[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 198 (Wednesday, December 13, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H14375-H14377]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DISPOSING OF SENATE AMENDMENT 115 TO H.R. 1868, FOREIGN OPERATIONS, 
    EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 1996

  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call 
up House Resolution 296 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 296

       Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be 
     in order to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 
     1868) making appropriations for foreign operations, export 
     financing, and related programs for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 1996, and for other purposes, with the Senate 
     amendment numbered 115 thereto, and to consider in the House 
     the motion printed in section 2 of this resolution. The 
     Senate amendment and the motion shall be considered as read. 
     All points of order against the motion are waived. The motion 
     shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and 
     controlled by the proponent and an opponent. The previous 
     question shall be considered as ordered on that motion to 
     final adoption without intervening motion or demand for 
     division of the question.
       Sec. 2. The motion to dispose of the amendment of the 
     Senate numbered 115 is as follows:
       Mr. Callahan (or his designee) moves that the House recede 
     from its amendment to the amendment of the Senate numbered 
     115, and concur therein with an amendment, as follows:
       In lieu of the matter proposed by said amendment, insert:
       ``Authorization of Population Planning
       ``Sec. 518A. Section 526 of this Act shall not apply to 
     funds made available in this Act for population planning 
     activities or other population assistance pursuant to section 
     104(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act or any other provision 
     of law, or to funds made available in title IV of this Act as 
     a contribution to the United Nations Population Fund 
     (UNFPA).''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). The gentleman from Florida 
[Mr. Goss] is recognized for 1 hour.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hall], 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. GOSS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his 
remarks and include extraneous material.)
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, this rule provides for a motion--to be offered 
by Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Callahan or 
his designee--to dispose of the remaining amendment in disagreement to 
the conference report on H.R. 1868. This is a straightforward and fair 
rule, providing for an hour of debate and an up-or-down vote on the 
motion. As you recall, the House passed the Foreign Operations 
conference report on October 31. This legislation makes tremendous 
improvements in the way we allocate our limited tax dollars to overseas 
interests. H.R. 1868 significantly reduces 

[[Page H14376]]
total foreign aid spending, and it takes steps to shrink the Government 
bureaucracy that has funded many wasteful and duplicative foreign aid 
projects. The Senate has also passed the conference report for H.R. 
1868--and for the past 7 weeks, the two Chambers have been trying to 
resolve a single disagreement over Senate amendment No. 115, concerning 
funding for population planning.
  Mr. Speaker, the House has voted four times in favor of its position 
on this issue. Each time the Senate has disagreed. Chairman Callahan's 
motion would make the population planning funds in the bill subject to 
authorization--or a later waiver--allowing the ultimate decision on 
population planning policy to be made in the foreign aid authorization 
bill, which is after all, the appropriate place for it. Chairman 
Callahan's notion is a reasonable effort to move beyond the stalemate 
and finally pave the way for the foreign operations bill to be sent to 
the President's desk.

