[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 181 (Wednesday, November 15, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H12405-H12406]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     WAIVING REQUIREMENT OF CLAUSE 4(b) OF RULE XI WITH RESPECT TO 
 CONSIDERATION OF CERTAIN RESOLUTIONS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE ON RULES

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, 
I call up House Resolution 265 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 265

       Resolved, That the requirement of clause 4(b) of rule XI 
     for a two-thirds vote to consider a report from the Committee 
     on rules on the same day it is presented to the House is 
     waived with respect to any resolution reported on or before 
     the legislative day of November 23, 1995, providing for 
     consideration or disposition of any bill or joint resolution 
     that includes provisions making further continuing 
     appropriations for the fiscal year 1996, any amendment 
     thereto, any conference report thereon, or any amendment 
     reported in disagreement from a conference thereon. In no 
     case shall this resolution apply to a resolution providing 
     for consideration or disposition of a bill that is a 
     reconciliation bill within the meaning of section 310 of the 
     Congressional Budget Act of 1974, any amendment reported in 
     disagreement from a conference thereon.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] 
is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield 
the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. 
Beilenson], pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the 
purpose of debate only.
  (Mr. DIAZ-BALART asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks and to include extraneous material.)
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 265 waives clause 4(b) 
of rule XI--which requires a two-thirds vote to consider a rule on the 
same day it is reported from the Rules Committee--against the same-day 
consideration of resolutions reported from the Committee on Rules on or 
before the legislative day of November 23, 1995, for the consideration 
or disposition of any measure making further continuing appropriations.
  In addition, the rule clarifies that the provisions of House 
Resolution 265 do not apply to any reconciliation measures.
  Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 265 is an expedited procedure to 
facilitate the same-day consideration of urgent legislative matters. 
The Rules Committee does not waive the two-thirds requirement very 
often--10 times by the last Congress under a Democratic majority, and 
considered and adopted 5 of those times by the full House--and the 
committee has been very diligent in reserving this waiver for only the 
most urgent fiscal year matters this Congress--twice this year--and 
only considered this one time today on the floor by the full House.
  House Resolution 265 is necessary to expedite legislation to pay the 
Federal Government's bills and allow furloughed Federal employees to 
return to work as quickly as possible. The House has now passed all 13 
requisite appropriations bills. While differences over the remaining 10 
or so individual spending bills that have not been signed into law are 
being negotiated 

[[Page H12406]]
with both the Senate and the President, it is important that the House 
be able to act immediately on the floor to consider any rule that deals 
with providing funds for the urgent matter of expired appropriations. I 
urge adoption of House Resolution 265.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BEILENSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume. I thank the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] for 
yielding me the customary 30 minutes of debate time.
  Mr. Speaker, we do not object to this rule. We think it is 
reasonable, as we did in the past when our Republican colleagues 
supported our requests to waive the two-thirds vote requirement. Of 
course, we should not even be in a position of debating it tonight. The 
only reason it is necessary for us to do so is that the Republican 
controlled Congress has been unable to do its most basic job, and that 
is to pass appropriations bills. That is why we are here considering 
this waiver of a standing rule of the House.
  The public is wondering what we are doing, as they should. The 
arguments we will be considering in the context of the next resolution 
over such a controversial provision as how to reach a balanced budget 
should be taking place in the context of the budget reconciliation 
bill, legislation which the House and Senate have in fact already 
passed.
  There is no need to encumber the continuing resolution with this 
extraneous provision which will be considered where it should be, in 
the conference report on budget reconciliation, which should be before 
us on Friday.
  We ought to do now what we could have done last week, pass a 
continuing appropriations measure that is clean and straightforward. 
The gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. Obey, the ranking member of the 
Committee on Appropriations, has attempted several times to gain 
unanimous consent to bring his legislation to the floor for that 
purpose but unfortunately has repeatedly been denied that request.
  We repeat, we Democrats remain willing and ready to expedite in a 
reasonable and responsible manner the business of the House.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Davis].
  Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to 
me.
  Time is of the essence with this. Federal workers have been sitting 
home the last couple of days. They want to resume their jobs. They want 
to continue on with governing, which is what this is all about. For 
Members who believe we should get our Government back up and operating, 
this rule makes sense. This is urgent legislation, as my colleague 
noted earlier in his remarks. This is one of the few times we would 
waive this rule, but I think that we can get a bipartisan yes to this 
rule and hopefully to the resolution that will follow.
  As I said before, Federal employees want to return to work. They are 
eager to get on with their business. Many employees, even if they are 
with funded agencies at this point or are deemed essential employees 
under the law, are still unable in many cases to perform their work 
because of other limitations in procurement and hiring and firing that 
take place because we do not have continuing resolutions in effect. So, 
should the rule come forward and this resolution be passed and sent to 
the President, all of this will be resolved should the President sign 
it.
  I think the subsequent resolution is something that the President 
should sign. The continuing resolution will make sense for several 
reasons. First of all, the funding levels contained here are adequate 
for the Federal Government and the District of Columbia government to 
continue for the next 18 days. There is no dip in the funding that will 
cut education, that will cut the environmental programs for 18 days and 
that should hinder that. It is certainly better than what we are being 
funded today.
  Second, it will get our Federal employees back working tomorrow. 
Third, it strips the Medicare and other riders that the President and 
the administration have deemed superfluous and have said are 
unacceptable. We have taken those out.
  Finally, it mutually, mutually commits the Congress, both the House 
and the Senate, and the President to balance the Federal budget with 
CBO numbers over the next 7 years. This should be no problem for this 
Congress or Members of both sides of the aisle who have professed to 
stand for this and for the President who on numerous occasions has said 
he is for a balanced budget and accepts CBO numbers.
  I rise in support of this rule and the subsequent resolution.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, 
and I move the previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The resolution was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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