[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 207 (Friday, December 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15622-H15623]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ACCOMPLISHMENTS DURING THIS SESSION OF CONGRESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Moran] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, this Congress has finally headed home, not 
just for the holidays, but for the rest of this session. We have 
already apparently taken our last vote. This may be one of the last, if 
not the last speech on this floor for this session of Congress, and 
when history records this session of Congress, they will record it as 
being the least productive and the most destructive session of Congress 
in U.S. history.
  By the end of the fiscal year, we had passed the Paperwork Reduction 
Act and the Unfunded Mandates Act, and no appropriations bill. After 
wrangling for 9 full months, after being given the President's budget, 
only 1 of 13 appropriations bills had actually gotten to the 
President's desk, and that was the legislative branch. And thank God 
the President vetoed it.
  The last thing we would have wanted as a Congress is to have our 
salaries and our organization funded and none of the rest of the 
Government. We were lucky that he vetoed the legislative branch. But 
that meant there were no appropriation bills and we were dependent upon 
a continuing resolution.
  Now, what we have done is to go home for the holidays while Federal 
employees are locked out of their jobs and the American public is 
locked out of their Government.
  Each of the most compelling cases that we have brought up have 
apparently been dealt with. We brought it to the floor that 3.3 million 
American veterans would not get their benefits, so there was a reaction 
and we got a bill to take care of them. I hope that it will go through. 
I have no confidence at this point. It has not been passed by the 
Senate, as far as I understand. Those checks will be delayed anyway.
  We brought up the fact that 13 million welfare recipients have to 
have their checks processed by December 26. We are planning on being in 
recess, home with our families, but denying 13 million welfare 
recipients, most of whom have to have their check just to survive. The 
check has to pay for their rent. Without that check, they would not 
even have food to put on their 

[[Page H15623]]
table. These are the neediest of American citizens. Except for the last 
action we just took, they would have been denied the assistance they 
need to live on. There is no question they did not have any money saved 
up, particularly right before Christmas.

  Then we added on the District of Columbia. Imagine, we have gone now 
for October, November, and December, holding up the District of 
Columbia's money. Not just Federal money, and this is what I do not 
think people fully understand, but we held up all their local property 
tax money.
  Imagine if you were the mayor or on the county council or a citizen 
of a locality, you had paid in your own property tax money, and then 
the Federal Government told you you cannot even spend it? You cannot 
even spend it to educate your own children, to pick up your own trash, 
to place your police on your own streets? But that is what we did to 
the District of Columbia. So that is why we added that to the bill we 
just passed, and hopefully will be enacted.
  We did not take care of Medicaid. It is going to be $11 billion that 
the States need that will not be sent out to the States for medical 
assistance for the most needy; 52 percent of it is for nursing home 
patients.
  We did not deal with Israel. Israel gets $3 billion at the beginning 
of the year. They have not gotten it, and, because they have not, we 
are told by bond credit rating agencies that Israel is losing its 
credit rating. That has not only repercussions in Israel, but 
international repercussions. I do not think that is going to get 
through. That is a very serious situation. But we will be home for the 
holidays.
  Meanwhile, 500,000 Federal employees will currently be getting half a 
paycheck. On January 5 they will get zero. Hundreds of thousands of 
these employees have been working at their jobs and doing the work of 
all the other colleagues, 260,000 of whom have been locked out of their 
jobs and told it is illegal to even volunteer to perform work for the 
American Government.
  This is outrageous. We all ought to be ashamed. I cannot believe we 
are going home for the holidays, letting it stand.

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