[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H135-H136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 BLAME GAME DOES NOT BALANCE THE BUDGET

  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, let me just share a little bit different 
perspective.
  First of all, I think to hear Members from this side of the aisle get 
up and blame the President for the shutdown and Members on the other 
side get up and blame the Republican Congress, we get an understanding 
of why things are not working around here. It seems like nobody says 
they want a train wreck, but the President would love to have it down 
here at the Capitol steps. Some of our Members would like to have it 
down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. In the meanwhile, nothing gets done. 

[[Page H136]]

  Let us talk frankly about what it would take to open up this 
Government. Four things could happen. First of all, the President could 
sign the appropriations bills that we sent him. He has signed a number 
of those bills. He has vetoed three and sent them back. The Interior 
appropriations bill we tried to override today, our second option if he 
does not sign those bills that would put people to work and put the 
Government to work, which is his prerogative under the Constitution, is 
that we can see if we have enough votes to muster a veto override. That 
takes two-thirds votes.
  We voted on the Interior appropriations today. I think it was a 
reasonable bill. I did not like all parts of it. We had rejected that 
bill twice on environmental grounds, tried to make it a little better 
each time. The President vetoed it knowing, in the meantime, that this 
bill would have put 133,000 people to work; it would have opened up the 
national parks, the Smithsonian; it would have put the U.S. Geological 
Survey back to work. I have 1,000 workers in Reston that are furloughed 
at this time, so that they could do their work.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DAVIS. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.
  Mr. HEFNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I just want to make a point, a point that has been missed here. I 
have been around here for a long time, and this body has been here for 
a long time. It is the President's prerogative to veto bills. This 
should have been worked out for your sake, and I know how special this 
is to you because of all of your people that are here. A clean CR is 
not going to stop the negotiations on the budget.

                              {time}  1545

  I just do not understand why we make the balanced budget hold these 
people hostage of something that is going to happen 7 years down the 
road.
  Mr. DAVIS. Reclaiming my time, let me just say to my friend, we have 
had 57 continuing resolutions since 1980 between the House and Senate. 
Most of those were with a Democratic Congress and a Republican 
President.
  How many of those CR's were clean CR's? Many of them were not. The 
Boland amendment which forbade aid to the Contras was put on a 
continuing resolution. We even put roads and the New Jersey Turnpike 
into the Federal Highway System on a continuing resolution. There is a 
loss of surplusage and riders in these. I am not defending, and I would 
like to see a clean CR. I was one of two Members on this side of the 
aisle who voted with you yesterday to bring up a clean CR. I am going 
to get to that in a minute.
  But no one can sit here and say, ``Gee, let's do a clean CR'' when 
you all were on the other side and we had a Republican President you 
very often did not send a clean CR at the same time.
  Mr. HEFNER. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DAVIS. Just for a second, because I want to make a few points.
  Mr. HEFNER. We are talking about past history, and you folks were 
elected saying, ``We're going to change things around here.'' But this 
is not changing things for the better. This is human misery. VA 
hospitals in North Carolina. These people are in dire circumstances.
  Mr. DAVIS. Reclaiming my time, I do not disagree with the gentleman. 
I think what has happened here is a national disgrace. But to put it on 
one side or one party is, I think, a big mistake. I think that is part 
of our problem, is we end up too much time pointing fingers at each 
other and too little time working together and working these issues 
out.
  Let me just get back to the Interior appropriations bill again. This 
bill I think had a number of good items. I think the President, part of 
him wanted to sign this. I know the Vice President urged him not to. We 
could still fix this bill. I think we have time to come back and fix 
this bill in a reasonable period of time and get these people back to 
work.
  Some of the other appropriation bills that have been brought forward, 
I think, need a little more fixing and we need some time.
  The President could have signed these bills, would have put people to 
work in fairness, Congress could have overridden the vetoes, the votes 
are not here to do that, so next comes to the continuing resolution.
  Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. DAVIS. I would be happy to yield, but I want to make a few 
points, I only have 5 minutes, I say to my friend from California.
  Ms. ESHOO. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The point that I want 
to raise, the gentleman understands the dilemma that we are in.
  You just said that this is a national disgrace. Putting any fault or 
blame aside, can you work to find 20 votes in your caucus to open up 
the Government, Republican votes?
  We have 198 on our side and I think that you, being as reasonable and 
moderate as you are, that there would be 19 others?
  Mr. DAVIS. Let me say to my friend that may be able to happen in 
time. We will have a discharge petition. But 30 days have to run. The 
problem with this recess is that you do not get the legislative days 
run during that time. Eventually this will happen, I think, if we could 
get it to the floor, it or something close to it would pass.
  Ms. ESHOO. But 20 votes would stop that recess, and we could open up 
the Government, and we could move on.
  Mr. DAVIS. Well, that would do it, but it does not solve some of the 
other problems. A continuing resolution is not a resolution. There are 
still a lot of issues at play in the continuing resolution that frankly 
ought to be worked out.
  Ms. ESHOO. Of course there are. They have to be negotiated.
  Mr. DAVIS. Let me just make a couple of final points.
  It also does not get us to a balanced budget which is something else 
that I think needs to be done that we feel very strongly.
  The fourth thing that could happen is the President could put a 
balanced budget on the table and we would get a continuing resolution 
like that. I think that onus is on the President. Both sides are at 
play here. I think we could all do a better job.

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