[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15257-H15258]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 PROBLEMS IN THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of nonsense about the 
Republicans ruining Christmas for some of the Government workers. I 
want to talk a little bit about the Fourth District of Kansas. We have 
1,038 Federal workers subject to furlough. This week the President 
vetoed legislation that would have put 940 of them back to work, 940, 
but the President vetoed Christmas for those employees and their 
families. Thank you very much, Mr. President.
  You know, there is struggle going on here about balancing the budget, 
and we have come to a real critical point, because if we are unable to 
balance the budget now, then when will we balance it? We have a future 
to think about for our children. We are $5 trillion in debt. It is a 
tremendous amount of money. We are trying to strengthen our economy.
  We have seen two dramatic moves in our economy. No. 1, when we went 
through the 5,000 mark on the New York Stock Exchange, it was the same 
week when we thought we had an agreement to balance the Federal budget 
in 7 years. This week, when we thought the balanced budget had failed, 
the stock market dropped dramatically, over 100 points, and then 
bounced back the next day, when Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal 
Reserve, said that he hoped that we could get to a balanced budget, and 
in good faith he was going to lower interest rates a quarter of a 
percent.
  But it is going to be very difficult for the President to concede to 
a balanced budget, because his liberal agenda does not include 
balancing the budget, only 

[[Page H15258]]
paying off liberal interest groups. Plus he is being dragged down by 
members of his own Cabinet.
  Currently Secretary O'Leary in the Department of Energy is falling 
under fire. It started out with GAO reports as early as the first part 
of this year when they reported that she had a ``mission a minute,'' 
quote-unquote, a mission a minute, that there were very large 
management problems within the Department. Then Vice President Gore's 
National Performance Review came out, which said that portions of the 
Department of Energy, like of the environmental management portion, was 
40-percent inefficient, and it could cost taxpayers $70 billion over 
the next 30 years.
  Then we started to see travel problems, with the Secretary of the 
Department of Energy having the highest travel budget per trip of 
anyone inside the President's Cabinet, staying at four-star hotels, 
traveling first class, taking along large staffs for her domestic 
travel. But that was all based on her current responsibilities in the 
Department of Energy, which are all domestic.
  Then we started to hear about the international trips. Secretary 
O'Leary has taken 16 international trips, taking along as many as 50 
staff members, as many as 68 guests, often CEO's who do not pay their 
portion of the travels. One trip cost $720,000. With 16 of them, it is 
in the millions of dollars, the costs of this. Often she travels on the 
same plane as Madonna leases. So the material girl of Clinton's Cabinet 
is spending unwisely taxpayer dollars in these travels.
  She hires photographers and video crews to come along, because she 
wants to be caught at her best. She is very worried about the public 
image she is presenting and has been quoted as trying to bring the 
second term of the President's campaign, the ideals of it, to the 
forefront now.
  In the zeal to project a good public image, Secretary O'Leary has 
hired a personal media consultant at a cost of $75,000 per year to the 
taxpayers. She also employs inside the Department of Energy more than 
520 public relations employees at a payroll of over $25 million per 
year. She has even hired a private investigative firm to investigate 
reporters and Congressmen who are tarnishing her favorable image. She 
has developed a list of unfavorables.
  Well, it is going to be hard to hit the budget target, especially 
when you are unable to control spending like this. This is excessive, 
it is unnecessary, and it is a waste. We are so concerned about the 
poor, and yet we allow first-class travel within members of the Cabinet 
overseas, on the same airplane that is leased by Madonna. That is not 
the lifestyle that is projected by the administration when they are 
trying to speak for the poor. It is quite the opposite.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I would encourage President Clinton to ask for the 
resignation of Secretary O'Leary. I would urge him to get back into 
some honest negotiations on the Federal budget, so that we can enjoy 
Christmas as a government, get everyone back to work, and also preserve 
a future for our children, strengthen our economy, and just plain do 
the right thing. Balancing the budget is the right thing to do.

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