[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 212 (Saturday, December 30, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S19319-S19320]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 GETTING FEDERAL EMPLOYEES BACK TO WORK

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, I will just take a minute or two. I do share 
the view expressed by the Democratic leader that it is not fair to the 
Federal employees. And I must say that a lot of people call me and say 
it is not fair to the taxpayers; if you are paying people for not 
working, that is not a very good idea either. I do not suggest the 
Federal employees want it that way, but that is precisely what has 
happened.
  It is my hope we can come to some resolution here very quickly. That 
is why we will come in again tomorrow at noon, in the hopes that 
tonight we can work out something so that people can go back to work on 
Tuesday, and that if they cannot be, as the Democratic leader 
indicated, paid immediately, at least they can be assured they will be 
paid.
  I think we have made progress in our budget negotiations with the 
President, with the Democratic leadership, Senator Daschle, Congressman 
Gephardt, myself, Speaker Gingrich, and Majority Leader Armey on the 
House side. We will go back tonight, we are going to be there tomorrow 
morning, and maybe even later tomorrow, but at least tomorrow morning. 
I hope during that time tonight and tomorrow morning the Democratic 
leader, Senator Daschle, and I can devise some way to come back up here 
tomorrow, pass a resolution, send it to the House, and that the House 
will accept it.
  It seems to me that on Tuesday Federal employees should be back to 
work, parks should be open, and we ought to be about our business. I 
hope we can get that resolved.
  I just say, so that the record is complete, a number of bills were 
passed that were vetoed by the President: VA-HUD, a lot of Federal 
employees involved; State, Justice, Commerce, vetoed by the President, 
a lot of Federal employees involved; the Interior bill, vetoed by the 
President, a lot of Federal employees involved; Labor-HHS, we cannot 
get it up because of a party 

[[Page S19320]]
split on the Senate floor, a lot of Federal employees involved. We do 
have a CR for the District of Columbia until the 3d of January. That 
leaves one bill that is still hung up because of one difference. We 
ought to be able to resolve that one difference. The foreign operations 
appropriations bill is very important, and I hope we can resolve it 
perhaps as early as Wednesday or Thursday of this next week. We are 
prepared to proceed. We had hoped we might have passed the bill with 
the Mideast Peace Facilitation Act, deeming all employees essential, 
and the expedited procedure. That is not going to happen. We need to 
find another way to address the problem.
  As the Democratic leader indicated, the primary aim is to get people 
back to work as quickly as possible, either with pay or certainly with 
the assurance that they will be paid, so that they can make plans that 
are necessary. I know I speak for my colleague, Senator Warner of 
Virginia, who has been in contact with me daily, and I know other 
Members of the House who were in contact with me today, Congresswoman 
Morella of Maryland, Congressman Wolf, and Congressman Davis of 
Virginia. We will be working with them and others who have an interest 
in this. I thank my colleague.

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