[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H67-H74]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   DEVASTATION OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to basically express shock, if you 
will, tonight over the fact that the Republican majority here in the 
House continue this process of leaving a significant part of the 
Government shut down. I guess I was pretty much amazed before the 
Christmas recess, if you will, when we voted here on the House floor to 
give Speaker Gingrich the power to recess the Congress over the holiday 
between Christmas and New Year's, and I suddenly realized that that 
meant that Government workers and the services that they provided would 
essentially cease to exist. The workers would be furloughed, and the 
services would not be provided between Christmas and New Year's.
  When I heard yesterday that the Senate, after repeated requests by 
the President, that the Senate had finally gone along and decided that 
they were going to pass a continuing resolution to keep the Government 
going, at least for the next week or so, I fully expected that when we 
reconvened that I would be coming back today to vote in the House on 
that Senate resolution and the Government would be up and running by 
tomorrow and even though the budget negotiations would continue, that 
at least we would not have the continuation of this Government 
shutdown. I guess I was very naive in assuming that.
  When we came here today and we had a vote on the motion that the 
minority leader, the gentleman from Missouri [Mr. Gephardt], made to 
try to bring that Senate resolution up that would reopen the 
Government, the Republicans on the other side, almost all of them, 
voted to table that motion, and now we face the real possibility, based 
on this motion or resolution that has come up before the Committee on 
Rules again at the request of the Republican majority, that tomorrow we 
may go into recess again and possibly until January 23, which I guess 
is the day when the State of the Union address is given by the 
President, that the Government would continue to be shut down and the 
Congress would not be in session.
  I wonder who the Members on the other side are listening to when they 
go home to their respective States or their respective districts. When 
I went home over the last week or 10 days, in my district office 
we repeatedly got calls from individuals, some of whom are Government 
employees who were not getting paid for the Christmas holiday or for 
the part of the time that they had already worked; others, people who 
were missing services, whether it was passports or Social Security 
applications or student loans or small business loans or whatever it 
was, and my phones never stopped ringing for the whole period of the 
recess from people who were paying their taxes but were not able to 
receive Government services and from Government employees, many of whom 
were asking how they were going to pay their rent, how they were going 
to pay their mortgage, how they were going to get through the next day.

  So I think it is incredible and it really is shameful, the fact that 
we are now facing the real possibility that for the next 3 weeks this 
Government continues to be shut down because Speaker Gingrich, and 
particularly the freshman Republicans, want to hold the Government 
hostage to their own particular ideology on the budget, and the blame 
is squarely with the House Republicans, with Speaker Gingrich and the 
Gingrich Republicans because as we know, the Senate, the other body, 
has already acted on its continuing resolution.
  I am joined here tonight by several Democratic colleagues from 
various parts of the country, and we wanted to highlight, if we could, 
in the time that we have, the fact that the shutdown is affecting the 
quality of life for many Americans, particularly with regard to the 
environment, the EPA, which is one of the Government agencies that is 
shut down, particularly with regard to the Superfund program, which we 
were told today is about to shut down completely for all practical 
purposes over the next 5 days, and also highlight some other areas 
where the Government, through its inspection, through its enforcement, 
provides for the health and safety of Americans but cannot do so 
because of the Government shutdown that has been put upon us, if you 
will, by the Republicans.
  So I would like to now yield, if I could, to the gentleman from North 
Carolina [Mr. Hefner].
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  We heard in the last election, the campaign, the Contract With 
America, but I doubt very seriously if, during this campaign, if the 
people, who were campaigning as Republicans had said what we plan to do 
is to cut inspection in the workplace where people work, on the safety, 
and we are going to cut some of that and we are going to cut back on 
the inspectors for our safe water, we are going to cut back on the EPA, 
we are going to cut back on the funding for the FDA and all the other 
institutions and agencies that protect the food and water and air that 
we breathe, that we are so dependent on, I doubt very seriously if 
there had been the outpouring of support for the Contract With America.
  But there are a couple of points that I would like to make, and as I 
said earlier, this is not just inconveniencing Government workers. One 
of the Presidential candidates made, I thought, a very crass remark 
when he said, ``Have you missed the Government since they have been 
furloughed?'' I mean, you are talking families, people that have 
children, people that have maybe their aging parents that are living 
with them, maybe people that are trying to support a foster child or 
whatever.
  But there is one other area that is being very devastated to the 
American people, and you have thousands, thousands of people that would 
like to make applications for their Social Security, for Social 
Security disability, veterans' benefits, our VA hospitals. I have one 
in my district. They are shorthanded.

                              {time}  1945

  They are short-handed. Some of the people that are deemed to be 
essential, they are either getting half pay or not getting any pay. So 
you are hitting individuals, there are real faces on these furloughs. 
There are thousands of people that are being affected by these 
furloughs.
  I just would like to give maybe some of the people who have not been 
here as long as some of us have, we did not use to do business such as 
this. Nobody wants to do business as usual, and that is the standard 
cry around here, we do not need to do business as usual. We certainly 
need to make some changes.
  But in the past, we have never gone to these extremes. I have been on 
the 

