[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 2 (Thursday, January 4, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H151-H152]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1815
                    TIME TO PUT AMERICA BACK TO WORK

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Bentsen] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, if I could yield for 30 seconds to the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina.

[[Page H152]]

  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to respond while the gentlewoman 
from Kansas, Mrs. Meyers, was here, because she made a comment. I 
wanted to just share for the record that as we talk about young people 
having children, I think we would be remiss if we did not see 
opportunities that we have here in Congress where we can intervene, and 
we have not done that.
  I know the gentlewoman did not mean to scapegoat innocent children 
who happen to be born out of wedlock. We could have an opportunity in 
the Medicaid discussion itself to fund prevention, but we do not do 
that. Currently we wait until they get pregnant, and then we are able 
to say, oh, look what is happening. We do not spend money to provide 
teenagers with family planning and to make sure we intervene in a 
positive way. That is something we could have the responsibility for.
  I just want to put in the record that the gentlewoman and I are held 
accountable for that.
  Mrs. MEYERS of Kansas. If the gentleman would yield for 30 seconds, I 
would say my main concern is that programs that we initially started 
and have carried on, that we tried to help people, and instead they 
have become an incentive for people to join the welfare system. They 
have become too generous and they have become an entitlement, people 
know they are there, and they have been abusing the system. That is 
what I am trying to end.
  Mr. BENTSEN. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, if I might, I believe 
in the House absurdity begets absurdity. This shutdown is obviously one 
of the most absurd things I have seen. It clearly has accomplished 
nothing, although it has provided a great deal of hardship, not only 
for Federal employees but American taxpayers as well.
  Last week the senior Senator from Texas, my colleague in the other 
body, Mr. Gramm, made a comment asking if anybody noticed whether or 
not the Federal Government had shutdown. I would take a moment of the 
House to mention two people who I think did notice that the Federal 
Government had shutdown. One is Molly Scott, who deals with the 
contractors at the veterans hospital in Houston, who are not getting 
paid. Nor is Ms. Scott getting paid. In fact, her apartment house is 
about to start an eviction notice against her, and her 9-year-old 
disabled son can no longer go to day care because she does not have any 
money to pay them.

  But it turns out Mr. Gramm also noticed, because 2 days ago his 
campaign for the presidency was capable of picking up a check for $4 
million from the Federal Elections Commission, which is a so-called 
entitlement under the law. So it appears that the absurdity of how this 
Government is being run under the Republican leadership is one where 
people who go out and work for a living, who have a contract with the 
Government to work for them, do not get paid for their time, and 
therefore they cannot pay their creditors; and people who are running 
for political office can get paid. That certainly makes no business 
sense, but if it is revolutionary, I think that would be correct.
  Let us address a couple of questions about why we are here. This all 
started when this House under the Republican leadership failed to 
finish its business, its constitutional business, by October 1, 1995. 
We did not send any appropriation bills to the President by the 
beginning of the fiscal year. So far now, 3 months into the fiscal 
year, we have sent only 10 of 13.
  We all know that the process of Government under the Constitution is 
one of give and take. The fact is that you send the bills to the 
President, the President can veto or sign those bills, and you work 
them out. It happened with Ronald Reagan when he was the President and 
had a Republican-controlled Senate and Democrat-controlled House, it 
happened with President Bush, and it has happened throughout the 
history of this Nation.
  But to add insult to injury I think is the fact that this Republican 
leadership decided earlier this year that we would adjourn for the 
month of August when we had not finished our business. Now we are in 
this mess. Now they are talking about adjourning until the President 
gives the State of the Union address without taking care of their 
business.
  There is just simply no excuse for that. We have heard the stories 
about people, like the folks like Dick Clark, who is with the 
University of Texas Health Science Center at the Texas Medical Center 
in my district, who has NIH grants to do research, and they are looking 
to let people go. Or the businessmen in Houston trying to sell U.S. 
goods and services overseas, but they cannot get passports to get out 
of the country to do it.
  The fact of the matter is we tried to address this issue. Two weeks 
ago we tried to bring a compromise budget to the floor using the 
coalition budget scored by the CBO which actually would add less debt 
to the Nation and less debt to my children and your children and our 
grandchildren than the Republican budget, and you blocked it just like 
you blocked the CR.
  Let us do our work. Let us put the country back to work. Let us stop 
this childish behavior, just like Senator Dole has said in the Senate.

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