  Mr. Speaker, in light of the recent visit by Israeli Prime Minister 
Peres, I would also note that the funding for the Middle East peace 
process is contained in this bill. The negotiations are at a critical 
phase, and despite the tragic assassination of Prime Minister Rabin, 
there is real hope that further progress towards a lasting peace can be 
made. I urge my colleagues to support this rule.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  (Mr. HALL of Ohio asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would like to commend my colleague 
from Florida [Mr. Goss] for bringing this resolution to the floor.
  House Resolution 296 is a rule which provides for the offering of a 
motion to dispose of the one amendment reported in disagreement by the 
conferees on the fiscal 1996, foreign operations appropriations bill.
  As my colleague from Florida has ably described, this rule provides 1 
hour general debate, equally divided between the proponent and an 
opponent of the motion.
  The motion to be offered under this rule would require funds for the 
population planing activities of AID, and for the U.S. contribution to 
the U.N. Population Fund, to be authorized before they could be 
obligated.
  Though the House has already passed the conference agreement and this 
morning's debate is over one narrow related issue, I want to take the 
opportunity to again thank Mr. Callahan, the chairman of the Foreign 
Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, for the emphasis he placed on 
children throughout this appropriations process. I am pleased that the 
final conference agreement has paid special attention to children's 
programs such as child survival, UNICEF, and basic education.
  While the conference report did not include many earmarks, there was 
a strong recommendation that UNICEF would receive $100 million. In 
response to my question during the Rules Committee hearing last night, 
Mr. Callahan again reaffirmed the desire of the conferees that UNICEF 
should receive the recommended $100 million. I appreciate Mr. 
Callahan's continued support on this matter.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I would advise the distinguished gentleman 
from Ohio that I have no requests for time, and I will reserve my time. 
If he has no requests, I would be prepared to yield back the balance of 
my time.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman 
from Wisconsin [Mr. Obey].
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, if one ever wanted an example of why this 
Congress has failed to pass its appropriation bills on time, 
necessitating plunging the country into a needless Government shutdown 
and silly political arguments about continuing resolutions, this bill, 
and the way it is being handled today, is a spectacular example.
  First of all, in terms of scheduling, we were told this bill was 
going to be up this afternoon. Now with virtually no notice to the 
committee, we find it on the floor.
  Second, we are told on this side of the aisle that the committee 
intended to offer a compromise proposal which contained compromise 
language. Instead, what we get is the most confrontational approach 
that could possibly be taken, virtually assuring that this turkey is 
going to go nowhere.
  Now, we have a serious problem in this country. The problem is that 
this Congress has not finished a number of appropriation bills, and 
because of that, we face an imminent Government shutdown again on the 
15th of this month.
  I had thought that the proper way to address that problem would be to 
try to find ways to compromise out these bills so that you can get more 
of them signed by the President and reduce the lack of performance on 
the part of this Congress.
  We have already had the Foreign Operations bill tied up for over 2 
months because Republicans in the House have not been able to agree 
with the Republicans in the Senate on what to do on family planning. 
Now the wizards who put together this strategy this morning are now 
saying, ``Well, I'll tell you what we're going to do. What we're going 
to do is to send over, not compromise language to the Senate, but 
language which shuts down all family planning funds internationally.''
  What is more, this rule proposes to make in order an amendment on 
international programs which the House already turned down on domestic 
programs by a vote of 221-207.
  Obviously family planning programs are important within the borders 
of the United States, but they are even more important on a substantive 
basis internationally because population growth in many countries 
around the world is flatly out of control, and if we do not find a way 
to rationally reduce that curve, that upward curve, we are going to 
have an even greater hunger problem, an even greater environmental 
problem, an even greater problem of social disruption than you have 
today in many parts of the world. Yet today the wizards who proposed 
this language are saying the way out of it is to send over to the 
Senate language you know they will not accept in 100 years.

                             {time}   1045

  There is not a chance of a snowball in you know where that this 
language is going to be approved by the Senate, and yet the House, at a 
time when we ought to be working out ways to compromise our differences 
is in essence throwing a ``Hail Mary'' to the Senate knowing full well 
that the Senate is not going to swallow it. That is not a constructive 
way to do business.
  This rule is going to inflame the situation. This approach is going 
to inflame the situation. It is going to make it much harder to pass a 
bill than it has been to date, and I see absolutely no constructive 
purpose whatsoever for proceeding in this manner.
  Now, I think my record shows that whether this House has been 
controlled by Republicans or Democrats I have tried to help further the 
passage of this legislation in a bipartisan way, but the approach that 
is being taken here this morning is tactically idiotic, and I would 
urge the Members of the majority, if you are interested in finding any 
way at all to reconcile your differences with Members of your own party 
in the other body, you ought not to be doing this this morning.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman 
from Texas [Mr. Wilson].
  Mr. WILSON. Mr. Speaker, Members, I agree largely with the points 
that the gentleman from Wisconsin made concerning procedure.
  But just addressing the merits of this legislation as it is currently 
drafted would mean it would eliminate all family planning funds that 
the United States provides all over the world. Now, I remember our 
colleague, our ex-colleague, Mr. Lehman from Florida, one late night we 
were doing a markup, and he remarked that if you took the family 
planning money out of the foreign operations bill you might as well not 
have a foreign operations bill, because there is nothing more important 
in Third World countries bettering their standard of living than family 
planning. This would eliminate family planning for all of the Third 
World countries that have enormous birth rates and thereby hinder their 
economic growth and hinder their hope for 

