[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 205 (Wednesday, December 20, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15269-H15270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE BUDGET PROCESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wise] is recognized for 5 minutes.


                                 Bosnia

  Mr. WISE. Mr. Speaker, let me pick up where the previous speaker left 
off in the sense of talking about Bosnia for a second. The first West 
Virginians are now passing through Fort Dix, NJ, Mr. Speaker, en route 
to Bosnia.
  As Reserve units are called up and others are activated and, of 
course, active duty, I think it is most likely that we will see a lot 
of West Virginians going to Bosnia. West Virginians always answer the 
call. Certainly the C-130 squadrons, the 167th in Martinsburg and the 
130th in Charleston, are just about everywhere on the globe anytime 
there is a problem. They have been to Bosnia as well before.
  And so at this Christmas time we need to reflect on what is 
happening, and as these West Virginia troops pass through Fort Dix and 
as the others activate or are shipped out.
  I voted against the initial military involvement, not because I 
questioned the good intentions of the policy, and certainly it is well-
intentioned, but I questioned whether or not the military would have 
the ability and means to carry it out.
  That question has been answered in an affirmative vote here on the 
House. The decision has been made. The troops are going, and we must 
now all stand behind our troops and I am going to make sure they have 
whatever is necessary to carry out their mission.
  I am encouraged by the fact that the rules of engagement for these 
troops are different than we have seen in Somalia, than we have seen in 
other areas, where we have now the ability to hit back and hit back 
hard should our troops be threatened in any way.
  But as these troops leave this country, millions of American citizens 
are asking, what about the other parts of our Government? We know these 
troops are going to operate efficiently and effectively and carry out 
their mission. Why are not other parts of Government?
  Why do we have parts of our Government shut down? That is a fair 
question. We are now in our 11th day cumulative this year, the Federal 
Government or parts of the Federal Government not working. That is an 
all-time record, I believe, for the Republic, certainly for this 
century.

  There are two parts really that have to be dealt with. Unfortunately 
the two processes have been brought together by the leadership of this 
House. One part is the annual budget, what you do to fund the 
Government on a day-to-day basis for a year at a time, for the fiscal 
year 1996.
  The other part is the budget debate that is taking place in 
negotiations between the White House and the Republicans and Democrats 
in the House and the Senate for a 7-year balanced budget. Running the 
Government day-to-day, one process. Balanced budget, the next. 
Regrettably, the leadership under Speaker Gingrich have chosen to tie 
these two inextricably, and so the Government is held hostage while 
these important negotiations take place.
  So what happens to those who say, well, really are we seeing much of 
a shutdown in Government? Yes, we are seeing cumulative right now about 
60,000 students who will not be able to fill out applications for Pell 
grants and other student loans as the next semester comes on. We are 
seeing thousands who had vacation plans turned away.
  Well, vacation plans, is that very important? No, but what about 
people who call the EPA hot line for drinking water violations and want 
some assurances about the environment? We are finding that those folks 
are not going to have their calls answered.
  When this leadership, the Republican leadership, took over in the 
spring, I complimented them, not because I agreed with the Contract 
with America, but I thought that they brought it to the floor in an 
orderly way and in a very purposeful way and they moved it through 
quickly. It was not much fun for anybody but they did it. They 
demonstrated an ability to command the floor.
  Unfortunately I have to say, in the same vein, I have seen a total 
breakdown of that ability in the appropriations process. I recognize 
this is a complicated area. It sounds like it ought to just be beltway 
gobbledygook except for this.
  The appropriations process is very important. We have 13 
appropriation bills that fund the Government on a yearly basis. October 
1 is the deadline to get them all passed. We had a handful at best, 
three or four, that had 

[[Page H15270]]
passed and been signed into law on October 1.
  By just this week, I believe we now have seven that have been signed 
into law. We still have six, and they are fairly big ones, that have 
not been signed into law. Some of them have not even been taken up by 
the other body.

  I yield to the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Durbin], a member of the 
Committee on Appropriations.
  Mr. Durbin. I would like to report to my colleague from West Virginia 
that I just left the conference committee on the District of Columbia. 
The gentleman would not believe what is going on there.
  The Republicans have failed to enact the District of Columbia 
appropriations bill which was due October 1. We are now almost 3 months 
into this fiscal year. The District of Columbia Government, their local 
funds as well as Federal funds, are all appropriated funds, so this 
government is literally running without authority.
  In providing police protection, they are trying to keep the streets 
safe for us to drive on, they are trying to keep the community as safe 
as they can for the tourists who are visiting Washington, and some of 
my colleagues who have just joined me on the floor here from the State 
of Georgia as well as from the State of Wisconsin blame President 
Clinton for this. They said the President is responsible, and yet the 
fact is we have not sent the appropriation bill to the President, 
almost 3 months into this fiscal year.

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