[[Page H68]]
Committee on Appropriations for a lot of years. We would have 
disagreements with Presidents, President Reagan, President Bush, and my 
dear departed friend, God rest his soul, Silvio Conte on the Republican 
side, would always get up on appropriations when these bills that would 
come before the Committee on Appropriations, and he would say ``OMB has 
some real problems with this,'' or ``The President has problems with 
this, and if there are not modifications made, he is doing to veto the 
bill.'' In most instances, the committees would get together and they 
would make some modifications and we would work it out among the 
Appropriations Committee.
  Now, this is absolutely mind-boggling to me, and it just tells me 
that there are egos that are involved, there is a philosophy here that 
is involved, that says if we do not get our way, we are going to close 
the Government.
  I have had people that talked to me here on the floor and said ``All 
the President has got to do is to sign the budget. If he will sign the 
budget, you can put these people back to work.'' Or ``You can get a 
continuing resolution if the President will capitulate and do it our 
way.''
  The gentleman, the last Republican that spoke here, said ``We can put 
this Government back to work in 6 hours. All the President has to do is 
to offer a 7-year balanced budget our way.'' He has got to make the 
massive cuts in Medicare, he has got to accept the giant tax cut paid 
for with Medicare and Medicaid cuts for the wealthiest citizens in this 
country.
  If you just look at the numbers, the numbers that you cut from 
Medicare and Medicaid almost match identically the tax cuts that are 
going to be made for those that are the most privileged in this 
country. To use an old colloquialism in North Carolina, ``that just 
ain't right.''
  So the Republicans have an agenda here, and what they plan to do will 
keep this Government shut down until the President knuckles under, and 
he does it our way.
  But I would like to just remind my Republican friends, they talk 
about a big revolution that took place in 1994. I would like to remind 
them that 60 percent of the eligible voters in this country did not 
vote for anybody. They did not vote for the Republican revolution, they 
did not vote for the Democrats, they did not vote for anybody. And to 
say that there is a mandate out there, there are people that want to 
balance the budget, and I am one of them. But I think when you tell the 
American citizens ``We want to balance the budget, but here is how we 
want to do it: We want to do it on the backs of the senior citizens, 
the veterans, the children, and the students that want to get a loan to 
go to college,'' I do not believe that the percentage would be 85 
percent of the people that wanted to balance the budget on the backs of 
the people that are the most vulnerable people in this country.
  I would like to make one other point. I remember Ronald Reagan, who 
was a very amicable President of the United States. People have said 
here for the past so many years, ``It is the Democrats that have run up 
these giant deficits.''
  I would like to remind the Republicans and the American public that 
during the Reagan and Bush administrations, we accumulated more debt 
than we had since the founding of this Republic. The Republicans say it 
was Democrats that helped run up these deficits.
  Let me just make a little explanation here. I will take you back and 
just try to bring in history. A lot of folks have tried to rewrite 
history. When Ronald Reagan became President, I would remind my 
Republican colleagues and the American people, the Republicans had a 
majority in the other body, and in this House for the first 4 years of 
the Reagan administration, he had a working majority in this House. He 
passed more of his legislation than any President since George 
Washington. They did bad tax policy. We ran up deficits. Jimmy Carter's 
last deficit was in the $50-billion range, and from there they 
skyrocketed up to the $300 billion range, and we accumulated $3 
trillion in just one administration.
  So I would say to you, sure, it was some Democrats that voted with 
Republicans to pass bad tax policy. But when Ronald Reagan became 
President, he said ``I am going to balance the budget in 3 years.'' He 
did not say ``I am going to do it with CBO or OMB numbers.'' He said 
``I am going to balance the budget in 3 years,'' no qualifications. And 
in 4 years, we had well over $200 billion more in debt in this country.
  So to say that the 40 years that the Democrats have been running this 
body and passing legislation is responsible for the debt is absolutely 
rewriting history.
  But that brings us to where we are today, which has really nothing to 
do with history, but we want to set the record straight. There is 
absolutely no reason and no justification for shutting down the 
Government to keep the budget talks going between the President and the 
leadership of this Congress. It is absolutely harassment. It is putting 
a gun to the head of the President of the United States and holding 
hostage the American people and those that are most vulnerable in our 
society.
  So I would say to the Republicans, there are faces to those people 
out there that are being furloughed, and it is not just Government 
workers; it is people, our senior citizens, our children, our veterans, 
our small business community. They are all beginning to feel the pain 
from this shutdown of Government. I would urge the Republicans to take 
another look and do a clean CR, get the Government back to work, and 
continue the negotiations with the administration. Working together, we 
can do some good things for the American people. But this is not the 
responsible way to do it, it is so painful, and it is just plain wrong.
  Mr. PALLONE. I appreciate what the gentleman said. I think it is 
particularly important that we zero in today on the fact that this is 
now strictly the House Republicans that are holding up this process. 
Because the Senate, the Senate majority leader specifically said, he 
has been quoted over and over again, enough is enough, it is time to 
put the Government back together, to send the employees back to work, 
to provide the services.
  They sent over a resolution today which we were going to vote on, and 
we are being thwarted. We cannot even bring the resolution to the floor 
that was passed in the Senate because Speaker Gingrich and the 
Republican House leadership here refuses to bring it up. I think the 
reason they refuse to bring it up is because they think it will pass if 
it comes up. So they just do not bring it to the floor.

  I would like to yield now to the gentleman from Minnesota.
  Mr. VENTO. I thank the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] for 
his outstanding work in terms of trying to develop a discussion and 
debate I think really important, salient points to the American people 
with regard to budget and various programs.
  I have a great deal of admiration really for my colleague from North 
Carolina, Mr. Bill Hefner, and the work he has done in the Committee on 
Appropriations. The thing he did not say during the 1980's, when we 
both served, was that the Committee on Appropriations and the 
appropriations and the spending committees in Congress consistently 
provided less spending than the Presidents in the 1980's sought. They 
actually provided less spending. They did not always do it the same 
way, but they tried to do their job. As I recall, I do not recall 
President Reagan or Bush vetoing any appropriation bills. If they were 
dissatisfied with that level of spending, of course, at that time, of 
course, the political litany we heard from our colleagues of the loyal 
opposition, the Republicans, was, of course, that it was the Congress 
that was responsible, it was the Congress that was doing all the 
spending.
  I would be happy to yield to my colleague and friend.
  Mr. HEFLEY. In the last 30 years under Democrats and Republicans, the 
Committee on Appropriations and the Congress has always appropriated 
less money, less money, than all of these administrations had 
requested. Probably over 30 years, but I know for the past 30 years, we 
have always appropriated less money than the administrations requested. 
That includes Reagan and Bush and all the administrations in the past 
30 years.
  Mr. VENTO. I thank my colleague and appreciate his work in achieving 
those types of savings and making certain. We obviously have funding 
that 

[[Page H69]]
does not go through the entitlement process, the appropriations 
process. We want to recognize that as being a growing problem. Social 
Security and Medicare as we know today, at least the Part A portion of 
Medicare and Social Security, are not responsible for any of our 
deficit. In other words, Part B Medicare surely could be attributed to 
that, and, or course, Medicaid and the other entitlement programs, 
which are really an indication of trying to respond to those that are 
the deepest in need in this Nation.
  I would just like to say the reason we are where we are at today with 
the shutdown of these essential programs is because the Republican 
program, the congressional program that has been put forth as a budget, 
cannot make it on their merits.
  If these programs were in fact meritorious and would win the support 
of the public, obviously somebody else would be doing it. But these 
issues are not. I would just point out that it is up to the President. 
The President could say the same thing, ``I will not sign a continuing 
resolution until you give me the type of budget I want.'' In other 
words, this could be done.
  But this is not the case. This is being done by the Republicans in 
the House at this particular point, and earlier joined by their 
colleagues in the Senate, that we are saying ``we are not passing a 
continuing resolution. We are going to stop the Government 
months after, months after the regular spending bills should have been 
in place to keep the normal operation of government in place.''

