[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            CREDIBLE WHITE HOUSE PLAN NEEDED TO END SHUTDOWN

  (Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks and include 
extraneous material.)
  Mr. WELDON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from the 
President that this shutdown in the Federal Government has been caused 
by freshman Republicans. I rise as a 5-term Republican who on many 
occasions has broken with my party to support the President on labor 
and environmental issues. But I will not break ranks with our party in 
this case, because the credibility of this administration in my mind is 
at question. I think the Philadelphia Inquirer, Mr. Speaker, summed it 
up best in their lead editorial today entitled, ``Your Turn, Bill.'' I 
will read the last paragraph, Mr. Speaker.

       Congress should pass stopgap funding as soon as the 
     President provides the missing ingredient of serious 
     bargaining: a credible White House plan to balance the budget 
     in 7 years.

  To my liberal friends, I would say the Philadelphia Inquirer is not 
exactly a bastion of conservation politics. I would urge this President 
and my liberal friends to heed the advice of the Philadelphia Inquirer, 
and I will join with them in supporting a stopgap CR when this 
President lives up to the commitment of his words a few weeks ago.
  Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record the editorial mentioned 
earlier.

                            Your Turn, Bill

       ``Enough is enough.'' That was the gist of Bob Dole's 
     argument for passing a new, stopgap funding bill, even though 
     there's no deal yet on a balanced budget. The partial 
     shutdown is a wasteful exercise that could have ended 
     yesterday if House Republicans hadn't rejected the idea.
       Yet Newt Gingrich & Co. can rightly shout ``enough is 
     enough'' at President Clinton. In the agreement that ended a 
     shorter shutdown in November, the President promised a 
     serious plan to balance the budget in seven years. The 
     country is still waiting for his plan.
       House Republicans have rejected short-term funding--and 
     taken the heat for it--out of a legitimate concern that 
     federal businesses-as-usual lessens pressure on Mr. Clinton 
     to bargain seriously.
       So the stalemate drags on.
       The most aggrieved folks are nearly half a million 
     ``essential'' workers in unfunded departments and agencies: 
     They are being forced to work but won't be paid until 
     Congress and the President agree on funding. Yesterday, a 
     federal judge turned down the plea of two unions to bar the 
     government from making their members work without pay.
       No matter how this fiasco plays out, requiring people to 
     work with out pay if fundamentally unfair. How would 
     Republican lawmakers like to work without pay? They voted 
     that idea down in the House, as Majority Whip Tom DeLay got 
     all huffy about how he wasn't a federal employee, but ``a 
     constitutional officer.'' Well, la-dee-dah, Mr. DeLay.
       Another 260,000 ``nonessential'' workers are missing 
     paychecks, but at least they're getting time off--and have 
     been promised back pay for doing nothing: Ridiculous?
       There's a middle way out of this morass that's less 
     stubborn than the House GOP, but doesn't let Mr. Clinton off 
     the hook as Mr. Dole did.
       Congress should pass stopgap funding as soon as the 
     President provides the missing ingredient of serious 
     bargaining: a credible White House plan to balance the budget 
     in seven years.

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