of the continuing resolution to provide temporary funding to keep the 
Government functioning; legislation to extend the debt ceiling in order 
for the Federal Government to meet its debt obligations.
  Our Federal Government is in crisis today because the House 
leadership focused all of its energy during the first hundred days on a 
Contract With America instead of making sure that the appropriations 
bills for fiscal year 1996 were on schedule to be considered and signed 
by the President before October 1, 1995, and avoid disrupting the 
Government, Federal employees and the American people.
  At this time, only three appropriations bills have been signed into 
law. Those bills are Agriculture appropriations, Energy appropriations, 
and military construction appropriations. I voted in favor of those 
three appropriations bills. The President vetoed the legislative branch 
appropriations bill because he thought it was improper for Congress to 
fund its own operations before making sure that executive agencies were 
funded. The House and Senate passed another legislative branch 
appropriations bill and that bill and the Transportation appropriations 
bill are waiting to be cleared and sent to the White House. I also 
supported the latest version of the legislative branch appropriations 
bill, the Transportation appropriations bill and the Foreign Operations 
bill.
  I am concerned about the process on these two bills because the 
Congress traditionally has passed continuing funding resolutions and 
debt ceiling extension legislation without adding extraneous provisions 
unrelated to the purpose of the bills. Some of the extraneous matter 
that was added to these bills included an increase in the Medicare Part 
B premium, a restriction on political advocacy by certain non-profit 
groups, provisions relating to regulatory reform.
  In addition, the resolution would reduce funding levels for certain 
programs such as the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, the Goals 
2000 school reform programs, the AmeriCorps Program, and the Community 
Development Financial Institutions Program to 60 percent of the fiscal 
year 1995 allocation.
  With respect to the debt ceiling legislation, the House leadership 
inserted provisions that would prevent the President from having the 
flexibility to manage various Government funds to enable the Government 
to meet its debt obligations. The results under the pretense of saving 
Social Security, this effort would gut Medicare. I want to save both 
programs. This has also caused our Government to lose credibility in 
international capital markets.
  In addition, the majority Members of this House propose legislation 
today that would endanger the Social Security trust funds. I opposed 
this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that we can produce a clean continuing resolution 
and a clean debt ceiling bill. It is the right thing to do.

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