  I would say that no one, in the fact that these appropriations bills 
had not been passed was seeking 100-percent funding. It was not the 
Clinton program. We were funding these at 60 and 70 percent of what 
they could have or should have been funded at. So there was no 
predisposition as to what the decisions would be with regard to the 
spending bills.
  But, in other words, this program, these Republican programs, 
whatever you might believe, my colleagues, cannot be sold on their 
merits. That is why we are here today with a shutdown of the 
Government, because we are in essence going to say we are going to 
force the public to be punished, be punished, in the short-term.
  What is that punishment? What is the nature of the punishment? We 
have heard here. The person that wants an FHA loan cannot get it. That 
loan is frozen. Today there is $3 to $4 billion worth of paper that 
people, the American dream, they saved, they made their down payment, 
they made their contract, they cannot get it. You want a VA student 
loan, you cannot get it. You want your Social Security card, 60,000 
Social Security cards and reissuance of Social Security cards are not 
being issued today.
  So it is not just public employees who are being treated and mocked, 
mocked by the Members of this Congress, and saying we do not need them. 
What is the difference.
  I would be happy to yield to my colleague from California.
  Mr. TORRES. Mr. Vento, I thank the gentleman for yielding, but is 
this not really a question of a sort of cantankerous attitude on the 
part of our colleagues on the other side saying ``We want it our way or 
no way at all?'' Have I not understood, have you not understood, that 
this body is a body of compromise? We come here to compromise. None of 
us, none of us, get whatever we want. The President does not get what 
he wants. Republicans do not get what they want. Democrats do not. 
Somehow we work a middle ground, a compromise. That is what the 
gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Hefner] was talking about.
  Mr. VENTO. The gentleman makes a very good point. It is called a 
consensus. It is called building a consensus. The issue that my 
colleague Mr. Pallone raised and Mr. Hefner, that Senator Done, I think 
he was wrong not to act on a CR earlier, he has acted on it now. I 
think he has recognized enough is enough.

  But we do not set the agenda here. I am certain that today if that 
were to come up, that measure for a CR with Senator Dole's support, it 
would pass in this House of Representatives.
  But the leadership, the Republican leadership, not just the freshmen, 
not just the freshmen Republicans, but the Republican leadership, they 
set the agenda. They say what can come up and what cannot. When the 
unanimous consents have been made repeatedly on this floor today to ask 
to ring that up, they were denied, because the Republican leadership in 
this Congress that is running this House, that cannot sell their 
programs on the merits, are trying to obviously do this on the basis of 
trying to shut down and shut out Government.
  The President has not even had a chance on 3 of the 13 bills; the 
very important Labor, Health and Human Services bill, has not even been 
presented to the President for a variety of reasons. You can blame 
whoever you want for it. The fact is the President has no option. There 
is no fund that has been brought before him. Nor for the District of 
Columbia, nor for foreign operations which are so important in terms of 
the passport programs.
  Today in my district, as an example, a great tragedy a dear friend of 
mine lost his son in Rome. So we are struggling with a limited staff. 
Can you imagine the tragedy if that was your son or if that was your 
daughter. Where is the empathy? Where is the understanding of the 
people in this House that are proudly proclaiming ``we represent the 
people?''
  Who are you representing when you are acting in this particular 
manner in terms of the people? You are not representing this man that 
is having this problem in my district. An this experience can go on and 
on and on.
  People getting half pay for their work. What if you are a research 
scientist at NIH? You think you can suspend those living models? 
Somebody has to feed them and keep them in place.
  Here on the Wall Street Journal, not necessarily a pillar of liberal 
Democratic policy, they are reporting to us on the fact that we are 
contributing to a downturn in the economy.
  You got the weather, you cannot control that; you have other factors 
I cannot control. In spite of whatever one thinks, the Members of 
Congress do not control necessarily what AT&T does or other 
manufacturers across this country laying off people.
  But for heaven's sake, let us do what we are supposed to do in terms 
of just providing the regular continuing resolution, the normal 
operations of Government which people have a right to rely upon in 
terms of what is happening in this Nation.
  We are contributing to the downturn of the economy in 1996 as we go 
forward. It is a precarious situation our economy is in today, and it 
is not one that can sustain this type of indifferent mocking attitude 
with regards ``I am going to get my way and make my political points.''
  You failed on the merits, my colleagues. You failed on the merits.

                              {time}  2000

  Now they are trying to try, in a cloud of political spin control, 
trying to come out. They have painted themselves in a corner. I do not 
know how to get them out. I would like to help them. We should send out 
an SOS: The House of Representatives is in trouble. It is out of 
control. It is out of control.
  Now we see our Republican Speaker wants a resolution so he can have a 
suspension and a recess. He wants to send home this House of 
Representatives. Why? Because he cannot sustain for 2 or 3 weeks. He 
cannot sustain for 2 or 3 weeks the type of pressure that would develop 
right here on this floor if he kept this House in session. He could not 
sustain it from the Republican or the Democratic side of this aisle. So 
he is saying send them home, we will recess it, but I will not have to 
deal with all these individuals.
  I have news for the Speaker. I am sent here and the other Members are 
sent here to represent people and to prevent this type of problem from 
happening, not to sweep it under the rug, not to recess this House, but 
to address the very serious problems that are coming to grip in this 
Nation because of the political shenanigans, the political shenanigans 
of the Republicans leading this House in the wrong direction.
  This is not why we were elected, to hand the power over and the 
responsibility over to a few that have just a political agenda. We 
cannot stand that. We cannot do that. It is time to forget about the 
politics and get on with the normal operation and act responsibly 

