[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 1 (Wednesday, January 3, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S14]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   COME TO AN AGREEMENT ON THE BUDGET

  Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I, like many of my colleagues, have 
returned to Washington this week, hopeful that the Congress and the 
President can come to an agreement on the differences they hold over 
the budget issues that the American public are now so aware of, as a 
result of the continuing shutdown of Government or a portion of our 
Government. I stood on this floor just before Christmas and asked the 
President to give the American people a present, a Christmas present, a 
balanced budget that would look toward the future, that would assure 
the economic viability and vitality of this country well into the next 
generation. And that it was at Christmastime that we should start.
  That did not happen. In fact, the President did just the opposite. He 
vetoed appropriations bills that were sent to him. At least as a result 
of the veto of one appropriation bill, the Interior appropriation bill, 
he furloughed, by that action, a good number of workers in my State, 
Federal employees in the Forest Service and the BLM, who are now 
extremely frustrated and calling my office and saying why can we not 
work? Why can we not be paid? Why can we not continue to do what we do 
for our country?
  Let me say to those workers that I am sorry they are not, today, at 
work. Not just them, but all Federal workers in my State. The President 
did not veto the Interior appropriations bill because of the dollars 
and cents of it. He vetoed it because of his belief in a policy or an 
attitude that is in disagreement with the majority of the U.S. Congress 
on how many trees ought to be cut in a forest in Alaska, or how certain 
lands ought to be mined.
  So, I am sorry, to those employees in my State, because the Congress 
did its work and it responded to them, and to the Government, by 
sending the appropriate appropriations bill, only to be vetoed by the 
President.
  So to those workers, let me tell you. You are today being held 
hostage by a President who refused to sign appropriations bills that 
had been sent to him. That is all I want to say on that issue. And I 
say that because I believe the Federal workers who are furloughed ought 
to be paid. They are furloughed through no fault of their own. And this 
Congress and this President ought to come to an agreement to resolve 
that issue. And I hope that is accomplished before the week is out.
  Yesterday, the Senate spoke in an effort to try to bring Federal 
employees back onto their jobs. And that did not work for the House is 
still considering its options as appropriately it should.
  So, Mr. President, I hope you recognize the importance of the work 
that we are trying to accomplish here. And I hope that we would not 
continually look at just tomorrow because, while I am not happy that 
our Government is shut down, I am not worried about tomorrow and 
tomorrow's unemployed Federal workers. But I am worried about the 
future and a balanced budget; and, that we will have a strong, stable 
Government as a result of a strong, stable U.S. economy that is able to 
appropriately fund the needed services of Government and assure the 
long-term stability of the work force and the responsibilities and the 
goals of a Government. That is the way it ought to be. That is what 
this Congress has attempted to look at and make changes in over the 
course of the last 12 months.
  It is my disappointment that the White House never sent a balanced 
budget to Capitol Hill, and it never once said, except in the last few 
weeks, that it would come to the table in an effort to resolve the 
budget crisis that we are now engaged in.
  Several weeks ago the President did, while signing a continuing 
resolution, commit himself for the first time to work toward a balanced 
budget; to try to match up the rhetoric of his last campaign with the 
actions of his administration. Yet, the American people have watched. 
And we have worked day after day through Christmas and now into the new 
year at the White House and here on Capitol Hill to try to resolve the 
differences just to honor the commitment that we made to the American 
people and to try to cause this President to honor his.
  I know there are fundamental differences. There are differences that 
are very difficult to resolve because there are some in this Congress, 
and certainly many in the administration, who do not believe in a 
balanced budget but who have profited politically over the years by the 
longevity of their service by assuring the perpetuation of the welfare 
state mentality; that you could just give and give and borrow and 
borrow and buy your way back year after year and continue to serve and 
to say all is well with the American citizen, the American Government, 
and the American economy.
  While all was well for the short term, what became overpowering to 
the American people was the growth of a debt that is nearly $5 trillion 
by its total amount and that is costing well over $200 billion a year 
just to finance.
  Finally, the American people spoke very clearly in the last general 
election across this country when it said the future of our country is 
every bit as important as the current well-being of our Government and 
the well-being of our citizens.
  So I am here to work to resolve the issue. I say to the Federal 
workers in my State and across the Nation that while I wish you were 
not furloughed, and while I support you being paid when you return to 
work, and when we produce a balanced budget the future of our country 
is so very much more important than the short-term difficulty that I am 
sad you are experiencing but that, in fact, you are experiencing 
because the policies that will cause this Congress and our Government 
to operate in a near balanced budget year in and year out to stop 
building mounting debt is what is fundamentally important for the new 
year.

  So while the President was unwilling to give the American people a 
Christmas gift, let me ask you, Mr. President, to make a New Year's 
resolution along with all of the Congress to by this weekend come to 
terms with the differences that we have between us to resolve a 
balanced budget in 7 years using the Congressional Budget Office 
numbers that we can all agree on, that makes sense to the American 
people, and that for the new year sets a resolution that says for the 
future, for America's future, for our young people's future, we will 
build a strong and stable economy in a Government whose policies are 
based on serving the truly needy but also recognize that the free 
market system unfettered by an ever-growing Federal Government is the 
one that serves the American people best.
  Mr. President, make that New Year's resolution with us today. Resolve 
the issue before the week is out so that employees can go back to work 
who are responsible and dedicated and furloughed through no fault of 
their own. And they can be compensated, and the American people can see 
that politics in Washington is not politics or business as usual but 
that we have heard them well, we have heard them loudly, and we have 
heard them clearly. And we responded by producing a balanced budget 
that charts for future generations a responsible Government, and a 
strong and growing U.S. economy.
  I yield the remainder of my time.
  Mr. SARBANES addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.

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