[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 12, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H14353]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       AGREEMENT NEEDED ON REACHING A BALANCED BUDGET IN 7 YEARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Maine [Mr. Longley] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LONGLEY. Mr. Speaker, this is now coming under the third week 
where we have had an agreement with the administration to work together 
to achieve a 7-year balanced budget. Again, I need to call attention to 
the fact that our national debt of over $4.9 trillion remains 
unaddressed from the standpoint of our ability to come up with a 
successful budget.
  I happened to see an article dated from last week's New York Times, 
December 6, 1995, an article by David Sanger, with the headline that 
says ``Administration says it can avoid a borrowing crisis through 
January.''
  As we all know, the administration is struggling to avoid dealing 
with the reality of the fact that we must work together to achieve a 
balanced Federal budget in the next 7 years. The article goes on to 
say, ``Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin said today that the 
administration had found new, though legally untested methods, of 
keeping the government solvent at least through January.''

  The article goes on to say ``While Mr. Rubin would not discuss how 
long he could drag out his delicate fiscal balancing act, other 
administration officials said the Treasury and Justice Department 
lawyers had been meeting daily to devise a legally defensible strategy 
for sidestepping the Congressionally set $4.9 trillion limit on Federal 
borrowing well into the spring.'' I emphasize that.
  It goes on to say, ``Mr. Rubin declined to say what method the 
Treasury had chosen to keep the government paying its bills and the 
interest and principal due on government securities.''
  Mr. Speaker, this is an extremely serious matter. As I read into the 
article, it goes on to say that the extent of borrowing that has been 
designed to sidestep the debt limit may well exceed $60 billion. That 
is $60 billion of potentially unauthorized indebtedness.
  It goes on to say that, quoting from the article in the New York 
Times, Wednesday, December 6, by manipulating how the Government 
retirement funds are invested, the Treasury Secretary has put the 
Government about $60 billion under the debt ceiling, enough to enable 
it to borrow the funds to make it through the month of December.
  I think this is a serious issue, and I hope that as we try to work 
together with the administration through the rest of this week, as we 
work together with the administration to try to reach a balanced budget 
over the next 7 years, we can come to some complete and final agreement 
on how Republicans and Democrats can work together to finally balance 
the Federal budget.

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