[[Page H70]]
in this case, to deal with those serious problems of the environment, 
not to close down the EPA.
  And, of course, what is the choice of some of these issues? There is 
no choice. There is no choice. They are saying we can either fund the 
EPA, defund the EPA through an appropriations bill, or defund it 
through a continuing resolution or through lack of passing any measure. 
No option there.
  I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding, and my colleagues 
that are joining in this special order. This is very serious moment in 
terms of the credibility of this Government and the health of our 
economy. It goes well beyond the normal politics that should play. They 
have failed on the merits. They have failed on the merits, and now they 
are trying to do it in terms of wedging this through and pressuring it 
through.
  The fact is, many of us have and hold convictions very deeply. I have 
got news for the new Republicans in this House. They are not the first 
group to come down here with a plan for a balanced budget. The 7-year 
scheme that they have, which is an effort to get elected 3 or 4 times, 
I guess, before they achieve their balanced budget, is a very 
interesting scheme. Someone said where did this come from, out of 
intuition? I say it came out of the political play book. This is a 
justification for getting reelected, because, therefore, if one is 
reelected, they can be expected to achieve this.
  I have news for my colleagues. The last two Presidents, and many 
others, many of us want a balanced budget, but it is not whether we 
want a balanced budget, it is how we balance it. We do not balance the 
budget by providing lavish tax breaks for our special-interest friends. 
We do not provide a balanced budget by building a social deficit in 
terms of health and in terms of education.
  I have got news for my colleagues, that type of deficit and that type 
of cost is something that we cannot afford to deny to those that are in 
need, to the future generations of this country. We do not develop a 
balanced budget by developing an environmental deficit and selling our 
natural resource legacy.

  So there is much that has to be debated, and I want to debate all 
these issues on their merits. I want the Government back and running in 
the normal operation. And I am happy to live, I understand, we 
understand, the Democrats do, in this House and in the Senate, that we 
lost the election in 1994. The Republicans have a right to come forth 
and sell their agenda on its merits. That is what they have been trying 
to do. And the answer that is coming back from the public is we do not 
want the Republican agenda. We do not want the contract. We did not buy 
into it. Most people are not even aware of what it was or is.
  So I would hope that we can address this issue this week; that we can 
get out the CR and then have our battles over policy and votes, which 
we understand. There are more Republicans in this House than Democrats, 
and in the Senate, and, obviously, we will have to make compromises and 
develop consensus.
  As my colleague, the gentleman from California, Esteban Torres, 
pointed out, some of those compromises I know I will not like. But, 
nevertheless, I do not think this is the way we should achieve our 
goal. I certainly will stand here and resist it and fight it very 
vigorously, and I thank the gentleman from New Jersey.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from 
Minnesota for those remarks and, obviously, he is very concerned.
  I want to say briefly, and then I want to yield to someone else, that 
I think, as I have been watching this debate, and some of the comments 
by our Republican colleagues, I just see this radicalism, this 
extremism, taking over amongst them. It is the whole idea that their 
ideology is the only ideology, and unless they get their way on the 
budget, they are going to close the Government down.
  There is a lack of concern for Government workers, lack of concern 
for constituents who need Government services. The whole idea that 
somehow Government itself is bad and, therefore, it is not a problem to 
shut it down because the Government is evil, the Government should not 
even be here. Almost an anarchistic approach, that I think the 
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] mentioned before. It is an 
extremism. It is a radicalism that seems to be taking hold on the other 
side of the aisle.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from New York [Mrs. Lowey].
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey, and I 
will save my comments on the environment for a little while later, but 
I just wanted to respond and thank my colleague from Minnesota before 
he leaves for his comments and for his well-placed anger.
  I want to make one point that he made so well and add to it; that we 
talk about the freshmen who are standing in the corner like children, 
holding their breath and saying if we do not do it their way, it is no 
way. But I think we also have to put the blame on the so-called 
moderate Republicans. After all, the Democrats passed a resolution in 
our conference; that we wanted to pass a clean CR that would support 
the bipartisan resolution passed in the Senate to open up the 
Government.
  So we have to hold them responsible, because we have 198 votes; is 
that not correct?
  Mr. PALLONE. Exactly.
  Mrs. LOWEY. All we need is 20 votes from Republicans who understand 
that this kind of pain and suffering is wrong.
  And, incidentally, I want to add that I got a call today from someone 
who works in the Veterans Administration at the Franklin Delano 
Roosevelt Hospital in Montrose. They had to hold a bake sale because 
some of their employees who are so loyal, they want to go to work, but 
did not get their paycheck that was worth anything. In fact, it was 2 
weeks that included all the deduction, but it was really less than 1 
week's pay that they got. And, in fact, they cannot afford to get to 
work at the Veterans Hospital in Montrose.
  So people who are working, taking care of our veterans, who gave 
their heart and soul, and some made the ultimate sacrifice for their 
country, cannot afford to go to work to take care of our veterans.
  So I just want to say to my colleague that I understand his anger, 
because I know all of us share it, and we cannot just blame the 
freshmen Republicans who are standing in the corner saying my way or no 
way, but the moderate Republicans have a chance now to join with 
Senator Dole in the Senate in a bipartisan way to open up this 
Government and then we can have and continue to have a debate.
  This is a serious debate about the priorities of our country. We 
really disagree. We want to protect Medicare, Medicaid, the 
environment, and education, and they want to give tax cuts to those who 
really do not ask for it. This is a serious debate. Let us have it, but 
not to shut down the Government and cause so much pain.
  And the impact on the economy, my colleague mentioned, which is also 
so very important. It is not just the national parks, but it is all 
those small businesses around the national parks that are not making 
the income and contributing to our tax base.
  So I want to thank the gentleman very much.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate what the gentlewoman is 
saying. That is a good point. We keep talking about the extremism and 
the radicalism of the freshman, but all we need is 20 votes, 198 plus 
20 votes from anybody on the Republican side and we can reopen the 
Government.
  And now, Mr. Speaker, I want to yield to the gentleman from 
California.
  Mr. TORRES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for 
this special order. Obviously, it provides for us a time to be able to 
speak to some of these issues that concern us so much here today.
  I was struck by the comments by the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. 
Vento], when he talked about the Wall Street Journal, certainly no 
pillar of liberal reporting, so to speak, but today's Wall Street 
Journal really is an indictment. It is an indictment of what is taking 
place in this House.
  To reflect on what Mr. Vento said, that we are told in this 
particular article that 12 States of the United States that are serving 
600,000 elderly have told the Department of Health and Human Services 
that within 2 weeks, 2 

