[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 186 (Monday, November 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H13348-H13349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BUDGET COMPROMISE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 

[[Page H 13349]]
  12, 1995, the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized 
during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, we are all delighted of course that the 
Government is back to work and in West Virginia 17,000 Federal 
employees are back on the job.
  I also want to thank my congressional staff, over half of whom were 
furloughed during this period. It is not that they were nonessential. 
It is that they were, in the decision of the Committee on House 
Oversight, nonlegislative. Today the mobile office is back on the road 
visiting one of the many counties it visits every day. The caseworkers 
are working, schedulers are putting together events, constituent 
organizers are working. We are back in business.
  Americans finally are once again getting the Government that they are 
paying for. That is what was lost in this whole debate. Americans were 
not getting the Government that they are paying taxes for.
  I believe there are two reasons that we reached this situation today, 
this compromise. First of all, the public was telling everyone, 
Republicans, Democrats, the White House, it is time to get back to 
work. Do not hold us as hostages to this budget battle that is taking 
place.
  The second reason is, I believe, not reported as much, is the 
decision on Saturday by Democrats and then joined by a lot of 
Republicans to say, no, we are not going to shut this House down, this 
House should not adjourn even for 1 day while there are Federal 
employees out on the street.
  So let us get to the good news. The good news is that this side-bar, 
this preliminary fight on this boxing card, is behind us at least for 3 
weeks. Now we can get down to the real issues; the real issues of what 
kind of budget we have in this country and what kind of priorities is 
Medicare and Medicaid; what kind of tax cuts are they going to be and 
are they going to go to the wealthiest or to the low- and middle-
income; what kind of education programs are we going to have; how you 
are going to actually balance this budget over 7 years.
  The good news is hopefully that this will not be affected by 
temporary events, the fact that the Speaker is dissatisfied with the 
seat that he gets on an airplane or somebody's attack on somebody else 
on the floor of the House. Now we have a fight over principles, and 
that is a fight that I welcome.
  We are going to hear a lot about scorekeeping, whether Congressional 
Budget Office or Office of Management and Budget will keep the score 
and make the estimates on growth. The fact is, the people should be the 
scorekeepers, and that is what this battle is going to be about.

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