[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 183 (Friday, November 17, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H13285]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             HOUSE SHOULD REMAIN IN SESSION THROUGH SUNDAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Doyle] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DOYLE. Mr. Speaker, as one of the new members of Congress this 
year, I am pleased to say that I think we have made some positive 
changes in this 104th Congress. There has been some things that I have 
been proud to support, reforms that have been made. I have been proud 
to reach across the other side of the aisle with some of my colleagues 
in the Republican Party to support some of those changes. People back 
in western Pennsylvania told me when I was running for office that good 
ideas come on both sides of the aisle. When something benefits western 
Pennsylvania and our country, I do not care if it is a Republican idea 
or a Democratic idea, we should support that. I have been happy to do 
that.
  But, Mr. Speaker, the unsettling fact is that partisan wrangling and 
political staging are starting to delay the appropriations process. We 
are behind on paying the Nation's bills. Of the 13 appropriation bills, 
we have only completed work on 4 of them so far. And 800,000 Federal 
workers were furloughed on Tuesday and remain off their jobs and 
wondering if or when they will be able to pay their bills.

  Millions of Americans are seeing an unprecedented Federal Government 
shutdown that, if it persists, will cripple the ability for the 
American people to move forward, to prosper, to be proud of the service 
that they receive from their government.
  Americans, what they are starting to see here, they do not like on 
either side of the aisle. They see disagreements on the budget, but our 
disagreements are not on whether or not to balance the Federal budget. 
They are on budget priorities. They see petty fights about state 
funerals, about which adding machine will get used, who gets credit in 
the public opinion polls, who gets blamed or the stories of the mere 
childishness in this institution. And they are seeing it taken to 
extremes.
  The American people want to see us be serious about facing the 
problems in front of us. This Congress, not the President, has an 
obligation to keep the government in business. Yesterday I visited with 
70 students from western Pennsylvania, from Brentwood High School. They 
were here to visit the Nation's Capitol and see some of the Nation's 
treasures that we have to offer. They were not able to see a lot of 
those treasures because we are in a shutdown right now. That fault lies 
with the American Congress, with the Congress here, Democrats and 
Republicans, because we need to get our work done. We need to do our 
job because we hold the purse strings.

  I would like nothing better than to be home this week with my wife 
Susan and my four children. I think every Member in this House would 
like to be home with their families. But there are thousands of 
families nationwide who rely on the sole providers who work in this 
government and they, too, deserve to have the knowledge of whether or 
not they are going to receive a paycheck. And there are millions of 
families throughout the country who rely on the services that the 
government employees provide.
  I would just like to talk a minute about the balanced budget because 
we hear a lot of talk about the balanced budget. I am a Democrat who 
voted for the balanced budget amendment. I am a Democrat that supported 
the Stenholm budget resolution. There were over 300 of us that agree 
that we should balance the Federal budget. This is not a question about 
whether or not to do it. The argument is going to be about how we do 
it. It is going to be about priorities. It is going to be about whether 
we have tax cuts or whether we mitigate some of the pain in Medicare 
and Medicaid. I think we should have that discussion.
  I respect Members on this side of the aisle that feel deeply held 
convictions that there should be a $245 billion tax cut and what they 
are doing in Medicaid and Medicare. I happen not to agree with these 
gentlemen and I hold those convictions sincerely. That is what we 
should be talking about over these next months.
  Let us get this CR behind us. Let us get the government running again 
and then let us sit down and have the great debate that the American 
people want us to have on what our priorities should be for Federal 
dollars. Let us get on with our work.

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