[[Page H71]]
weeks, the Meals on Wheels Program will run out, and the transportation 
programs for seniors will run out.
  Moreover, they say that the Government has not paid the private 
companies that process Medicare claims since mid-December, and they are 
now owing something like $60 million. The administrator of the Health 
Care Financing Administration, HCFA, which really makes the payments to 
Medicare and Medicaid, is saying that benefits are funded with trust 
fund money, but administrative officials worry that the processing 
companies which they depend on will have to begin to lay off workers by 
the thousands and this is going to delay reimbursement to the hospitals 
and to the doctors.
  Can you imagine the chaos that this country is going to go through if 
that is, in fact, brought about?
  We talk about the environment. The Environmental Protection Agency 
yesterday began to shut down its Superfund Program, the very program 
that is so important to the cleanup of toxic waste in this country. And 
although the program already has multiyear funding, that funding 
operates on an administrative spending ceiling that the EPA could crash 
through if the shutdown continues as it is now doing.
  The EPA yesterday started issuing stop-work orders to its contractors 
who employ some 10,000 employees across this country. They are going to 
be laid off. There are 18,000 employees of EPA now on furlough. What is 
going to happen to Superfund? There is some real crises, my friends, 
taking place here unless we reach some solution.
  Mr. PALLONE. If I can just follow up briefly on what the gentleman 
said about the Superfund Program. I have, in New Jersey, in my State, 
the largest number of Superfund sites in the country of any State, and 
in my particular congressional district a large number of Superfund 
sites, and already this shutdown has delayed indefinitely cleanup work 
at about, I guess five of the sites in my congressional district.
  In fact, last Wednesday I actually went to the EPA lab and center in 
Edison, in the heart of my district, and was in an empty room. The 
entire place was closed down. I think there were two staff personnel 
involved not only in Superfund, but all the EPA research activities 
that took place in Edison, NJ.
  Basically, what it means is that a number of these sites, not only in 
my district, but around the country, if we do not continue to do that 
work, a lot more work will have to be done. There were some contractors 
that were quoted in a lot of the newspapers today that were saying that 
because they are not able to do the contract work on Superfund sites, 
when they go back again there is going to be even more hazardous waste, 
and they are going to have to spend even more money in order to do the 
cleanup.
  So not only is it a question of health and safety about being at risk 
for these hazardous waste sites in terms of people's exposure to 
hazardous waste because the sites are not being cleaned up, but also 
more money is likely to be incurred for the Superfund, which again goes 
back to the taxpayers, if the shutdown continues, particularly the way 
we are hearing now that it might go on, if we recess tomorrow, for 2 or 
3 weeks or indefinitely.
  Mr. TORRES. I have a particular interest, of course close to home, 
because I represent a large sector of the San Gabriel Valley in 
California wherein the water is polluted and a particular San Gabriel 
basin provides drinking water for a million people. And we have already 
started on a very unique plan to clean up that water, and it has taken 
the cooperation of business and political and local leadership and 
citizens to clean up, and they are cleaning up while keeping the 
lawsuits out that would generally stifle this kind of advancement.
  But now with this shutdown, we are going to see the safety and the 
prospects for clean water for the San Gabriel Valley affected very 
largely.

                              {time}  2015

  These are the kinds of problems that are concerning all of us, I am 
sure. I thank the gentleman for giving us this opportunity to speak to 
these issues, especially the environment and what is happening with the 
furlough and the shutdown.
  Mr. PALLONE. I appreciate the gentleman's comments. I yield now to 
the gentlewoman from Oregon.
  Ms. FURSE. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little about safety, both 
environmental safety and other types of safety. I do not know if the 
people in this country understand that this Congress has talked a lot 
about putting people in prison. Let me talk a little bit about a 
Federal prison in my district that is a large Federal prison.
  We had a terrible riot there. The guards were fantastic. They worked 
so well. I got a letter from the wife of one of those prison guards, 
and she said, and I quote from this letter, ``Three hundred eighty-five 
correctional workers at Sheridan, Oregon, are being held as political 
hostages. Those guards are not being paid.''
  Can you imagine the kind of work they do for the safety of the 
community, and yet because of a political issue, this issue of who is 
up front, who is going to win this political argument, those workers 
who every day go to work to protect our safety, their financial safety 
is being held hostage.
  Now, there are some other environmental issues and safety issues that 
I believe who should understand with this Government shutdown. We have 
a choice. We can open the Government, as the Democrats tried to do 
today; tried to get a continuing resolution that mirrored the Senate 
resolution. We tried to get the Government back. Well, I think we 
should think about the safety of people and their health.
  When we close down, as we will, clean drinking water facilities, the 
protection to turn the faucet on and get clean water, that is an EPA 
function and if we do not have those people working in the EPA, the 
drinking water of every single one of us will present a problem.
  The veterans hospital, my colleague spoke about that. Well, I have a 
veterans hospital too in my district. They will run out today of money 
for drugs, food, and supplies. Imagine a government that would turn its 
back on its veterans who are in hospital. Absolutely awful.
  Ten States will have no money for unemployment benefits. Those 
unemployment benefits, those people paid into that. This is something 
those citizens earned, and yet, because there is a political goings-on 
in this place, they are being held hostage.
  The Republicans are holding the environment and the health of all 
Americans hostage when they play this political game. We could have a 
clean continuing resolution, get the Government back to work, act like 
a civilized country, and then deal with the issues of the benefits.
  But I will tell my colleagues one of the problems of why we are in 
this crisis. We were supposed to have 13 appropriations bills on the 
President's desk October 1. That is the way it is supposed to work. But 
we still, because of the mishandling of the legislation and the 
disagreement between the Senate and the House, the Senate Republicans 
and House Republicans I might add, we have not had those appropriations 
bills even get to the President. How can they talk about a balanced 
budget when they did not do the work that was necessary?
  I want to remind my Republican colleagues that there was a time when 
a crisis occurred with a Republican President and a Democratic House, 
and they worked it out in less than a day because the people's right, 
the people's safety and health was put first, beyond the political 
game.
  We do not need this crisis. We could get back to work if they would 
bring forward, and they are in the majority, bring a resolution to us. 
Let us vote to keep the Government open. That is what we want to do. 
That is what we should do.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's comments. I 
think the reality is that they are afraid. That actually the House 
Republican leadership, Speaker Gingrich is afraid to bring this 
resolution up, because as the gentlewoman from New York said, we only 
need 20 Republican votes and we could possibly get them if we could 
only have the continuing resolution brought up to the floor for a vote. 
But we have been thwarted in that effort and now we are told that 
tomorrow we are going to recess.
  Mr. FURSE. If the gentleman would yield further, when we take an oath 
of office to do our duty by the people of this country, we do not take 
an oath of 

