[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 207 (Friday, December 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H15623-H15624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN UNFAIR

  The Speaker pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Virginia [Mr. Davis] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Speaker, I come here today as a Member representing a 
district in Northern Virginia across the river with many Federal 
employees and Federal contractors. As my colleague in the neighboring 
Eighth District just noted, these are really the unintended victims of 
this shut down.
  We literally are going to have hundreds of thousand of people not 
receiving their paychecks on time. Even those out there who have been 
working, who have been declared essential over the past week, will not 
receive their paychecks on time come the first of the year, unless some 
action is forthcoming from this body.
  We are having literally thousands of employees of Federal contractors 
at this poing being furloughed, or in other cases the companies are 
having to eat their time because they are not getting paid in a timely 
manner from the Federal Government for doing work that they have won 
contractually. They are performing services for the Federal Government, 
but at this point their paychecks will not be forthcoming either.
  The ripple effect that has had out in my district is in the retail 
stores, it is among the merchants, and it is hurting the economy 
locally. This can be spread across the country in other districts 
around the country. Not just with Federal employees, but people looking 
forward to getting their mortgages at the end of the year and cannot 
get Federal approval for it, veterans benefits which because of our 
dillydallying here over the last couple of weeks, some of those benefit 
checks for the first time I believe since the Second World War will not 
come out on time. And this is going to be multiplied and multiplied.
  Then I was more dismayed to hear the next talks between our 
leadership, the congressional leadership and the White House, will not 
take place until next Friday, I believe at this point. With no prospect 
of anything happening next week, I have got to tell you, I am most 
discouraged at this point.
  But let me just share some thoughts and observations. I was one of 
three Members on this side of the aisle today who voted for the motion 
to recommit which would have in fact offered a clean continuing 
resolution, that would have said during the Christmas holiday season, 
workers who have been doing their jobs will continue to get paid, other 
Federal workers who we have assured will eventually get paid will be 
paid in a timely manner, and contractors could continue to work and 
support their families.
  There are other ways to bring pressure on the appropriate levels of 
government and branches of government to bring this about. A continuing 
resolution could be passed at a lower spending scale than even 
currently has been suggested, which would force the administration to 
make choices over who was the most essential, where the money was going 
to be spent, but it does not shut down government entirely and allows 
different parts and sections and functions of government to then be 
prioritized. That helps keep the pressure on the administration and 
congressional leadership to move forward and reach an agreement.
  I have got to tell you, I am frustrated at this end of Pennsylvania 
Avenue, too, with the actions of the White House. The President said 
during the 1992 campaign that he favored a balanced budget. He appeared 
right up here in this House in 1993, in the State of the Union, and 
said he was for the Congressional Budget Office certifying the numbers. 
To date, he has sent four budgets up here. The last one voted on in 
this body did not receive 1 vote, defeated 412 to nothing, and none of 
them balanced as scored by the Congressional Budget Office. None of 
them comes actually close to balancing in the year 2002.

  He signed an agreement last month saying he would work with us to try 
to balance the Federal budget by the year 2002, scored by CBO, and have 
that agreement by the end of the year. It is clear that is not going to 
happen now.
  But, in the meantime, he has not even submitted his own plan, the 
document that would balance over a 7-year period, scored by the 
Congressional Budget Office. I think he has an obligation to the 
American people to say ``I don't like the priorities that have come 
from Congress, that have been given to me. Here are my priorities. Here 
is how I would balance the budget.''

                              {time}  1600

  Then, we can at least look and compare and trade back and forth, 
which is, I think, the essence of democracy. I do not think either side 
to this can say it is going to be my way or no way. We have 435 Members 
in this body. We are all going to have to compromise and come together 
to reach a majority vote and send something down to Pennsylvania 
Avenue. We have done that on a couple of occasions this year pertaining 
to the budget. We are going to now have to compromise once again with 
the White House.
  It is important for our children's future and for this country's 
future that we balance the Federal budget; and, frankly, there is no 
end in sight at this point and it is very discouraging to me, as one 
Member of this body.
  I will tell my colleagues that I like local government, where I 
served for 15 years prior to coming to this body, because we would have 
differences, we had strong philosophies, but we would come together; 
and at the end of the day recognized it was in the public interest to 
work out our differences, to work out our disagreements and come to 
some resolution of them. At this point, it is a dark day in this body 
and a dark day on both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue because we have not 
been able to come together.
  So I took the opportunity today to join with only a couple other 
Members from this side of the aisle to vote for a motion to recommit 
that would have, in fact, allowed us to come up with a clean continuing 
resolution, put the workers back to work, pay the current workers not 
being paid for the work they are performing, and get a cooling off 
period for all of us.
  How is it fair for Members of Congress to be paid to go home for a 
week and back in their districts with the Government shut down? It just 
makes it easier for us to do that in this body 

[[Page H15624]]
when we are not trying to go through the same anguish and anxiety of 
the many hundreds of thousands of Federal employees that are being 
adversely affected by our actions here.
  So that is my discouragement with this process. I look forward to 
working with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, with my 
fellow freshmen on this side of the aisle, and others to try to come 
together as the new year approaches, to try to work a new resolution 
where we can work with the administration and balance the budget 
together.

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