[[Page H14377]]
prosperity and their hope for a better way of life.
  Finally, I would just like to say, in my opinion, this will actually 
slow down the progress of this legislation, because we absolutely know 
we are certain that the Senate will not accept it, and we are certain 
that if the Senate did accept it that is would be vetoed. So to me it 
is sort of an exercise in futility without any logical purpose.
  So, therefore, I would urge a vote against the rule.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  I would like to ask the gentleman from Alabama [Mr. Callahan] a 
question or two. I understand that the legislation before us today is 
simply to address one issue. However, I wish to clarify one aspect of 
the conference report, the funding level for UNICEF and for basic 
education.
  The gentleman has been a leader with respect to children with this 
particular subcommittee appropriation bill, and I know that there has 
been some very strong language that has gone back and forth in the 
committee report, and one of the things that was put in the conference 
committee report that was pretty firm in both the Senate and House, 
that UNICEF would get $100 million and that basic education would get a 
substantial appropriation of about $108 million, as I remember, and I 
just want to ask you: Is it still your intention to push for that?
  Mr. CALLAHAN. If the gentleman will yield, certainly, it is my full 
intention to support both. I had not heard before our conversation just 
yesterday that there might be a plan under foot to do otherwise. But 
the bill very clearly states that it is the intent to send $100 million 
to UNICEF and $108 million for child education.
  Mr. HALL of Ohio. I thank the gentleman for his assurance. I 
appreciate very much his support.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.


                             general leave

  Mr. GOSS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks 
on House Resolution 296, the resolution now under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Kingston). Is there objection to the 
request of the gentleman from Florida?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GOSS. 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 SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground a quorum is 
not present, and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Evidently a quorum is not present.
  The Sergeant at Arms will notify absent Members.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 241, 
nays 178, not voting 13, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 849]

                               YEAS--241

     Allard
     Archer
     Armey
     Bachus
     Baker (CA)
     Baker (LA)
     Ballenger
     Barcia
     Barr
     Barrett (NE)
     Bartlett
     Barton
     Bass
     Bateman
     Bereuter
     Bilbray
     Bilirakis
     Bliley
     Blute
     Boehner
     Bonilla
     Bono
     Browder
     Brownback
     Bryant (TN)
     Bunn
     Bunning
     Burr
     Burton
     Buyer
     Callahan
     Calvert
     Camp
     Canady
     Castle
     Chabot
     Chambliss
     Chenoweth
     Christensen
     Chrysler
     Clinger
     Coble
     Coburn
     Collins (GA)
     Combest
     Cooley
     Costello
     Cox
     Crane
     Crapo
     Cremeans
     Cubin
     Cunningham
     Danner
     Davis
     de la Garza
     Deal
     DeLay
     Diaz-Balart
     Dickey
     Doolittle
     Dornan
     Doyle
     Dreier
     Duncan
     Dunn
     Ehlers
     Ehrlich
     Emerson
     English
     Ensign
     Everett
     Ewing
     Fawell
     Fields (TX)
     Flanagan
     Foley
     Forbes
     Fowler
     Fox
     Franks (NJ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Frisa
     Funderburk
     Gallegly
     Ganske
     Gekas
     Gilchrest
     Gillmor
     Gilman
     Goodlatte
     Goodling
     Goss
     Graham
     Gunderson
     Gutknecht
     Hall (TX)
     Hancock
     Hansen
     Hastert
     Hastings (WA)
     Hayes
     Hayworth
     Hefley
     Heineman
     Herger
     Hilleary
     Hoekstra
     Hoke
     Holden
     Hostettler
     Houghton
     Hunter
     Hutchinson
     Hyde
     Inglis
     Istook
     Johnson, Sam
     Jones
     Kanjorski
     Kasich
     Kelly
     Kildee
     Kim
     King
     Kingston
     Klink
     Knollenberg
     Kolbe
     LaFalce
     LaHood
     Largent
     Latham
     LaTourette
     Laughlin
     Lazio
     Leach
     Lewis (KY)
     Lightfoot
     Linder
     Livingston
     LoBiondo
     Longley
     Lucas
     Manzullo
     Martini
     Mascara
     McCollum
     McCrery
     McDade
     McHugh
     McIntosh
     McKeon
     Metcalf
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Molinari
     Mollohan
     Montgomery
     Moorhead
     Murtha
     Myers
     Myrick
     Nethercutt
     Neumann
     Ney
     Norwood
     Nussle
     Ortiz
     Orton
     Oxley
     Packard
     Parker
     Paxon
     Peterson (MN)
     Petri
     Pombo
     Portman
     Poshard
     Pryce
     Quillen
     Quinn
     Radanovich
     Regula
     Riggs
     Roberts
     Rogers
     Rohrabacher
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Royce
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Saxton
     Scarborough
     Schaefer
     Schiff
     Seastrand
     Sensenbrenner
     Shadegg
     Shaw
     Shuster
     Skeen
     Skelton
     Smith (MI)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smith (WA)
     Solomon
     Souder
     Spence
     Stearns
     Stenholm
     Stump
     Stupak
     Talent
     Tate
     Tauzin
     Taylor (MS)
     Taylor (NC)
     Tejeda
     Thomas
     Thornberry
     Tiahrt
     Upton
     Volkmer
     Vucanovich
     Waldholtz
     Walker
     Walsh
     Wamp
     Watts (OK)
     Weldon (FL)
     Weldon (PA)
     Weller
     White
     Whitfield
     Wicker
     Wolf
     Young (AK)
     Young (FL)
     Zeliff