[[Page H72]]
office to get reelected. We take an oath of office to look after the 
health and safety of the people of the United States. That is our 
office and our oath. That is what we are paid for. These Federal 
workers are losing money, but the Members of Congress are still getting 
paid. It is not right.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. 
Gene Green.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from New 
Jersey for, one, requesting this hour, but also getting a lot of 
diverse Members that are Democrats. But we are diverse. We are from all 
parts of the country: Florida, New York, Oregon, Texas and New Jersey, 
and tonight we are talking about the Department of the Interior 
concerns and the shutdown and also the EPA.
  We share and we will talk about the lack of funding for the Medicare 
suppliers. My own VA hospital in Houston, they are running out of 
supplies tomorrow just like they are in Oregon. We are not serving the 
veterans by keeping the Government closed. What I think is ironic, the 
extremists, they think they are hurting Democrats or bureaucrats. They 
are hurting a lot of people.
  The people who are veterans who are not getting those services and 
the senior citizens who want to apply for Social Security and cannot 
apply for it. I had a townhall meeting in Houston and I had a senior 
citizen with an appeal on his Social Security check. He thinks they 
misfigured. The appeal here in Maryland is shut down. We do not know 
when he is going to get some redress or at least an answer on it.

  Tonight I want to talk a little bit about the Department of Interior 
and what is happening all over the country, because a few years ago I 
had the opportunity, in fact I took my kids and we went to Yellowstone 
in Wyoming and we could not go into Yellowstone in 1985 or 1986 because 
of the fires. They closed the park. That was a natural disaster.
  Mr. Speaker, what we are experiencing now with our National Parks and 
with our veterans and health care is an unnatural disaster, an 
unnatural crisis to paraphrase my colleague from Oregon, that has been 
created by the Republican Majority to force tax cuts that nobody has 
asked for.
  Sure, all of us would like a tax cut. But the first priority ought to 
be to balance the budget. Let me talk about the 383,000 people that 
visit our National Parks that are closed. In California, Yosemite, that 
is not represented by a Democrat by any means, has asked for assistance 
from the Governor of California, who could not do anything. Yosemite 
and Mariposa County asked for State disaster assistance, but the 
Governor of California, who was a Republican presidential candidate, 
said he could not help.
  It is just atrocious what is happening. The Forest Service that 
operates our campgrounds and monuments and visitors centers, not just 
here in Washington, because I have a group of students coming next week 
from a junior high in my district. It is the first time a lot of those 
youngsters will be able to come to their capital, and it is going to be 
closed to them.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unreasonable what they are trying to do because 
they do not have the votes in Congress to override a presidential veto 
to accept the cuts that they want to do in education funding and health 
care.
  In Houston, we have a petrochemical complex and there are EPA sites 
that are not being staffed now because of the shutdown. That is why I 
know the gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Pallone] asked for the time 
tonight. The other point is that the EPA is not only not enforcing the 
Superfund sites, but the non-Superfund civil environmental enforcement 
actions have been stopped, costing us $3 million a day.
  I always hear from my colleagues on the Republican side saying that 
no business can run like the Federal Government, and they are right. No 
business can have $5 trillion deficits. But also you do not get your 
income just because you want to cut the budget. We should balance the 
budget first. That is the first priority, and then we are going to have 
to make some tough decisions.
  But, Mr. Speaker, we should not give $200 billion in tax cuts before 
we balance the budget. We should not cut health care for seniors and 
investment in our future for both job training and the children who are 
the ones who are going to be paying those taxes tomorrow. We should not 
cut environmental to make sure that we have a cleaner tomorrow by 
saying we are going to cut that now. That is what they are doing.
  That is why they have not been able to pass them, and we saw today 
they could not pass a bill that would override a presidential veto. 
Even though there were lots of things in those bills that I wanted to 
vote for, I could not take the cuts that they were going to do in those 
programs.
  It is the same way with VA-HUD and NASA. In Houston, we have the 
Manned NASA Space Center. We have those employees who are furloughed 
right now. Tomorrow there will be a picket out in front asking, ``Why 
are NASA employees being furloughed?'' That was passed here by 
overwhelming votes, the efforts, and yet they are furloughing those 
employees that are, quote, nonemergency.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a tragedy that is happening, but it is a tragedy 
that was in the making by the Speaker. And earlier this year I had some 
Republican freshmen tell me they said they were elected to come up here 
and close it down. I want to congratulate those 73 Republican freshmen. 
They are successful. They closed down Pearl Harbor for veterans who 
want to go out there. They closed down Yosemite and Yellowstone and the 
monuments, and they are effectively closing down my VA hospital. If 
that is what they want to do, then they are successful.
  Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I think it is 
incredible, but I have heard it over and over again, many of our 
colleagues saying that they were in fact elected to come here and shut 
down the government. That is what we are hearing. It is part of this 
radical extremism that we are seeing come into play every day.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Gene Green for 
participating. He pointed out that these problems that we are facing 
with the shutdown are throughout the country.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey [Mr. Pallone] for calling us together. I want to reiterate once 
more that it is strange that this is an election year, and Senator Dole 
has joined with the President, Democrat and Republican, in a bipartisan 
way and joined with the Democrats of the House to say, ``Let us open 
this government and do it now.''
  So, it is the extreme Republicans of the Republican Conference in the 
House that are controlling the party, because all we need is 20 
Republican votes to join with the Democrats and the government would be 
open again.
  I just want to take a few minutes to talk about the impact of this 
shutdown on the environment. We have been hearing a lot about the 
monuments that are closed, and certainly the impact of the economy in 
those areas, all the small businesses that are not doing well, but 
there are a lot of other areas that are severely impacted by this 
shutdown.

