[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15094-H15095]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  0945
               SPEAKER SHOULD ALLOW GOVERNMENT TO OPERATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. Gejdenson] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, what is clear here, but somewhat 
secretive in this town, is that of the participants in this battle, all 
but the Speaker are 

[[Page H15095]]
ready to open the Government again. Frankly, all but the Speaker would 
have kept the Government open.
  The President and Mr. Dole and Mr. Domenici could have kept this 
government open, but what happened? First, the Speaker got a bad seat 
on an airplane, and so he shut the Government down. Now, he has gotten 
bad poll numbers and he figures he cannot rebuild himself, so he is 
going to tear the whole Government down, hoping to bring everybody down 
with him.
  We are one country trying to resolve some issues and it seems clear 
to me that the way to resolve these issues is not to set out to put our 
citizens in harm's way, put our Federal workers in harm's way, and 
disgrace this country by an inability to keep this Government working.

  When we were first elected in 1980, we had grave differences with 
Ronald Reagan. But we had Democratic Speakers who gave the President 
every courtesy, who then proceeded to work with President Reagan to 
make sure the Government kept working, even where we had grave 
disagreements.
  But not this Speaker. This Speaker refuses, of all the leaders here, 
he refuses to keep this Government operating. It seems clear to me that 
if he was a military leader, he would start bombing his own cities as a 
demonstration of strength. What we need to do is get back to work.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be happy to yield to the gentlewoman from Texas 
[Ms. Jackson-Lee].
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the words of the 
gentleman from Connecticut, because I rise this morning to ask if we 
could simply tell the truth. I think if we put the truth on the table, 
we might get going.
  The continuing resolution, and I think the gentleman from Connecticut 
was here that weekend of the 19th, insisting that we worked to ensure 
that the Government not shut down. I think it is important to remind 
the American people that the President is not standing on weak ground.
   I would caution my colleagues on the other side of the aisle about 
believing in Santa Claus. There are millions of children around this 
world and in this country that we hope will hold a vision of hope and 
we hope they will believe in Santa Claus. But the President and the 
Congress signed onto a continuing resolution that indicated that we 
would provide adequate funding for Medicaid, education, Medicare 
solvency, agriculture, national defense, and the environment and to 
ensure the protection of generations of people.
  This morning, I spoke to my 10-year-old and this is in tribute to 
Jason, because I am not there with him for his Christmas program. We 
all believe in moving this country forward. But the American people are 
seeing, first of all, their Government shut down with innocent, hard-
working Federal employees out on the streets, hindering their 
opportunity to provide for their families. But more importantly, all of 
the services that they provide are no longer here for the American 
people.
  This side is standing for the American people. I believe those who 
say they do not believe in Santa Claus are just about bringing Scrooge 
to the national forum. What we should be doing is coming together and 
working, telling the truth so that I can go home and tell the mother 
who has a young child with a brain tumor, and a mother who has another 
child with respiratory problems, and another child with a heart 
condition, and who is a single parent on welfare and needs Medicaid, 
that she is an American too and that we are trying to help her bridge 
out of this condition into independence.
  Mr. Speaker, I think we need to stand on the side of the American 
people, tell the truth, and to make sure that we provide an opportunity 
for a fair, balanced budget, not on the backs of those who are most 
needy.
  Mr. GEJDENSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia 
[Mr. Moran].
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman mentioned President Reagan, and 
think it is important to bear in mind that when we had a budget 
conflict in 1987 and 1988, between a Republican President and a 
Democratic Congress, what we did was to pass a continuing resolution 
that lasted all year long; a clean continuing resolution. But Federal 
employees were not made pawns in that process. There is no reason why 
Federal employees should be furloughed today.
  Yesterday, in a press conference, Speaker Gingrich indicated that 
those Federal employees may not even be paid at Christmas time. How 
unbelievable could this situation be that we would have families with 
children who are working for the American people, laid off, put on 
furlough just before Christmas, and told they may not even be paid 
during Christmas?
  But it is believable. We just fired 11 people that served this House 
in the well of the House, doing necessary work. They had built up 
compensatory time, because they worked late at night. But because we 
will have the same laws that apply to the private sector apply to us 
January 1, we fired them just before Christmas time so we would not 
have to compensate them. Talk about mean spiritedness.

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