                               NAYS--178

     Abercrombie
     Ackerman
     Andrews
     Baesler
     Baldacci
     Barrett (WI)
     Becerra
     Beilenson
     Bentsen
     Berman
     Bevill
     Bishop
     Boehlert
     Bonior
     Borski
     Boucher
     Brown (CA)
     Brown (FL)
     Bryant (TX)
     Cardin
     Chapman
     Clay
     Clayton
     Clement
     Clyburn
     Coleman
     Collins (IL)
     Collins (MI)
     Condit
     Conyers
     Coyne
     Cramer
     DeFazio
     DeLauro
     Dellums
     Deutsch
     Dicks
     Dingell
     Dixon
     Doggett
     Dooley
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Eshoo
     Evans
     Farr
     Fattah
     Fazio
     Fields (LA)
     Filner
     Flake
     Foglietta
     Ford
     Frank (MA)
     Franks (CT)
     Frost
     Furse
     Gejdenson
     Gephardt
     Geren
     Gibbons
     Gonzalez
     Gordon
     Green
     Greenwood
     Gutierrez
     Hall (OH)
     Hamilton
     Harman
     Hastings (FL)
     Hefner
     Hilliard
     Hinchey
     Hobson
     Horn
     Hoyer
     Jackson-Lee
     Jacobs
     Jefferson
     Johnson (CT)
     Johnson (SD)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Johnston
     Kaptur
     Kennedy (MA)
     Kennedy (RI)
     Kennelly
     Kleczka
     Klug
     Lantos
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lincoln
     Lipinski
     Lofgren
     Lowey
     Luther
     Maloney
     Manton
     Markey
     Martinez
     Matsui
     McCarthy
     McDermott
     McHale
     McKinney
     McNulty
     Meehan
     Meek
     Menendez
     Meyers
     Miller (CA)
     Minge
     Mink
     Moakley
     Moran
     Nadler
     Neal
     Oberstar
     Obey
     Owens
     Pallone
     Pastor
     Payne (NJ)
     Payne (VA)
     Pelosi
     Peterson (FL)
     Pickett
     Pomeroy
     Porter
     Rahall
     Ramstad
     Rangel
     Reed
     Richardson
     Rivers
     Roemer
     Rose
     Roukema
     Roybal-Allard
     Rush
     Sabo
     Sanders
     Sawyer
     Schroeder
     Schumer
     Scott
     Serrano
     Shays
     Sisisky
     Skaggs
     Slaughter
     Spratt
     Stark
     Stokes
     Studds
     Tanner
     Thompson
     Thornton
     Thurman
     Torkildsen
     Torres
     Torricelli
     Towns
     Traficant
     Visclosky
     Ward
     Waters
     Watt (NC)
     Waxman
     Williams
     Wilson
     Wise
     Woolsey
     Wyden
     Wynn
     Yates
     Zimmer

                             NOT VOTING--13

     Brewster
     Brown (OH)
     Engel
     Lewis (CA)
     McInnis
     Mfume
     Morella
     Olver
     Roth
     Stockman
     Tucker
     Velazquez
     Vento

                              {time}  1111

  Messrs. FROST, BOEHLERT, SHAYS, and HOBSON changed their vote from 
``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Ms. DANNER and Mr. LaFALCE changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.