  For example, EPA's role in helping to ensure safe drinking water has 
been halted. EPA's role in helping to ensure that the air we breathe is 
free of harmful pollutants has been shut down. EPA's role in helping 
clean up toxic waste that pollutes our drinking water and fouls our air 
has been suspended. EPA's civil enforcement actions against polluters, 
which bring in $3 million in fines on an average day, have been 
terminated.
  In the EPA region that includes the States of New York and New 
Jersey, and we have worked so closely on protecting the waters in our 
areas, nearly all of the 1,000 EPA staff are suspended. These are the 
environmental cops on the beat, the people who protect our health from 
polluters.
  To step back for a moment, let us not forget that the shutdown is 
part of a larger, concerted effort to roll back a host of laws that my 
colleagues and I have been speaking about to protect our natural 
resources and the environmental health and safety of the American 
people.
  They have already gutted the Clean Water Act. They have already put 
in place a 21-percent cut in the Environmental Protection Agency's 
budget, including a 50 percent cut in the enforcement activities and a 
20 percent cut in 

[[Page H73]]
the program that cleans up hazardous waste sites; a 40 percent cut in 
funding for land acquisition for National Parks and Wildlife Refuges; a 
24 percent cut in major wetlands conservation programs and a measure 
that would terminate altogether the EPA's role in protecting wetlands; 
a measure that speeds up the desecration of our National Forests by 
increasing timber sales and the construction of logging roads; and, a 
30 percent cut in loans to States to help keep raw sewage off our 
beaches and out of our rivers; 40 percent cut in funds that provide 
critical assistance to local communities to keep drinking water safe in 
my district, and on and on and on.
  I know we have two colleagues that want to share a few words, so I 
will not continue; I will save it for another day. But I want to make 
it very, very clear, this is unacceptable to the majority of American 
people. They have to understand, and the ones that understand, 
understand it very clearly, that this environment, our precious water, 
the air we breathe, should not be destroyed by a right-wing extreme 
group of Republicans. We all want to balance the budget, but it is 
priorities that we care about, that has made our country strong, that 
must be preserved.
  So, we are going to continue to fight for our environment, and I know 
we are all going to do it together. But right now I ask again that at 
least 20 Republicans come join the Democrats, come join the bipartisan 
effort in the Senate. Let us get this Government open and then let us 
continue this very serious debate about the priorities of our country. 
We can do it civilly and not close the Government down and create all 
this hardship for thousands and thousands of people in my district and 
all of our districts.

                              {time}  2030

  I want to thank the gentleman again for calling us together, and I 
hope we will gather another night until we get this Government open.
  Mr. PALLONE. I appreciate the gentlewoman's remarks. I think she is 
pointing out that, in fact, the shutdown even more severely impacts, 
and it is selective in a sense, in that the agencies like the 
Environmental Protection Agency, that the Republican majority has 
targeted for these severe cuts, are the very ones in many cases that 
are being shut down. So the ideology even goes to which agencies are 
being shut down, which is one of the reasons that we are talking about 
the EPA and other such health and safety regulators tonight.
  I yield to the gentleman from New York [Mr. Owens].
  Mr. OWENS. I want to congratulate the gentleman and thank him for 
holding this special order. I know he is almost out of time, and I just 
want to be associated with the remarks that were heard before from my 
colleagues, especially the anger and the indignation that I heard 
expressed here.
  It is time to be angry. It is time to be indignant. This is a cruel 
and heartless exercise being perpetrated on people who can accept it 
the least, the least of our people, people who are working for wages, 
people who are contract workers. There are a whole lot of people out 
there who do not have any cushion at all. They cannot afford to be 
without a paycheck.
  As the ranking Democrat on the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, 
I can tell my colleagues also that there are very few nonessential 
employees in the Government agencies which carry out inspections of the 
workplace. OSHA, for example, 10,000 workers lost their lives on the 
job last year. About 56,000 workers died as a result of injuries 
experienced on the job or diseases contracted on the job, a very 
serious matter. Without OSHA inspections, all of these things increase. 
They have never had enough people. This is one area where we did not 
need downsizing and streamlining in the first place.
  But since the Republican majority took over here, they have shown 
great contempt for workers. They have gone after OSHA. They have gone 
after the Department of Labor. They have let it be known that although 
it is not in the Contract With America, they do not value workers in 
this society very much. They want a class war. They are waging a class 
war. The workers do not know, they are not fighting back yet, but there 
is a class war being waged against them.

  To have the civil servants, the Government workers, held as hostages 
in a situation like this displays in dramatic form, very specifically, 
that contempt for workers that is unAmerican. It is unAmerican to be as 
heartless as they are in this exercise. It is not in keeping with our 
tradition to use people in the way they are being used.
  I just want to make certain, and I will continue this at a later 
date, that we understand that workers are suffering a great deal in 
many different ways. Certainly those Government agencies, the bureaus 
and the units of the Department of Labor which are involved in 
activities which deal with workers, not only OSHA but also Fair Labor 
Standards Act and a number of others, they are essential and we need 
them now for many reasons. Workers should not be treated with such 
great contempt by the Republican majority.
  Mr. PALLONE. I appreciate what the gentleman said. Going back to what 
I said before, he points it out so well, that this shutdown is 
selective and it is those departments in many cases that provide health 
and safety protection. They are the ones that are shut down and are not 
being funded.
  You mentioned OSHA, safety complaints, a minimum wage, other types of 
labor violations. These are the agencies that are shut down and are not 
able to do their work, so clearly health and safety is impacted in a 
significant way. I appreciate the gentleman's comments.
  I yield to the gentleman from Florida.
  Mr. DEUTSCH. I thank the gentleman. I guess I pose the question to my 
Republican colleagues who are here, two freshman Republicans who are 
about to take over the next special order, and the question is, they 
came here saying they were going to run Government like a business.
  What we have is a situation, if you would think about it, in any 
corporation in American where the CEO has a disagreement with the board 
of directors. And what they decide to do is, they decide to furlough 
the workers and pay them. If you think about that, furlough the workers 
and pay them when they have a disagreement, and I guess I would throw 
back to any of my Republican colleagues or anyone in America, is 
there any corporation in America that would do that? Absolutely not. 
And if any corporation did that, if it were a publicly traded 
corporation, the value of that corporation would disintegrate the 
following day.

  That is exactly what we have done. Again, if we think about what is 
going on, it is a situation that is totally indefensible. Adults have 
disagreements. They have disagreements, and what they do in those 
disagreements, is, they try to work out those disagreements.
  On a practical level what is happening is we are actually wasting 
taxpayer dollars, about $50 million a day of actual salary expenditure, 
$50 million a day for the last 19 days, over $750 million that has been 
wasted in direct taxpayer dollars to date. The last shutdown cost about 
$750 million in direct payments, $1.5 billion in direct taxpayer waste, 
which is going to take a long time to catch up on that $1.5 billion, 
but there is a multiplier effect. There is a huge multiplier effect. It 
is probably a 10 to 50 times multiplier effect in terms of what is 
happening.
  You cannot get a visa to come to the United States of America today, 
if you are in any country in the world that needs a visa to come to 
America. When those people come, they travel, and luckily a lot of them 
come to south Florida and my district. They spend plenty of money, on 
average a couple of hundred dollars a person, and there is a multiplier 
effect on the couple of hundred dollars they are spending. Those people 
are not coming.
  There are 2,500 HUD home loans that are approved every day. That has 
a multiplier effect. That is not happening. In my district, whether it 
is the Flamingo--I have three national parks in my district--whether it 
is a hotel in Flamingo, FL, in the Everglades National Park, or closing 
down fishing in Florida Bay where people would come and spend money, 
that is not happening.
  Again, for anyone who is listening, for my colleagues on the 
Republican side, try to explain to me why we cannot pass a CR and agree 
to disagree and 

[[Page H74]]
keep working on this. It is not unprecedented that the President and 
the Congress have had disagreements over the budget. For 2 full years 
under the Reagan administration, we operated under CR's. That is not 
such a terrible thing. And let the voters decide in November.
  But to do this destructive behavior, which is really what it is, it 
is destructive behavior for ourselves, for our children, for our 
economy, is just wrong, immoral, and just plain stupid.

  Mr. PALLONE. I want to thank the gentleman. I really want to thank 
all my Democratic colleagues for participating in this special order 
this evening. I think all we are really asking is that we be allowed to 
bring a continuing resolution, that has already passed in the Senate on 
a bipartisan basis, to the floor of the House so that we can vote on 
it.
  Unfortunately, what we are hearing from the Republican side, from 
Speaker Gingrich and the Republican majority, is not only are they not 
going to allow the continuing resolution to come up either today or 
tomorrow--they did not let it come up today-- or tomorrow, so that we 
can vote on it and open up the Government again, but they are actually 
considering another motion to put us in recess for as much as 3 weeks.
  Today is the 19th day of the Government shutdown. If it goes from 
today until the 23d of January, which is what the motion that passed 
out of the Committee on Rules today and which we will probably consider 
tomorrow would allow, you would have to add another 20 days, almost 3 
weeks, to that 19 days that the Government has already been shut down. 
It is already unprecedented, and we hope that that does not happen and 
we are going to continue to make the point that it should not happen.
  Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, the personal toll resulting from the Federal 
shutdown is enormous and its effects are far reaching. For thousands of 
Federal workers, the shutdown means a great financial stretch for many 
to make mortgage and other payments due. For American taxpayers, it 
means they are simply not getting their money's worth. Taxpayers have 
made an investment in these workers and their services to the public, 
and they are getting no return on their investment. Federal workers 
have been shut out by the shutdown, and the American taxpayer has been 
shut out by the shutdown.
  In addition to the personal toll, there is a tremendous impact on the 
environment. Cleanup of Superfund sites has been halted. The 2,800 
individuals who are responsible for this important program have been 
furloughed. Other important environmental enforcement programs have 
been shut down, including the call-in EPA hotline to report drinking 
water contamination. Many companies have been put on hold waiting for 
EPA assistance or permits to conduct their activities. They have been 
shut out by the shutdown.
  In today's Post, there is an article about an EPA contractor which 
discusses the difficulties imposed by lack of Federal funding for the 
agency that owes him money. As a result of not being paid, he and 
scores of other small businesses in the same situation may have to 
release workers they can no longer afford to pay. These Federal 
contractors and small businesses have been shut out by the shutdown.
  The communities adjacent to parks and lands operated by the Interior 
Department are losing tourist revenue. In California, Mariposa County 
has asked Governor Wilson to declare a state of emergency because of 
the loss of business from visitors to Yosemite National Park. The 
average 383,000 people who visit national parks each day are shut out 
by the shutdown.
  The loss on all levels is great. The Republicans may be mad at 
Government, but Federal workers, small businesses, and visitors to our 
Nation's scenic wonders are not big government or what the Republicans 
have now relegated to little taxpayers. They are valued workers who 
deserve to be paid for their work and a public who deserves to get what 
it pays for.
  Balancing the budget in the name of taxpayers is a contradiction when 
the shutdown is costing them over $40 million a day--over $1.5 billion 
so far. By your actions to continue the shutdown, you are depriving 
Federal workers of their earned income and the American taxpayer of a 
return on their investment.
  Balance the budget, but don't shut out our Federal workers and the 
American public. This balancing act is just too expensive for everyone.

                          ____________________